To try and tie things to together.
We are all talking about the same thing as being fatiguing.
Higher order harmonics from intermodulation be it TIM or other forms of distortion.
This happens with a bad amp design. It also happens when an amp is overdriven. It is worse when an SS amp is overdriven.
However as Reubent pointed out it can also be on your source media (CD or iTunes). Audio compression is often overdone in the mastering process - it make all loudness levels on a CD match and give the CD an "etched" and aggressive sound. It does the same thing as clipping on an amplifier - it creates a whole bunch of higher order odd harmonics...so it sounds the same.
Try grabbing any pop/rock CD that you bought in the 80's and compare it to something you bought in the last few years. It is pretty obvious. In the last five years is it has begun to affect other genres such as jazz and classical.
Here is an explanation
And hear is a quote for you
"I listened to all the CDs submitted to NARAS for consideration in the 'Best Engineered Non-Classical' Grammy category. We listened to about 3 to 4 cuts [from the TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY SEVEN albums submitted]. Every single CD was squashed to death with no dynamic range...the Finalizers and plug-ins were cranked to 'eleven' so that their CD would be the loudest... Not one...attempted to take advantage of the dynamic range or cleanliness of digital recording.
-Roger Nichols - Grammy winning engineer for Steely Dan, Beach Boys and more - Jan. 2002 Eq Magazine
We are all talking about the same thing as being fatiguing.
Higher order harmonics from intermodulation be it TIM or other forms of distortion.
This happens with a bad amp design. It also happens when an amp is overdriven. It is worse when an SS amp is overdriven.
However as Reubent pointed out it can also be on your source media (CD or iTunes). Audio compression is often overdone in the mastering process - it make all loudness levels on a CD match and give the CD an "etched" and aggressive sound. It does the same thing as clipping on an amplifier - it creates a whole bunch of higher order odd harmonics...so it sounds the same.
Try grabbing any pop/rock CD that you bought in the 80's and compare it to something you bought in the last few years. It is pretty obvious. In the last five years is it has begun to affect other genres such as jazz and classical.
Here is an explanation
And hear is a quote for you
"I listened to all the CDs submitted to NARAS for consideration in the 'Best Engineered Non-Classical' Grammy category. We listened to about 3 to 4 cuts [from the TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY SEVEN albums submitted]. Every single CD was squashed to death with no dynamic range...the Finalizers and plug-ins were cranked to 'eleven' so that their CD would be the loudest... Not one...attempted to take advantage of the dynamic range or cleanliness of digital recording.
-Roger Nichols - Grammy winning engineer for Steely Dan, Beach Boys and more - Jan. 2002 Eq Magazine