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Loudness Wars reaching dangerous levels

There is a new threat to our audiophile ways; the volunatry compression of dynamic range in the pursuit of 'louder' sound. This practice has become so widespread as to affect/infect jazz and classical recordings as well, not just the pop recordings which have been so obviously flattened for several decades now. The Loudness Wars have escalated to such levels of distortion that most notable mastering engineers are seriously concerned about the future of recorded music in regards to listenability.

We've seen many issues of this nature come and go in the past, resulting in various levels of sound quality degradation. Find out why this particular issue poses a more serious danger to our hi-end audio hobby:

Dangerous deficit of Dynamics

The audiophile market segment was not large enough to save SACD or DVD-A, but the music industry's future business models (based on the internet) will allow individual artists to pay more attention to their fans. Audiophiles will be able to vote with their pocket book and thus be heard.

Through this thread we hope to generate discussion and ideas that would help reverse the effects of this alarming trend. We invite you to post your thoughts below but ask that you stay on topic.

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Showing 4 responses by eldartford

eldartford
4,262 posts
 
One of my components, Denon DVD player or Rotel MS Processor (I forget which) has selectable capability to compress volume. They suggest it is for watching movies late at night, so as not to disturb those sleeping. Quite reasonable I think, although I have never had occasion to use it.

Truth is that most listeners benefit from compression, and that's why they do it. Dynamic range expander/peak unlimiter hardware was common several decades ago. I don't know what is available today.

Compression and peak limiting came long before the IPod age. For vinyl it is necessary to avoid untrackable grooves.

I buy mostly classical discs from a few (rather expensive) European labels, and I don't have the overcompression problem.
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eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Dpac996...I think that what you describe is "Peak Limiting" rather than "Compression". They are quite different.

The ear (at least mine) is not linearly sensitive to SPL. The sense of hearing has some element of expansion, which is the oposite of compression. When music is played at full concert volume, even the quiet passages are still audible. But when it is played at reduced volume, which is often necessary in the real world (when the wife is home) the quiet passages are lost. Throw in a bit of environmental noise and things get even worse. This is where compression helps. So what I am saying is that the SPL you use does relate to compression.
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Stevensurprenant...I agree that AN INSTRUMENT should not be spread "all over the room". This seems to be the conventional audiophile rant about multichannel sound. In many cases the surround channels should be devoted to ambience. But, there are types of music (notably classical chamber, and Jazz) where different instruments can be isolated in different multichannel speakers, with good effect. Also, there is a whole genre of music called "antiphonal" which was composed for multiple groups of performers located all around the audience. This music cannot be reproduced properly without a multichannel system. Finally, some people who are used to hearing music from within an orchestra or chior find it realistic to be surrounded by other musicians even when the music was not composed with antiphonal performance in mind. Some DVDA give you the option of two acoustic perspectives, "audience" or "stage".
eldartford
4,262 posts
 
Stevensurprenant...Your observation that sometimes a recorded performance is better than live is correct. Most pro sporting events, football, (GO PATS) baseball, are better on TV than live, especially when the temperature is below zero!
I have a few DVDA which I think might make you believe the musicians are in the room. These are classical chamber music, and if you close your eyes you can believe the musicians are in your room. These discs caused me to upgrade my surround speakers, because the cello (in the left rear) sounded wimpy compared with the viola in the front right!
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