Can CD's be loud and ok?

Sogood-no I haven't but I don't particularly care for the limited amount of P.Barbers work I've heard.
Thanks for the tip-I tend to find the majority of recordings I buy aren't that bad but I don't claim great ability to detect compression.
I am certainly very clear in my own mind on recordings that are plain bad (for whatever reason)and productions I don't like-which is part of the artistic whole to me.
I'm really trying to understand where people are coming from and I can see their genuine concern and dislike for overcooked or compressed productions.
However part of me can't help thinking it's part of the "average" Audiophile's make-up to end up analysing that aspect but also to be led to the likes of say Santana or U2 where the mainstream meets their tastes and perhaps that is part of the problem and frankly artists who are pretty concerned with being (extremely) popular despite their heritage-thus perhaps "pressure" to compress the sound for universal acceptance on lower end kit.
Maybe not.
I'll state a list of recent recordings (not all totally perfect I grant you)but a reflection of music that is not absolutely far out but to my ears shows that the artists and producers are very concerned how the disc sounds.
Radiohead,Blur,Beck,Wilco,Springsteen,Steely Dan,Bowie,Zwan,David Sylvian and then onwards onto lesser known bands......
I look forward to your comments.....

I can understand the P. Barber thing for sure Ben, I used her work as an example of compression done right. I have the Beck sacd also but find it harder to pick apart due to the nature of the music in regards to your question.

While I would not pass artistic judgement on the use of compression on the Pat Barber recordings, I find it hard to describe anything as "SOTA" that uses this degree of compression, even if it is in the name of artistic enhancement. "SOTA", to me, would be a recording which minimizes all forms of distortion, including dynamic compression.

Well, SOTA to me is: anything that sets a standard against which others can compare to, as far as cd's go, this is one of them. Music is distortion in one form or another and this can not be changed but can be brought to a shape to please the ear and sometimes fool the brain. Some distortions of the right kind in the right amount seem to be needed everywere in the musical chain.