My intuition tells me that is the truth.
My judge will be time.
And from a year of constant audio editing, I can confirm that on OSX, AIFF and WAV sound different (one being cold while other warm) on every player. And to counter the inevitable placebo arguments, I was not looking for a difference; I discovered it by accident.
The only action that has any bearing whatsoever in this proposed experiment is properly testing between these files and providing sufficient documentation to verify what you are hearing. A claim is a claim, nothing more. Even if you are actually hearing real differences under normal listening conditions, that in itself will only serve to convince yourself, not anyone else.
You cannot confirm what others will hear on their systems unless you hear their systems, and even then, hearing is partially subjective. You haven't isolated the variables to determine what is causing what you are experiencing.
Since you say that the differences are instantly noticeable, you should have no problem reliably distinguishing between them in blind tests.
I'll lay out some instructions for you to conduct ABX tests on your Mac.
Install and launch
ABXTester. (It's free.)
Choose a song that you easily perceive differences on. Select the sound samples A and B with two formats of the song. (For simplicity's sake, I recommend WAV and ALAC.)
Each time a sample is played, listen and choose whether you think it is A or B. ABXTester performs five trials at a time, using pairs of random sound samples from the two files. You will need to repeat the process three or four times (for a total of 15 or 20 trials) to get enough data to work with. (It needs to be demonstrated with statistical significance. Otherwise, your best judgment is tantamount to random guessing.)
Record your progress via screenshots of all of your results. Be sure to label and organize them. Don't worry about interpreting your scores. We'll be able to tell you what they mean. There will probably be a good number of images to share, so put them in a spoiler box when you upload them to your post.
For more thorough documentation, do more ABX tests with more formats and songs.
Next, you can test on a portable player. Do you own an iPod or other DAP that can play lossless files and has a shuffle feature? If so, you can transfer several copies of the lossless files (labeling them as WAV 1, WAV 2, ALAC 1, ALAC 2, etc.) onto it in a folder/album, set the player to shuffle, and record your ability to identify which format is playing. Press play on the album/folder. Without looking at the screen, let each file play for however long you need (preferably a set period), guess which format it is, then look at the screen to see if you were correct. Then go to each next track without looking at the screen. Record the number of correct and incorrect tries, along with any other relevant information. It would be better if a friend tests you blind. Either way, it's still possible to cheat, so this isn't the best alternative.
Optionally, you can also take objective measurements of the audio, which would be especially valuable. A few have suggested methods to go about this.
Bear in mind that many experienced members here insist that you won't even be able to hear a difference between 256 kbps AAC and lossless (assuming that the lossy file was not derived from a different master and was converted from the lossless file), so you need to approach this scientifically.
For more background on ABX tests, read
this post.
Lots of misinformation going on. The word format is ambiguous. AIFF and WAV are not codecs, they are containers or "wrapper"s. They only hold data, they do not order it, compress it, minimize it, or otherwise alter it in any way whatsoever. The data they hold is raw PCM, an exact mirror of the CD. I'm telling you from years of personal experience on both OSX and Windows platforms that there is no difference in playback.
Do you? Please explain how one uncompressed lossless format differs from another.
The main difference between WAV and AIFF is that the byte order is reversed. (They are optimized for Intel and Motorola processors, respectively.) Unless there is a problem in your system, this should have no effect on the audio.
You save the same source into two different lossless format and claim can hear differences between these two?
If all thing being equal - same computer, same speakers, then the difference probably is being introduced by the player, the output stages, it could be a bug in the decoder or some extra effect or filtering active on the player software.
It definitely can't due to either lossless format changing the character of the original audio, then it can't be called lossless anymore.
To test if there are any real differences, the best way is to capture the audio at the computer audio device output stage via software and doing a waveform comparison.
Or since you have the files, we can make use of the same Audacity to objectively test this. Start by importing both lossless files you saved earlier into two track, then invert one track. Next select both track and do a mix and render to new track. Now compare the new track waveform, it should be a straight line, proving both lossless format are correctly storing the audio exactly the same as we all will expect them to.
Good info. Could use an in-depth tutorial, though.
Do you really think if he fails a test, he'll stop hearing a difference afterwards? Why do you think he would?
If I often heard a difference and then I couldn't hear it sometimes on a test, presumably I'd continue to hear it in normal listening.
That's why I recommend that he test songs which he could easily perceive a difference with during normal listening.
How is this thread still going?
The tests have yet to be done, that's why.
