cliveb wrote: > It isn't just mainstream stuff that gets mangled by dynamic range > compression. Most of my purchases are in the rock genre but nowhere > close to mainstream. And they are still over-compressed. It just seems > to be some kind of dogma these days to compress rock & pop this way. > Glad to see Ralph report that jazz is not affected in the same way.
As noted, increased compression means louds and softs are closer in volume. This actually has a reasonable purpose, under some conditions. A great many people are listening to music under less than ideal circumstances, often through mobile devices, using cheap earbuds, in public places with lots of ambient noise. Under these conditions quieter bits in the music may become lost in the surrounding crush of sound. Compressed music is an improvement in some ways, as it means the quiet bits aren't quite as quiet, there is less dynamic range. Of course, this is a real liability when you are listening to music in better (quieter) circumstances, with better equipment, when the loss of dynamic range can seem like a tragedy. On the question of remasters, my experience is that "older" music is generally improved by remastering. Even some that's not actually all that old. For instance, I've been listening to the Allman Brothers Band from the 1971 Fillmore East recordings. These have been recently released in high-res sound, in their entirety, on a Blu-Ray DVD. I really like the remastering that has been done, very high quality. Of course, the whole project is utterly redundant except for totally die-hard ABB fans. It has five separate concerts, with largely overlapping setlists, so you get five almost the same versions of some of the tracks. The best versions have been released in a 2-CD package, also remastered in recent years. But it's been a lot of fun anyway, and the 43-year-old music sounds very fresh in these remasters. Jazz fans might even like it! LMS on a dedicated music server (FitPC2) Transporter (ethernet) - main music listening, Onkyo receiver, Paradigm speakers Duet (wifi) - home theatre 5.1, Sony receiver, Energy speakers Boom 1 (wifi) - workspace Boom 2 (wifi) - various (deck, garage, etc.) Radio (wifi) - home office Touch x 2 - awaiting deployment UE Radio - awaiting deployment Control - 2 Controllers (main listening, home theatre, all others), Squeeze Remote (on Surface Pro 2), Music2Touch (BB Playbook) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ RonM's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=17029 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=102391 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
