I concur with some of what Jim wrote.

Yes, the .WMA format PG Music uses is a 'lossy' compression.

Yes, you need a very good listening environment, including monitors, to hear much of a difference. And your high-frequency hearing should be better than someone my age normally has (and there are a lot of us here over 60, but for some reason, one of my ears still hears this stuff).

It isn't just the compression rate; that matters a lot, but different instruments show compression effects differently. I listen to solo piano, solo acoustic guitar, and cymbals, because I can hear compression more on those instruments. Chances are, to win the bet, the good sound engineer will listen to those, too.

We have had MANY discussions about the quality difference over the years since the audiophile version became available, but none in awhile and that means you can't search for them in this forum that far back. I can tell you that, once PG Music went to the Elastique algorithm a few years ago, the difference between 'regular' and audiophile editions became less.

Noise in a mix of multiple tracks adds up. Again, the audiophile version is the one to use in a commercial setting, where this becomes more important. But Jim is correct, the 'regular' version is nevertheless quite fine.

You can always start with the regular edition, and upgrade later. It was years ago, but I did that, and PG Music Sales worked with me very fairly.


BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.