Absolutely agreed. People spend so much time arguing about whether we're "past the limits of human perception" on sound or video. They want to quote Nyquist and check frequencies.
Spend a million dollars on audio equipment. Turn on your speakers, play some chamber music in insane multi-channel high-res audio, and invite a friend over.
Your friend does not think you hired a string quartet. Your friend thinks you have nice speakers.
If your friend is naive and easily fooled, do an A/B test by actually hiring a quartet and alternating with the speakers.
There are a thousand compromises between the source of music and your ear. What is worth paying for is a recording where those compromises were made well. The compression level is a very small part of the picture.
Spend a million dollars on audio equipment. Turn on your speakers, play some chamber music in insane multi-channel high-res audio, and invite a friend over.
Your friend does not think you hired a string quartet. Your friend thinks you have nice speakers.
If your friend is naive and easily fooled, do an A/B test by actually hiring a quartet and alternating with the speakers.
There are a thousand compromises between the source of music and your ear. What is worth paying for is a recording where those compromises were made well. The compression level is a very small part of the picture.