Great topic!
I have been burning at AAC 256, 320, and lossless. I have Martin Logans which are pretty revealing. In blind testing I can hear no differences between CD and lossless, possibly minute differences between CD and 320 AAC but it is extremely close. Slight changes start to appear at 256 and below in terms of high end and low end rolloff, loss of room size, and lack of air. I have settled on AAC 320 for my ipod and using the Pure i-20 dock, have replaced my CD player as my source.
The guys over at hydrogenaudio strongly disagree with this and state that in double blind testing with the latest encoders, AAC 128 and higher is 100% transparent.
I have been burning at AAC 256, 320, and lossless. I have Martin Logans which are pretty revealing. In blind testing I can hear no differences between CD and lossless, possibly minute differences between CD and 320 AAC but it is extremely close. Slight changes start to appear at 256 and below in terms of high end and low end rolloff, loss of room size, and lack of air. I have settled on AAC 320 for my ipod and using the Pure i-20 dock, have replaced my CD player as my source.
The guys over at hydrogenaudio strongly disagree with this and state that in double blind testing with the latest encoders, AAC 128 and higher is 100% transparent.