MP3 isn't a bad encoding scheme in itself, and it needn't make the audio sound any different to humans. All lossy encoding schemes start by throwing away the stuff that no-one can hear anyway. Then packing-up all the redundant data. You start to get audible differences where it is forced into bitrates that are simply too low to represent the content.

MP3s past was plagued by low-quality encoders that didn't even do a good job with the bitrate limits they were given.

I'd be curious to read about how you performed your blind test.

I can definitely tell the difference between a 128k mp3 and a CD. Things like cymbal shimmer and hi hats are relegated to some noisey hiss on low-quality encodings.

I think this is going to be where your issue is. Usually the gap between 128 and 256 mp3s are where you can start telling the difference (which is why pretty much everyone that sells mp3s uses at least 256 now). 320 is really the point where even audiophiles start having trouble telling the difference.

The purpose of this experiment was to test my hypothesis that MP3 and CD were functionally indistinguishable, and vinyl is not superior.

First, 9 varying tracks (from my library) were acquired in lossless format. One was jazz, five were rock, one was a hip hop song, one was Bach, and one was an acapella group.

These were transcoded to MP3 via LAME at approximately 200 kilobits per second, then played on a Macintosh using VLC through the speakers in my friend's studio. No deets on that, but they're fantastic.

These were also ripped to a CD and played using VLC on a Macintosh.

Then, 3 of the rock songs, Funeral For A Friend/Love Lies Bleeding, All The Girls Love Alice, and Harmony were on my friend's brand new reissue of Goodbye Yellow Brick Road on Vinyl. He would get the track to start, then play it. We also ripped this audio as the highest quality FLAC, and I suggested we use this as the vinyl sample, but my friend wanted to use real audio from his turntable.

He has a great needle and a balanced turntable. No warping of sound at all.

In testing, he would test me and I would test him. We played 2 minute long intervals of each song starting at the tester's choice, except for Funeral For a Friend, where we listened to the whole thing minus a few seconds at the beginning at random. For vinyl the sound would be muted until a second after playing so as to not influence us with the needle drop

EDIT: Blinding:

We were in another room from the computer and closed our eyes on the honor system. This was only single blinded.

I was able to correctly identify vinyl, but could not tell CD from MP3, getting it correct 10/18 times, and him getting it 9/18 times. I think. I would need to look to find the exact numbers for sure, but I am almost positive this is correct. Vinyl he got correct every time.

We discussed quality of sound, and I agreed that I liked the vinyl mix more, so that aspect of my hypothesis was wrong. The vinyl was better, qualitatively. It sounded different, probably because it was slightly imperfect, as all vinyl is in the real world, which was pleasing.

However, we agreed to our rock musicians' ears, we can not tell the difference at 200kbps target bitrate VBR and CD.

Our conclusion is that while it is technically possible that CD is distinguishable to people with exceptional hearing and exceptional audio systems, for a 57 year old man and me, a 20 something, who both play guitar and listen closely to music, there is no need to use FLAC or 320kbps MP3.

Yeah I don't think I've even listened to half the vinyls I own, but they look awesome on my wall.

Thank for links, good reads. I remember that Pono player debate couple of years back.
Maybe I have dog ears lol, I always hear bats and owls at night, no one else seems to. (Yes, everyone jokes about it being all in my head...)

Regardless, it is a bit odd the soundtrack is not available on CD (usually don't have a problem finding a CD for the music I "subjectively" deem worthy of the purchase) , and still leaves my question about when will Music of the Spheres be available in any format unanswered. It would make a great collector's edition, along with other pieces from The Dark Below and House of Wolves.