New Santana Album "Africa Speaks"

Money walks, nobody talks. 

I am into dynamic range as much as the next person, likely more so. However, it is unfortunate, that many listeners who spend a considerable amount of money on audio gear ( my definition of an audiophile ), listen to recordings, putting the musical content, 2nd. If the sonics are not great, many listeners I know, will not play it. Coming from a live, un-amplified music background, the majority of recordings suffer from compression, over equalization, and so on. The recordings we buy, stream, whatever, will never be, anything like the real thing. However, I can still enjoy it all, because I put first, the musicianship, the artistry of the writing, of a piece of music, the arrangement, which is the ability, of putting it all together. This is a nice addition to my Santana catalog, and he, as far as I am concerned, has still " got it ".

I'm with you my friend.

Without dynamics there is no music. If you can tolerate flatlined recordings more power to you.

geoffkait, hello buddy....if you are suggesting that I not listen to my Rolling Stones, Beatles, Led Zep, Satriani, P.Floyd, Santana, Billy Joel, Journey, and so much more, because of a lack of dynamics, I can tell you, I would have very little to listen to. Yes, I have the Telarc’s, Chesky’s, Sheffield’s, etc., that have greater dynamic range, but even those, are far from the real thing. My Jazz collection on the Blue Note label, for example, is better in SQ, in most cases, but my listening is diverse, and I accept it all, as listening to music, " my way ", brings me the pleasure I am looking for. A great example of this, was mentioned by me, in another post. Would I rather listen to a newbie sax player, someone not very articulate, with his instrument, in an environment such as Carnegie, with me in the front row, or, would I opt for the playing, of say, someone such as John Coltrane ( this is an example, as he is deceased, fyi ), in an environment, that sounds like an airport bathroom. Let me see.....talent, or, acoustics ? I would rather listen to Coltrane, given the either / or, but yes, both would be nice. Recorded music, is what it is. And given my system has the ability to deliver dynamic range in all of it's glory ( I can connect mic's and guitars, using a mixer, and get closer to live ), as I doubt, many high end systems, would not handle this, and fall flat on their faces. I invite anyone to try it.......YMMV. Enjoy !