What is the least compressed signal?

I assumed when you guys say LP you are referring to Long play vinyl records? Which is good to hear, if I am right, because I have an excellent record collection😄

@erik_squires : "Some compression is probably a good thing, and brings out more details and more room ambiance than otherwise, so treating any medium as absolutely more or less compressed ignores all of the complexities that occur when it lands on your stereo."

Of course, but I don’t think anyone here is saying that all DR compression is bad. It has a role in making a good recording, especially with classical music which, during the course of a symphony, for example, can have a huge dynamic range which if uncompressed would lead to the need for constant volume adjustment by the listener. But even that is a compromise.

But that’s not what any of us are talking about. We’re talking about the trend in recording to utterly compress the dynamic range simply to make the recording louder. For instance, on the scale used by DR database, a really excellent recording will have a DR in the 12-16 range. Many, many current recordings by exceptional artists have a DR of 3-4.

As Geoff said, there is nothing good about that. But even artists who are involved in the recording production are letting this happen. Some of Knopfler’s CDs are marginal. Likewise, I see artists like JD McPherson go to the trouble of recording at night in RCA Studio B in Nashville, which is a historic all analog/tube studio that is a museum during the day just to get the right sound.....and still allow their music to be dynamic range compressed at the end. His stuff isn’t terrible but the point is that some idiot engineer has to make an effort to do it. In other words, it isn’t an accident, it is not a product of sloppy production, it is not a necessary compromise. It is an intentional step in the process.

And there seems to be no apparent reason for it.

Boggles the mind.

@ddjr: Yes, we are referring to vinyl. But modern vinyl is not immune. A great deal of new vinyl is made from a digital and often DR compressed source. In my little bit of research it seems that vinyl generally fares better than CDs, but not by much and not always,

Have you tried Digital Radio? Sounds pretty good to me.

geoffkait:
"That’s why they call it the Loudness Wars. If there are no dynamics it’s not music. Digital is the new wimpy."

Hello geoffkait,

     I agree that the Loudness Wars, via recording mixing decisions, have caused a significant compression of dynamics on many cds released.  But it's my understanding that Redbook cd is fully capable of capturing and playing back the actual large dynamics naturally existing in music heard played live.  In other words, it's a conscious mixing decision to compress dynamics on cds and not a limit of the Redbook cd format itself.

    Is this your understanding as well?

Thanks,
  Tim

My understanding is that Redbook CD is actually limited in dynamic range, compared to live sound. Let’s say Redbook CD can provide up to 90 dB of dynamic range theoretically (and 90 dB of Signal to Noise Ratio). However, the actual dynamic range of CD is also limited by the dynamic range of the recording device, which in the case of tape is probably less than 90 dB. So right away Redbook CD is limited in dynamic range since live performance dynamic range is much higher than 90 dB.

If 90 dB dynamic range couid actually be achieved in a given room that would be great! I would say mission accomplished!! But I would not be surprised at all if CDs that are not overly compressed achieve no more than 75 or 80 dB in an arbitrary room. There are other factors that further limit dynamic range, including but not limited to room anomalies, CD player problems, noise in the system.