Mark, as has often been pointed out, many pop recordings are almost uniformly loud and often add to that a little boost in the upper midrange/lower treble "presence" area, both of these being aimed at sounding more impressive than the competition, especially on mediocre equipment. Classical recordings are thankfully rarely manipulated in those ways and the dynamic range closely approaches that of the original performance. The distinction has been demonstrated even more clearly to me by other board members(more accustomed to typical pop recordings)who either in replies or in PMs have commented about turning the volume up on the often relatively quiet openings of classical CDs they've gotten on my suggestion and then being almost blasted out of their chairs on peaks. That's the way music is sometimes supposed to be, of course.
First priority is the attractiveness of the musical composition itself, then the quality of the performance followed by the quality of the sound, with price also being a consideration. Fortunately there're many available CDs that are attractive on all four points. The
Planets CD that I constantly suggest is great example and some others on sale now that sound great are
Alexander Nevsky and the
Slavonic Dances .
