The Distortion of Sound

The dr dynamic range database reveals with more than 85,000 listings of original and the various incarnations of CDs, vinyl, SACDs, and downloads the twenty year old systematic institutionalized insidious suffocation of the dynamics of much of the music we love, all apparently to make a buck. The biggest fraud and scam ever perpetrated on an unsuspecting and naive public the world has ever seen.

Is not that the CDs are compressed, they have always been a little compressed, just like vinyl. Everything is relative, but obviously most systems, ever audiophiles systems could not take unrestrained dynamic range. There are some but not very many examples on the dynamic range database of CDs with exceptionally high dynamic range, much higher than the average normal CD that we would probably call uncompressed. But what I’m referring to is not the average normal CD with some compression built in, I’m talking about CDs that are aggressively compressed. If you take a look on the Dynamic Range Database you’ll see what I mean. Instead of having LOW, AVERAGE, HIGH dynamic ranges in the GREEN which is high dynamic range, or even YELLOW which is marginal Dynamic Range, the numbers are all in the RED, which means the recording is overly compressed. If you look for recordings that are your favs on the database you will probably find they are not overly compressed.

If the music companies (Columbia, Sony, etc.) were smart they would issue two different versions of CDs - one for the boom box and iPod generation and one for those that want the dynamics, audiophiles and whoever. The movie companies offer DVD, Blu Ray and violet versions of movies, actually they force you to but all three, why can’t the music industry wise up? I absolutely refuse to buy CDs with numbers like 7, 8 and 9. Give me a break!

SACDs?  Yeah, like I'm going to go buy an SACD player or Blu Ray player so I can listen to audiophile recordings.  Besides SACDs are being compressed too.  Didn't you get the memo? ;-)

Of course it should be pointed out just in case, that volume and dynamic range are not you can't for example reduce the dynamic range by turning down the volume. Apparently the powers that be at a lot of the big music companies got together and decided, gee wouldn’t it be great if all those young dudes and dudettes with boom boxes, iPhones and iPods could turn up the music loud without clipping their tiny little players and without destroying any speakers? Well, guess what? They compress the dynamic range and increase the level (loudness) on the CDs. That’s why some of your CDs at the same volume setting on your preamp or player are louder than others. That’s because they’re compressed. But the peaks are a lot lower. Problem solved! Lol