Are the loudness wars fake so record companies can destroy the music?

Sam here and the hypersonic effect caused the alpha waves in the brain to light up like a christmas tree on the EEG brain scan. https://i.postimg.cc/PfCzj8fn/journal-pone-0095464-g004.png

https://i.postimg.cc/Yqf7q08b/brainwave-benefits-accordion3.jpg you can see why big pharma spent millions of dollers trying to discredit the truth. Dynamic compression destroys the hypersonic effect and prozac is a billion doller a year anti depression drug. You can draw your own conclusions

MC correction:
"This supports CD over records"
;-)

I don't buy into conspiracy theories.

I also don't buy into digital vs analog debates. I hear good stuff in both formats.

What I do buy into is that most new music is horribly compressed. There is a fair amount of good data to support this. I probably have the least 'golden ears' of anyone on this web site but I can typically tell over DR compressed music immediately, at least on my system. And I hate it. It ruins the music for me in terms of hi-fi listening. In the car, no problem.

But here's the gist of why I'm responding: Many conspiracy theories are born when credible explanations are sparse. I don't believe record companies are trying to ruin any one's music. Those of us who are bothered by DR compression are a tiny percentage of people who pay for music.

So the question remains: Why does DR over compression persist? I know there are bands who meticulously produce their music but the final product is overcompressed. Why? Alabama Shakes and The Teskey Brothers stand out as bands who release well engineered stuff that is then over compressed. And it is not a CD vs vinyl issue. Both formats can be and frequently are over compressed. Vinyl seems less likely to be but is hardly immune. So the format is not the issue.

There are also bands out there releasing music that is not over compressed. So it can be done. Mark Knopfler comes to mind.

So to me the question is not one of conspiracy. But it is still a question of why? What drives it?

Over compressed music is just about a requirement for any music to sound acceptable to the masses on the near universal phone and earbuds setup.
Us audiophools comprise a tiny segment of the customer base and we are not the ones who are downloading songs and paying for said downloads to our iPod or whatever similar piece of gear.

Now streaming at a fixed cost per month has changed the landscape a bit as to what service they use but not really the way they listen.

Perfect example is my daughter who has a more than acceptable rig in her room but 95% of the time she is listening via YouTube on her phone and air Bud's.

How do you overcome that?

Why do you say it is a requirement? Not disagreeing, I just don't understand why.

Most sources, including radio, normalize loudness to some extent. It is the default setting in iTunes/Apple Music. So it would be unusual for a song to stand out significantly because of over compression. Having said that, there is quite a bit of variation in loudness on Amazon Music (normal resolution, I do not have hi-res at this point so can't speak to that.) Maybe there is a normalization setting in Amazon Music but if so I have not seen it.


Also, it isn't like a well recorded nominally compressed song has to sound bad in the car or with ear buds if loudness is normalized.

Anyway, I still don't get it and to me it seems like one of the biggest issues in hi-fi sound quality.


My conspiracy theory is that its just what everyone does because everyone has always (since early 90s) done it.


Mark Knopfler doesn't do it.......well not as bad as most, some of his stuff is moderately compressed. But I suspect Mark Knopfler 1) Knows what he's doing and 2) Does whatever he wants.