[Quarondeau]

Interesting approach. So are we only able to hear those sounds now because the rest of the music was removed, which would ordinarily mask the missing sounds?

To say that the mp3-encoded version is not "what the artist recorded and wanted for us to hear" would imply that we can hear all sounds in the uncompressed recording.

[varjag]

Yes exactly this. On a high bitrate stream these losses are imperceptible (yes even by you golden ears out here) due to how auditory filters work in human hearing.

[loa_in_]

That's assuming we understand human auditory filters AND human beings have uniform auditory filters all around