to try
var_dump(bin2hex($str1));
var_dump(bin2hex($str2));
or
var_dump(htmlspecialchars($str1));
var_dump(htmlspecialchars($str2));
to check that another, once found, insert different bits here, so that we can find out what the difference is.
EDIT:
a &, &, , & ↔ & - 4 . , , , & &.