George - this sort of generalisation
Diana Krall is like the one thing you can listen in MP3 256 and not notice much difference from flac
is about as accurate as yours suggesting:
trying a FLAC version of a good death metal that needs to have multiple layers of guitars
And me saying most Death Metal is mastered incredibly poorly (which unfortunately in my experience it is)
I have some Krall in 24/96 which is incredibly well mastered, and I guarantee could be used as reference.
But Lets look at the facts.
Because the Bluetooth (regardless of compression) uses the Q5's DAC, you are not going to hear huge differences. AAC256 and AptX are high enough resolution that having someone tell the difference between wired and Bluetooth (remember they are using the same DAC) would be limited to the top 1 or 2 % (if they are lucky). Even tests properly conducted between MP3 320 and FLAC show that differentiation is only possible on very few tracks (do some research on HydrogenAudio). Given both aptX and AAC are arguably superior to MP3 320 - and I have not met a single person who can discern aac256 from FLAC in a blind volume matched test - then I think we can draw some conclusions here.
For you to say you can do it, and whats more, you can tell the difference easily, leads me to believe:
- you are the 1-2%, and the track you are using is one of these killer tracks
- you are normal human being, and your tests were not conducted properly
- you did not do the tests
If you are indeed one of the "privileged few" golden-ears, I actually feel sorry for you. They sound the same to me. Everyone I've discussed this with concurs
![Wink :wink: :wink:](https://cdn.head-fi.org/e/people/wink.svg)