We have done this test many times. Assuming the track is properly mastered, WAV and 320K .mp3 always are extremely, extremely difficult to tell apart. I've had audio engineers and audiophiles sample both and they are 50/50 in their ability to tell the difference, always leaving us empty-handed as those results are as good as guessing.
On a club system with much more noise, compressors and limiters out the yang, lower fidelity, non-linear response and higher decibels, it is much less revealing than on a super high end home hi-fi system at moderate volume. (Although, I'm talking really dynamic, really monstrous hi-fi though; Dunlavy towers, the big Dynaudios, Genelec 3-ways and high end JBL Pros.)
In general, the better the input/output signal chain, the easier it becomes to tell the difference.
128K .mp3 versus WAV is closer to 95% noticeable for the same test group, on the same test systems.
article about engineer doing blind test of 128mp3 vs wav...?
good point.hydrogen wrote:ok... Lets just assume you can't difference between 320kbps and WAV.
But what happens when you take pitching the track? Major game change imo.
In theory the mp3 has parts of the sounds taken out at its original pitch. So if its pitched up or down... the sound should be very different you think?
don't mp3's filter some bass away?
Ive had a lot of experience working with some of the best pa's. Part why its hard to distinguish 320 to wav is the source as some said before. A lot of edm is not as harmonically rich or dense as other types of music, so really mp3's are ok with sine waves for the most part, yet there are a lot of subtleties that occur that are missed during compression, which is a limiter really. Because these effects are subtle they are not so apparent when taken out, however they do add very important cues and clues to the big picture, similar role to what ghost notes in a drum track do, you don't really hear them but they add magic, dimension.. Someone mentioned why have a system that exceeds 16k? If you do then music sound/harmonics can collide at higher registers then we hear and can create new harmonics that backfire below 16k for added pleasure. A good analogy that works on this principle would be ultra-sound speakers and their ability to project sound to any desired location, eg. two waves at very high cycles collide together creating a third harmonic that happens to be in our hearing range. Its worth to know that sound is physics and a lot can happen on many levels that we take for granted or simply unaware of but are there nonetheless playing an important behind the scenes action. The brain processes things in a similar way. Sci-fi stuff? 
far fetched? haha
far fetched? haha
no offence, but you do a sound quality test and play sh!t out of fucking itunes? defeating the purpose.
please tell me it was via a playlist that was going through traktor / serato?
doctor, doctor, this city's sick
a tired, tired heart, such shakey lips
http://soundcloud.com/cloutier
a tired, tired heart, such shakey lips
http://soundcloud.com/cloutier
@ cloutier played via I-Tunes and NI Audio 2 Soundcard.
If you do a test for me it makes sense to do it with usual things which everybody use not with High End Stuff which probably only under 1% have at home. I would say most of the people even encode their wavs in I-Tunes to MP3. We did it with Pro-tools.
And of course there are differences. There was even a slightly difference between playing the files on I-Tunes and via Quicktime.
And there is a bigger difference if you do the test with a club record and a classic record.
But as we´re "all" in the electronic music scene it makes sense to make a test with club tracks and not with High Fidelity recordings.
Wait for the feature. Its not about if vinyl or mp3 sounds better, its a feature about Sound quality and if you can hear differences and why most people don´t care using MP3s. Its not the ultimate Sound Test.
If you do a test for me it makes sense to do it with usual things which everybody use not with High End Stuff which probably only under 1% have at home. I would say most of the people even encode their wavs in I-Tunes to MP3. We did it with Pro-tools.
And of course there are differences. There was even a slightly difference between playing the files on I-Tunes and via Quicktime.
And there is a bigger difference if you do the test with a club record and a classic record.
But as we´re "all" in the electronic music scene it makes sense to make a test with club tracks and not with High Fidelity recordings.
Wait for the feature. Its not about if vinyl or mp3 sounds better, its a feature about Sound quality and if you can hear differences and why most people don´t care using MP3s. Its not the ultimate Sound Test.