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Termyn8or -> RE: CD Sound Is Crap! (7/11/2007 5:31:40 AM)
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Talk about preaching to the choir. But I can tell you what is worse, FM radio. If you think they compress a CD, try it on the radio. And it drives me nuts.
I've had a couple of expanders and know how to use them. I was over a buddy's long ago and he had an expander, but had the input gain all the way up. I tried to school the guy but he just wouldn't listen. His expander was nothing but a gain stage. I do admit this much, if things ever really did get quiet it would act as an effective DNR unit. I tried to show him by turning it down and turning the main volume up but he insisted that it belonged all the way up. I got into an argument with the same guy because he said motor and engine meant exactly the same thing.
Guys like this also tend to get a graphic equalizer and just crank all the bands all the way up. What's more they tend to use the high and low filters on their amps, wiping out the octaves that are the most expensive to reproduce. Of course a cranked up EQ will do that as well.
Might as well for the ignorant, make them happy. What makes them happy is when the volume goes say from 0 to 10, at 3 the amp is putting out full power. I swear it seems that the exact same sound sounds better to them when the volume is just cracked a bit. I think some of them think turning it up beyond 5 is unmanly or something.
On the same note as the OT (I do pay attention sometimes), think of the vinyl days before CDs, and the album Moontan by Golden Earring. On the US version is was cut hard and the material went all the way to the exit track. Most turntables sold in the US mistracked especially at the end of a side, so the sound got muddy, especially after alot of plays.
On the import version though it was cut alot quieter, and the grooves were a bit compressed to stay away from the center. The result was alot cleaner sound. Europe seems to have been ahead of the game all the way. Even with FM radio, they reduced the modulation and had a bunch more stations. This required better FM tuners. They builtem.
Anyway, people don't realize what is missing in the sound. Everything non-electronic is clipped almost. I read somewhere that to reproduce a muted trumpet at a realistic level would require tens of thousands of watts. But have a look at the waveform and you see why. Also note that this ten thousand watt amp would be running at an average power of perhaps five watts. It just requires that much peak power to reproduce the peaks.
And the average Joe has no idea. Anything louder is better, so they give the people what they want. Problem is that it is not what I want. I mean to the point where there is not a radio in my house, not even a clock radio. I download everything, and I am getting pleasantly surprised by the quality of some of these oldies, and I mean from the sixties. Even the fifties !
We really have not come a long way.
T
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