But don't get confused here. There are two types of compression being discussed. Both are important.
One type is file compression. It can be lossless or lossy. When it is lossy some of the 1s and 0s are left out.
Dynamic range is another form of compression where the dynamic range is compressed. There are good links about that above. It is a plague with no purpose and no seeming cure. And the problem is that you don't know on which recordings it is worse. You can certainly hear it. But if you want to avoid it and know what you are buying then go to the DR database linked to above.
There are those (who know far more about audio than I do) who say you can tune your system to compensate for DR compression. But that sounds like putting lipstick on a pig if you ask me. When dynamic range isn't there........it isn't there and nothing you can do can get it back.
One type is file compression. It can be lossless or lossy. When it is lossy some of the 1s and 0s are left out.
Dynamic range is another form of compression where the dynamic range is compressed. There are good links about that above. It is a plague with no purpose and no seeming cure. And the problem is that you don't know on which recordings it is worse. You can certainly hear it. But if you want to avoid it and know what you are buying then go to the DR database linked to above.
There are those (who know far more about audio than I do) who say you can tune your system to compensate for DR compression. But that sounds like putting lipstick on a pig if you ask me. When dynamic range isn't there........it isn't there and nothing you can do can get it back.