…there isn’t any unless you’re a dog or a baby.

I frequently hear people talk about the value of various things, like 24-bit bitdepth, high sample rates, and lossless vs 320 kbps audio.

The fact is, a recording is only as good as the equipment it was taken with, and I’d defy just about anybody to say they can really hear the difference between all of the doodad gadgetry they’re trying to sell you that captures a sample rate at double the standard 44.1 khz (which can capture audio you can’t even hear.)

The most important thing: get a good neutral recording with good sound. Most of the rest is hype by vendors.

You make some excellent points concerning the value of compression (price wise as well) compared to the limits of our hearing range.
One possibility I’m envisioning is the option of “watermarking” original recordings, which would only be detectable by computers.

texaslazyfish uses 16bit, 320kps @ 44.1kHz for rendering, playback and uploads unless we get a request for a different audio format.

Our primary DAW and hardware interface records audio at 16bit, 44.1kHz wav format unless we say different. We don’t.

After decades of loudness on stage, it takes two of us to get one pair of moderately good working ears. The sample goodness parameters promoted by audiophiles are lost on us. And, according to the good Admiral, lost on the listeners as well.

I guess that’s a personal preference but I can notice a bit of a difference in playback quality. FLAC sounds a bit softer and is a bit better when you want to stretch it or work in your DAW. At least no metalic artifact are noticed. Some mp3 encoders are pretty terrible so you can hear a huge difference. No such problem with flac files which are consistent in quality. I always try to upload both formats for convenience. Only the size is about 2-4x the mp3.