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"Hey Dave, nice headphones".

"Thanks Michael, they're Sony XM4s, thank god i didnt buy those pink ones like John from HR"
 
Not only whether you can tell the difference, but whether the hardware is even capable of reproducing the subtle nuances that lossless music provides! For almost everyone, "lossless" is a marketing moniker. I'll take a Master Quality (MQ) recording any day knowing the source is the best possible, over "lossless" that only guarantees what is coming into my headphones is what is being transmitted but offers no guarantees on the quality of the recording.
I mean, if I was interested in chasing this tier of fidelity, I probably wouldn't be messing with Bluetooth in the first place. I'd be spending upward of $1K, and I'd be getting a headphone amp and probably some kind of nice DAC. If you expect comparable performance out of Bluetooth you're on crack.
 
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I don’t mind ‘expensive’, because I have the expectation for quality sound and construction in return. Apple typically executes that. If you want ‘cheap’, there’s plenty of options under $100. Some of us prefer a higher quality product. ‘You get what you pay for’. Am I right?

100% agree. I've had mine for a year and the price difference is long forgotten, but they're a joy to use every day. All the little details are awesome, like the beautiful volume control (vs. some cheap feeling touch surface Sony gives you) complete with little teeny ratcheting sounds that give subtle feedback. Fact is, these one of the most beautifully contructed mechanical things I own, and I spend hours with them on my head every single day. That to me is well worth what I spent.

And that's not even getting into the sound quality, noise cancelling, or the quality of transparency mode -- all of which are excellent -- or the Spatial Audio, which is amazing for a lot of uses.

However, I do agree with you on one thing, they are heavy, which is going to create fatigue for the user over an extended amount of time. That’s the one thing I like about the Sony XM’s, they’re significantly lighter, and I never experienced fatigue.
I'll admit, this is my least favorite part. I've gotten used to it, but it was fatiguing at first and even now a year in I never forget I'm wearing them.

The silver lining is they're built like tanks. My toddler has gotten hold of them when I wasn't looking and knocked them around -- and frankly short of throwing them in the toilet (not impossible) there's not a ton she could do to them. I toss them around myself, and there's not a mark on them. Not so with my old Bose QCs, which have all kinds of creaks and looseness built up over a few years of use.
 
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