Studies have shown that most people can NOT distinguish an mp3 at 323 kbs (That is, with the best quality) from a FLAC file.
We all know that in theory an mp3 is a format that discards information to achieve a small size; or, indeed, due to this ability to take up little space on the disk, but sounding very similar to the original wav was what propelled fame to mp3.
The Mp3 is dead.
Dozens of times it has been written about the undeniable advantages of the formats that do not lose information (looseless), it could be thought that people would turn their backs on the mp3.
Some have warned that it is not so likely that this will happen, since most of the audio players (for example, those that come from the factory with the cars) play mp3s but not Flac.
Placebo effect?
But others have pointed out that untrained human hatred CANNOT distinguish an mp3 recorded at its highest quality from the FLAC.
For which to show yourself as a lover of FLAC and a fanatic defender of that format, it is more a snobbery full of blah, blah blah and technicalities that ignore that the human ear is not a robot and that in reality most people they cannot distinguish between one and the other.
And we combine the convenience of using mp3s because the devices are designed for mp3 and not for FLAC, together with the fact that in reality most people cannot distinguish one from the other … this should explain that that the mp3 is dead, is more a product of fanaticism than realism.
Also, they forget another problem.
When digital music is recorded it requires using a compressor … which did not happen with music recorded on tape, that is, vinyl.
That is why there is another faction that does not proclaim and sing songs in favor of FLAC but rather the return to vinyl (forgetting all the advantages and comforts of digitization).
In other words, all these discussions seem more like a mixture of snobbery and puritanism than something realistic.
What studies have shown
What we cannot ignore is that undoubtedly 99% of people (including many experts, musicians, etc. who talk hours about bitdepth, bitrate, etc.) can NOT distinguish a WAV, from a FLAC, from an mp3 recorded at qualities superior to 160 kbs.
Personally, we celebrate that all these formats exist and that we are coming to the time where every person can use and love the format of their choice and even defenestrate and even hate other formats and discuss long hours about their technical knowledge.
But yes, it seems that it is basically a placebo effect.
