Dude, get some good gear. Had some very expensive headphones and put on the Nevermind CD, and played Come As You Are, specifically listening to the intro and the bass response, etc. Then I put on the same song purchased in iTunes, 256 AAC, and it was night and day. I could hear the difference big time. I also have done some amateur recording most of my life, so I have a keen ear, but I can hear the difference hands down in my test, and that was with 16/44.1 CD.
Just like some say they can't tell the difference between retina displays and non-retina.... you can be both blind and deaf, or either...
The only problem is download size and storage space. With SSD drives now, this could get expensive. I have 5k songs in my library, and the cost of upgrading to this new higher quality, plus storing it.. that will be the challenge.
But yeah, no placebo here. Since when does lossy music sound the same as lossless. If that's the case, artists have been doing it wrong all this time recording in high fidelity.