Silver Lining of Loudness Wars

SlunkBoy · 25th September 2009, 08:00 PM

Having experimented with a number of amplifier topologies, it has been my experience that a useful side-effect of highly compressed modern recordings is that they lend themselves well to feeding low-wattage class A amplifiers. I can often get away with driving only moderately efficiently speakers as loud as I would care to listen to them in a small room with well less than a watt of power.

I know that I am ideologically compelled to complain about the loudness war, but something that provides an excuse to make smaller, more perfect amplifiers can't be all bad, right?

Glowbug · 25th September 2009, 10:26 PM

Still, I'd rather go with higher efficiency and have a recording that sounds better.

Even when I had the Decware Zen and only had 2 watts, I liked recordings that had more dynamic range better

wwenze · 26th September 2009, 12:42 AM

I, for one, like compression, as it allows me to listen to music at lower volumes when I'm on public transport.

georgehifi · 26th September 2009, 09:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by wwenze

I, for one, like compression, as it allows me to listen to music at lower volumes when I'm on public transport.

Real life music/sounds are not compressed, why f--- with it and make it something it's not, just because ipod headphones can blow up if real dynamics go through them, and when you finally want to hear it duplicated on a "high end" system, your disgusted because it all sound the same level with no real life dynamic swing.
That is also why ads on TV are painfully loud, it's not that they are louder than the movie you were just watching , it's that they are compressed to the same average level of the movie, this what makes you turn down the volume, because your ear doesn't want to hear it at the same average level, because it's uncomfortable.
Compressing is the scourge of the music industry and should be eliminated from the face of the planet.

I have to go now, I think I hear my mother calling me.
Cheers George

restorer-john · 26th September 2009, 09:30 PM

I have no problem with compression per se. I do have a problem with FM radio broadcasting compression systems and the effect it has had on the recording world. Realisitcally, once we went to FM stereo in Australia and we got high quality uncompressed classic LPs played on the air, it was incredible- tuners needed to be good, silent and sensitive. Back then, the best sound came over FM (close to the transmitter). Then the popular stations went FM, discovered compressors and the singles charts had to follow. Music became more and more compressed for popular reasons (cassette decks in cars, walkmans, ghetto blasters and crap systems). The end of the 80's was the end of dynamic popular music and the end of high quality mainstream 2 channel gear en masse.
Dynamic range is wonderful when it is genuine, silly when it is emphasised and tewrrible when it is not present. Balance is what it is all about.

25th September 2009, 08:00 PM	#1
SlunkBoy diyAudio Member Join Date: Jan 2007	Silver Lining of Loudness Wars Having experimented with a number of amplifier topologies, it has been my experience that a useful side-effect of highly compressed modern recordings is that they lend themselves well to feeding low-wattage class A amplifiers. I can often get away with driving only moderately efficiently speakers as loud as I would care to listen to them in a small room with well less than a watt of power. I know that I am ideologically compelled to complain about the loudness war, but something that provides an excuse to make smaller, more perfect amplifiers can't be all bad, right?

25th September 2009, 10:26 PM	#2
Glowbug diyAudio Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Hillsborough, NC/McLean, VA	Still, I'd rather go with higher efficiency and have a recording that sounds better. Even when I had the Decware Zen and only had 2 watts, I liked recordings that had more dynamic range better __________________ Jim J.

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26th September 2009, 12:42 AM	#3
wwenze diyAudio Member Join Date: Mar 2008	I, for one, like compression, as it allows me to listen to music at lower volumes when I'm on public transport.

26th September 2009, 09:30 PM	#5
restorer-john diyAudio Member Join Date: Jan 2004 Location: brisbane	I have no problem with compression per se. I do have a problem with FM radio broadcasting compression systems and the effect it has had on the recording world. Realisitcally, once we went to FM stereo in Australia and we got high quality uncompressed classic LPs played on the air, it was incredible- tuners needed to be good, silent and sensitive. Back then, the best sound came over FM (close to the transmitter). Then the popular stations went FM, discovered compressors and the singles charts had to follow. Music became more and more compressed for popular reasons (cassette decks in cars, walkmans, ghetto blasters and crap systems). The end of the 80's was the end of dynamic popular music and the end of high quality mainstream 2 channel gear en masse. Dynamic range is wonderful when it is genuine, silly when it is emphasised and tewrrible when it is not present. Balance is what it is all about.