Why do Wav and Flac Files Sound Different?

If the metadata is affecting the sound time for a properly designed streamer. 

I think that in order to get a productive discussion, could be good to have some mark of reference. The article goes back to 2016 and many things have changed since then.

Can you tell us about your experiencia?

Do you feel some difference when playing different formats: WAV, FLAC, ALAC, indeed mp3? Have you tried different "apps" to play your files: JRiver, Audirvana, Roon, ....?

Do you feel any difference playing the same file with metadata and totally stripped from metadata?

Wav take up much more space, the key more so is the quality of the recording 

it is a fine line ,I just use Flac files ,but do have a few files with Flac and wav files ,the differences is so small it is not worth taking up all that extra space IMO.

Qobuz uses Flac files ,and hirez masters in Flac ,and saves tons of space 

and sounds fine.

From my experience with Tidal, FLAC files overall sound much better than WAV and comparable to MQA (although a much larger selection of FLAC since MQA clearly very selectively started with top tier original recording). MP3s are very subpar/compressed as always and not worthy of a place in this conversation other than a footnote.

@jond

"WAV and Flac sound identical to me and WAV just takes up too much space."

DITTO!

You can't tell the difference in my tests - years ago!