Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo The Death of High Fidelity

Yes, for several years now many pop recordings have been mastered ever more closely to an almost uniformly loud level with a dynamic range much closer to zero than to the more than ample range which CDs permit. Fortunately High Fidelity is alive and well in most of the classical realm and several of the CDs which I have actually drew bitter complaints from reviewers that the loud/soft factor was "uncomfortable" for them.

Thanks for the link. I hope it's not a lost cause.

Interesting article, makes me wish I still had some of my old LP's

This is one of the reasons I recently purchased a Music Hall turntable and started buying used vinyl. The other reason was frequenting the Steve Hoffman forums. Spend some time there and its almost inevitable you'll get the vinyl bug.

Maybe I'm dumb, but I don't see what vinyl has to do with the article. Are you suggesting that new stuff that's put out on vinyl will sound better than the CD version by virtue of the way vinyl is made? The clipped waveform doesn't remain intact? Or is this partially in reference to the other thread about remasters sucking, and you're only talking about old vinyl releases?

If you're only talking about older music, I think I'm immune to the vinyl bug. If there's a major difference in sound quality between the CD and vinyl versions of new music, however, I'd be interested in hearing about that.

The vinyl itself is part of the issue -- overmodulated peaks on an LP don't distort as dramatically as overmodulated peaks on a CD -- so from the beginning there was more need to carefully control peak levels on CDs. This could be done in at least two ways -- lowering the overall recording level or compressing the dynamic range. I would have personally looked for some kind of soft limiter with behaviour more like that of a vinyl-based medium but that's just me.

The fact that the general public's listening habits changed (from serious listening to "listening while doing something else") is probably coincidental, but was another argument for limiting dynamic range and provided a very convenient solution for the challenges of recording high dynamic range music on a limited resolution digital medium.

It's interesting that nobody has focused on the changes in recreational self-medication over the last 30 years, from drugs which encouraged serious contemplation of music to drugs which generally made one unable to concentrate on anything

I am very new to reentering the vinyl world and am using a relatively inexpensive turntable. From what i have heard so far, older vinyl can sound very good. Yes, some does sound better than the CD of the same title. You can get newer releases on vinyl, but they are somewhat costly. I am primarily interested in picking up used vinyl of older titles. This is plentiful and inexpensive (and generally sounds good).

I enjoy both CD and vinyl. The key, I believe, is in the mastering. Many CD's do sound great. There is a certain warmth, though, to vinyl that many find pleasing.

OMG! That was the first thing I thought of, but I didn't want to make a comment that could be construed as "Just say yo" rather than "Just say no." I have always been a "stop and sniff the roses" type anyway, but I still remember the joy of vegging out for hours while listening to wonderfully beautiful and creative music. Even today, I often turn the lights low at 1 AM, when there is little to distract, sit back, close my eyes, and drink in the music. It's a joy, and I feel sorry for those who only experience music as a counterpoint to their everyday activities.

DISCLAIMER: This is now done without the self-medication. It's been decades. Interestingly, today, at my age and in my condition, I take more drugs than when I took drugs. And there is no fun involved either.

I would take some mild dynamic compression on cd over the pop click and hiss of vinyl any day. That nostalgia bug just hasn't been a problem for me. Maybe that flu shot when i was 10 took care of it.


I'm sure you could still find a big green fatty to smoke somewhere if you looked real hard Jack.

Undoubtedly. Haven't looked, real hard or otherwise, in decades, and am not interested in looking. I'd probably faint at the price now anyway.