I’ve bought pretty expensive equipment, tube amplifier, many fancy headphones, optical DACs. A library full of FLAC files. I even purchased a $500 portable DAP. I’ve never been able to reliably tell a difference between FLAC and 320k MP3 files. At this point, it really doesn’t concern me anymore either, but I at least like to see my fancy tube amp light up.
I will say, though, $300 seems to be the sweet-spot for headphones for me.
In my experience, the Mr. Clean ones hold up much better. Generic melamine sponges tear too easily.
But maybe I’m just getting the wrong generic ones. I’ve tried two or three different generic brands and they all sucked