Help with compression and dynamic range


I'm 51. After a 15 year period of dealing with mortgage payments and childcare needs, I'm trying to get back into higher-end audio quality - especially when it comes to dynamic range in concert DVDs. I've recently spent countless hours trying to research CDs, MP3s and compression issues - with no resolve.

How can I tell which concert DVDs offer wider dynamic ranges? Or, for that matter,CDs? Is there a rating on the covers? I'm willing to do my homework if anyone can give me a reference. I've just read "Get Better Sound" by Jim Smith with no resolve.

Also, I'm looking to purchase a DVD player which will maximize sound quality when I can determine which DVDs and CDs are recorded with minimum compression and wider dynamic range. Can anyone explain what to look for when purchasing a higher-end DVD player. I've seen ratings for DACs, but am unsure what they mean.

ANY help is appreciated.
kewadinbob

Showing 3 responses by wildoats

"Source quality is important also but tends to be less problematic overall and only matters after you get the speakers and matching amp right."---Um, source quality is the #1 issue. If the source is greatly compressed it's over. The music is not going to sound dynamic. Obviously a better system well matched will enhance dynamics. If you don't care about dynamics source may not be as big a problem but some recordings are so compressed they are close to unlistenable. This guy obviously cares about dynamics. I don't know how you find dynamic sources other than reading what other people think of the recordings. Beware of someone who just says it sounds really good and clear. That tells you nothing about dynamics or compression. Eventually someone will mention compression and if they say it is, then it probably is.
Onhw61. You're right. Compression is basically making the softer parts of the song louder so that there is no longer any or little volume difference between the loud and soft passages. That's why it's called the loudness wars. It's worse when they kick up the volume of the loud passages too. Then you barely need to turn your volume knob and it's blasting horribly. I did read an article that the recordings today are made to sound better on poor sounding equipment, ear pods, car stereos etc., where you wouldn't be able to hear the soft passages very well on low compression recordings.
But compressing is not limiting the high frequencies or the low frequencies. It is raising the volume of all frequencies of the soft passages of a song so the volume equals that of the loud passages of the song.