I know that APE is lossless. To the human ear, however, can one tell the difference between a LAME encoded 320kb/s MP3 and an APE file??

I mean.... how much of a difference is there between the two? (sorry, i'm sorta new)

I'd say that on most music it won't be possible, although on a few hard to encode pieces the encoder might trip up.

It depends on a lot of factors:
Your hearing, your training/experience relative to compression artifacts, program material, equipment, ambient noise, blood alcohol level ....

In theory, there should not be any perceptible difference on 99+% of material to most people, somewhat lower for perceptive people.

Since APE is identical to the original wave, this question is really: can you hear the difference between LAME --alt-preset insane and the original WAV file.

Suggestion: try it for yourself, but be sure to use ABX methodology so the placebo effect doesn't bias you.

Sorry for deleting your post (thank god for cache).
I deleted the first of your triple post and you removed the two last ones

Well, shit happens; I put your post back.

How much/what kind of a difference (mostly artifacts) there is you can find out yourself by using ff123's Artifact Training Page. Afterwards you could download some "codec killer" test samples, links here and in the FAQ and do some listening tests. This should give you an impression how much of a difference there is for you (and where to expect problems encoding your music).
BUT I WARN YOU ... it's like takeing the "blue pill" (or was it the red one ?). Maybe afterwards you won't like anymore what sounded good to you before.

I have no desire to double my tansperency bitrate.

I think I'd rather have people say "Monkey's" instead of "APE" because I associate the latter acronym with alt-preset extreme.

At least put .APE

I too have this problem... Its why I don't respond until I see the word "lossless" If I do at all...