has anybody else noticed this about flac audio?

I listened to both streaming wireless from iPhone to Vanatoo Transparent 1 speakers.  The sound was very similar did not notice any real difference. 

Also the level 4 compressed file is slightly larger than the level 0.   I would expect the opposite if content were exactly the same to start.  

I think he is speaking of DP Poweramp ,that has 8 settings for Flac files 
as I mentioned the highest #8 Flac is loss less. And totally uncompressed
but also there are variables, you have ripping speeds , or safe ripping which’s checks and rereads CD song for song  for accuracy , he didnot mention how fast the rip was .Which has at least 10 speeds ,I rip recommended around 6.
that has everything to do with sonic accuracy.

Guitarsam - Some years ago I made tests comparing same track/file with different levels of compression and comparing to AIFF format. I did not get any difference. That is a fact for my equipment and ears as I am sure that you have really heard differences.I made this because in old posts and reviews there were a strong advice to use AIFF / WAV formats.
This is my opinion: I think the quality of digital music regarding the “computer” where the player runs depends strongly on the “silence” of the hardware: RAM, hard disk, processor usage, power supply, USB cards, etc.
I think that your computer is old and could be “overcharged” with normal operation
A lot of tweaks can be made and if you look into the dedicated hardware to play / serve music to DAC, you will realize it is always based in these tweaks adding in most cases a very “light” operating system that does not charge the processor (Aurender, Innuos, Antipodes, 432evo, ...)
There is also a lot of literature regarding that playing from RAM increases the sound quality: you can find it easily (forums about Euphony operating system are a good example as they recommend this)There are also places where you can find ways to make your computer less noisy but I do not know anyone for Windows.
I have been thru all this for some years and I am slowly increasing the sound quality when using my Mac mini as source.
.

I am embroiled with someone on Facebook that says there are differences between FLAC, WAV and AIFF. I say no, and opined that if he did hear a difference it was because he had to in order to fly his audio cognoscenti flag high, and to justify his expensive equipment. He said I couldn’t hear a difference because the Signal to Noise ratio of my Schitt DAC wasn’t good enough. I gave up on the blockhead.

I enthusiastically second everything in @mapman 's post.