quote from the original article: "but the loudness war has resulted in music squashed to within a few decibels of its life."
Yes, and hi-res releases seem to generally be mastered without that. That alone makes them much more listenable. The recent uncompressed hi-res remaster of Band of the Run is a good example. I can definitely hear more detail and a warmer tone on the hi-res. Because of it not being overly compressed there's also a lot of dynamics. It invites you to turn it up and listen loudly, b/c it sounds better that way. Not true of the standard CD. This may all be do to better mastering and a lower noise floor, and not some inherent "superiority" of the format, but I don't care. I can hear the music better and it's more enjoyable to listen to. So I don't see how I'm being "fooled" by the hi-res release. I've got some jazz and classical releases that sound wonderful on CD. Can't really say the same for much redbook pop/rock. So the hi-res versions often sound better to me. I have no argument if you want to tell me that standard CD is all I need and can hear IF DONE PROPERLY. But apparently it isn't done properly most of the time. And I have no illusions that the music conglomerates are going to start putting out extremely high quality standard CDs. So the fact that CD's can sound as good as hi-res is irrelevant in practical terms, b/c those CD's don't exist, for the most part. Even the Boston Audio Society paper referred to acknowledges that "one trend became obvious very quickly and held up throughout our testing: virtually all of the SACD and DVD-A recordings sounded better than most CDs— sometimes much better." So I'll keep buying hi-res. But before you call me silly and a fool, just change the name from "hi-res" to "properly mastered" and then we won't have anything to argue about. -- firedog Tranquil PC fanless WHS server running SqueezeServer; SB Touch slaved to Empirical Audio Pace Car; MF V DAC3, MF X-150 amp, Devore Gibbon Super 8 Speakers; Dual 506 + Ortofon 20 (occasional use); sometimes use PC with M-Audio 192 as digital source. SB Boom in second room. Arcam CD82 which I don't use anymore, even though it's a very good player. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ firedog's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=11550 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=85879
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