cliveb wrote: > Quite so. But as you say, compression is desirable in some circumstances > - BUT NOT ALL! > > To inflict compression on the source material for the benefit of those > who listen in noisy environments penalises those who listen at home. And > the solution is painfully obvious: PUT THE COMPRESSOR IN THE PLAYBACK > DEVICE so the listener has the choice. This isn't rocket science. > Rockbox firmware has had an optional compressor for years. The Rio Karma > had an AGC way back even before that. > > What the industry needs is for Apple to add one to iPods and iPhones for > the mainstream to sit up and take notice. But even that may be too late > - I fear that a whole generation of mastering "engineers" has grown up > believing that excessive dynamic compression is the right thing to do.
Clive you inadvertently touched on one of the dirty little secrets of dynamic range compression: it has/had been going on for years and years in the field of radio broadcasting and for the exact same reason, namely that dynamically compressed music sounds better in a noisy environment, like an automobile. The more recent development is the use of dynamic range compression on the recording itself and not as something added during playback. Don't like dynamic range compression then listen to jazz or classical music, both of feature lots of music offered in full, uncompressed glory. Just about all current "popular" music (which is basically anything that's not jazz, classical or few other even less popular genres) features some degree of dynamic range compression, with the basic axiom being the more popular the music the more compressed the dynamic range. Just one more reason not to listen to U2 (as if I needed another reason). Living Rm: Transporter-SimAudio pre/power amps-Vandersteen 3A Sign. & sub Home Theater: Touch-Marantz HTR-Energy Veritas 2.1 & Linn sub Computer Rm: Touch-Headroom Desktop w/DAC-Aragon amp-Energy Veritas 2.1 & Energy sub Bedroom: Touch-HR Desktop w/DAC-Audio Refinement amp-Energy Veritas 2.0 Guest Rm: Duet-Sony soundbar Garage: SB3-JVC compact system Controls: iPeng; SB Controller; Moose & Muso Server: SBS on dedicated windows 7 computer w/2 Drobos 'Last.fm' (http://www.last.fm/user/jazzfann/) ------------------------------------------------------------------------ ralphpnj's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=10827 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=102391 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list [email protected] http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
