I just had an idea, so bear with me.
First, people hear differences between file types, and some, like Simo, above hear it regularly enough to ID file types...or at least tell the difference.
However, this is testing the computer as much as the file type since each file type must be 'decoded' or whatever it's called.
A test?
Record a couple songs in FLAC, ALAC, WAV, whatever else. The brain trust tells me that FLAC and ALAC can reconstruct the original bitstream so they SHOULD sound alike, right? But NO!
I'd say to take the songs recorded in all those formats and change them all back to ANY format. I'll bet the differences will disappear. I think this means the difference is how the computer turns the file back into music, not the file itself?
