The death of hi fidelity

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Not dead really, high fidelity sound is largely frozen in time with mostly older material having been produced to a standard of quality and most newer (Classical and Jazz aside)popular formats descending into the audio junkpile. As the young deafen themselves with compressed material blaring into earbuds or vibrating your car at the stoplight, the likelihood of a quality sound revival seems dubious.
 
I wouldn't bet on that.

Some of the most horribly squashed stuff comes from Chris and Tom Lord-Alge and they are mix engineers ie the stuff had all its life squeezed out of it before it even reaches the mastering engineer.
These days it is the artists themselves who insist on extra loud mixes frequently.
One would have to get hold of the multitracks to avoid excessive dynamic compression and that is not going to happen.
 
The compression problem started with competing FM stations trying to capture drivers in a high ambient situation.
Horses for courses really
Compressed techno may suit some but others may want the subtle dynamic range of large live orchestral music
Here I would like to commend Al Schmitt who makes Krall sound so good in the studio and live. Hi Fi is alive and well, no fear.
 
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ah it's all just too annoying, some "music" is such crappy produced sh1t, I have to turn it off instantly... there are very few "highlights"...nowadays

did I already rant here on Metropolis Mastering?! I think not... well: you suck! you messed up the LDR disc, shame on you, ... abuse of best album of the decade, imho ....

and of course you never answer to polite mails... that not being very "customer friendly"

"The Best Mastering Studios in Europe" ... L O L my 8 year old daughter would have done it better ...

CDA: http://www.ventura-audio.de/clipping_data/Result_Lana_del_Rey_-_Born_to_Die_11.PNG

Vinyl: http://www.ventura-audio.de/ClippingAnalyzer/Result_BTD_Vinyl_11.PNG

SnowWhite edition: http://www.ventura-audio.de/ClippingAnalyzer/Result_11.PNG
 
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If you listened to most of your music in a car, you'd want it compressed too.

I listen to a fair bit of music in my car. I don't like overly compressed music there either and have excised all offending tracks from my car's ipod.

The beginning of the Loudness Wars coincide with the proliferation of CD changers.

Radio stations employ their own compression and from what I hear they are not keen on getting heavily compressed source material as they like to use different (multiband) compression than what is used in the mixing/mastering process.
 
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