Ask an Audio geek

[Kosh]

I need to get out of the political forum for a bit, so lets talk about Digital Music  
  
As we've established, CD is a superior format over vinyl when it comes down to the measurable specs.   The problem with CD isn't in the format, but in the mastering process.  In the mid 1990's we started to see the "Loudness War" take hold. 
  
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war  
  
I am personally very sensitive to the effects of the Loudness War, and is the main reason I started getting back into Vinyl about 10 years ago.  In my opinion, music from a hearing perception point of view is that it sounds flat.  Listening to this compressed flat sound for even a little while causes me to become restless.  Even songs I like are not enjoyable.  I believe it's the lack of dynamic range that is the culprit.

This is an interesting website http://dr.loudness-war.info/ 
 
It's a database of measured dynamic range from music in a variety of different formats.  The larger the numbers, the higher the dynamic range.  Dynamic range is simply the difference between the softest sound to the loudest.  The scale ranges from 1 (BAD) to 20 (GOOD).   It's interesting to compare CD's that you feel sound good to ones that you don't.  Vinyl isn't perfect in this regard.  Much of the new Vinyl being pressed uses the same crappy master that was used for the CD, but they do have to tweak the levels so the record is actually playable. 

The we have Hi-Rez music which I'll leave for another day.  Some people feel it's useless and beyond the range of human hearing.  Some people swear by it.  My personal opinion is that they do sometimes sound better, but not because of the extra frequency/bit rate.

The loudness war and problems with the mastering process is something one could "illustrate" using some samples, since it doesn't depend on super high level conversion and shouldn't be messed up too badly by mp3 compression.

From what you say, I suspect that classical music recordings are not as badly affected as pop/rock, right?

I would definitely agree with you Alex. Pop and rock (metal, rap) are the major offenders. I like jazz and have never had an issue with modern recordings. I'm guessing classical music is in the same group.