Loudness War

I would say Thriller is up there with the very best of recordings - absolutely. I have never found the sibilance and issue but there is plenty of attack so the midrange is not recessed as it is on many rock/pop albums (this will add to sibilance as attack is in the 3 to 5 Khz rangew hich overlaps sibilance from 3 to 7 Khz).

Frankly the balance is extremely good IMHO - after all Thriller cost nearly a million dollars to produce at Westlake Studios (one of the top notch studios in LA)

BTW - Michael Jackson used Westlake speakers most of his career - absolutely awesome speakers - you rarely see them outside of studios though.

Not just the Thriller stuff, but the latter post Quincy Jones stuff on the Essential MJ collection is also of similar quality with excellent dynamics, perhaps even better in some cases. The attack of the percussion on much of this collection could induce heart attacks in some on my system!

Even the early Jackson 5 stuff sounds very good for the most part.

When I listen to random tracks off my music server including the cuts from this collection mixed in, these cuts always distinguish themselves as being in the top echelon in regards to dynamics, along with a few other discs, some new and some old.

Listening to music produced differently off a music server randomly really lets you take notice in the production and sound quality differences from title to title. It also works well to identify differences between two or more different versions of the same tune off different CDs played back to back.

Shadorne, is Thriller (original lp) generally regarded as a model of excellent production and mastering? my lp copy of Thriller has much more sibilance than the majority of my other records, irritating to listen to, not that it couldn't be caused by other things.

Obviously, New artists and older artists are allowing their work to be produced in this manner. Maybe they are the ones that need to put their foot down. There was a post on Audiogon right after Springsteen's "Magic" and Metallica's "Death Magnetic" CD's were released. Most posters described Death Magnetic as distorted and unlistenable and "Magic" wasn't rated much better. These are just two examples of recording artists that have been in the business for over 20 years, so they should know better than to allow their work to be produced like this.

A good example of a recent popular tune that is compressed to the nth degree is "Right Round" by Flo Rida.

They use this tune in a workout class I do and I like it, so I downloaded an mp3 from amazon for .99 cents. It would be so much better if every last bit of dynamic range possible had not been sucked out of it. Still a fun tune though!

I have downloaded some other inexpensive mp3s that do sound better, so I think it is not the mp3 format that is responsible, more the designs of the producers.