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.

EXACTLY!   Then again: if more were familiar with the dynamics of live music, the outcry might be louder.

Ironically, the video presents a slightly "distorted" view of reality by generalizing and blurring the details to help make its argument.  Much like most of the media does these days as well.  Is there no shame?

I've recently heard some mp3 steams that sound quite good, on both headphones and good quality home audio gear.  So it does not always have to be as bleak and dismal as one might be convinced to believe.

In absolutely quiet room with great audio system uncompressed music is great, but for the rest of the people who listen on smaller systems, radios, in the car etc. it would be a disaster.  Even piano solo has such high dynamic range (in order of 90dB) that would make smaller speakers buzz all the time.  HDTV sound is compressed beyond believe because it is intended for tiny TV speakers, most people use.  There is a reason for everything.

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.