But in actuality, the difference is very difficult to discern. Couple that with a range in the quality of soundcards and speakers, and it”™s almost impossible for the average listener to pick which is which. Can you tell the difference?

Spotify has a test for you to tell the difference between lossy and lossless audio. Verge has the test here.

I gave it my best shot. I wish I could say I got them all first try. I listened to them on my tablet. Almost impossible to discern any meaningful differences. Same for my laptop speakers.

What was annoying? It was even hard to tell the differences on my studio monitors.

Perhaps that is why most people are not at all concerned about listening to compressed music. The differences are not all that great particularly when played back on lower quality sound cards and speakers.