Sonic Defender
Headphoneus Supremus
I'll be brief because I'm in a hurry. In a well enough controlled experiment 7 subjects did multiple listening trials of the same song, with the same gear. I controlled everything and I was extremely careful not to bias the testing. Participants were played 1:30 seconds of the same very well recorded song Holy Cole - One Trick Pony in paired sequence. One play was the lossless, the other was the lossy 320mp3 file made from the original lossless copy via JRiver MC 20.
The files were played through JRiver MC as well. Each participant helped calibrate the volume they were comfortable with and all trials were left at that volume and the headphones were not moved between trials.
There was no difference in the two files in terms of volume either. The participants were simply asked after hearing each pairing if they had a preference for either A or B. I varied when the lossless versus lossy file was first or second in the pairing order. Each pairing was one lossy, one lossless.
After 7 participants going through between 4 and 6 pairing trials not one person did better than 50% in terms of selecting the lossless version as sounding better.
The files were played through JRiver MC as well. Each participant helped calibrate the volume they were comfortable with and all trials were left at that volume and the headphones were not moved between trials.
There was no difference in the two files in terms of volume either. The participants were simply asked after hearing each pairing if they had a preference for either A or B. I varied when the lossless versus lossy file was first or second in the pairing order. Each pairing was one lossy, one lossless.
After 7 participants going through between 4 and 6 pairing trials not one person did better than 50% in terms of selecting the lossless version as sounding better.