Why Audiophiles Are Shopping for Vintage Turntables

[sergeauckland]

You're looking at the CD's and the lossless downloads. The Dynamic Range of the LP pressings is mostly in the region of 10-12

The dynamic range of LPs was from the beginning limited by the dynamic range of pre-Dolby tape, which had a S/N ratio of around 60-65dB, limited at one end by distortion, and at the other by tape noise. LPs were cut making the best use of that.

With CD, the dynamic range is, for practical purposes, unlimited, so what the dynamic range of the recording as issued is, has been a matter of choice for the record companies. That they chose for commercial/artistic reasons to make the CDs as loud as possible, is regrettable, but as I said, a commercial/artistic decision, not a technical one.

One mustn't confuse the limitations of the medium with the message the record companies wanted to get across.

S.

 

[Subwaffler]

The dynamic range of LPs was from the beginning limited by the dynamic range of pre-Dolby tape, which had a S/N ratio of around 60-65dB, limited at one end by distortion, and at the other by tape noise. LPs were cut making the best use of that.

With CD, the dynamic range is, for practical purposes, unlimited, so what the dynamic range of the recording as issued is, has been a matter of choice for the record companies. That they chose for commercial/artistic reasons to make the CDs as loud as possible, is regrettable, but as I said, a commercial/artistic decision, not a technical one.

One mustn't confuse the limitations of the medium with the message the record companies wanted to get across.

S.

True, but it also seems unfair to criticize an artists output for limited dynamic range by cherry-picking the formats that happen to have limited dynamic range!

 

[DSJR]

In case it wasn’t clear: I was not talking about forehead, banging with regards to your position, but rather the person you were responding to.

In either case, I was just talking about my own state of affairs and not making a suggestion that you refrain from such conversations. So please don’t take what I wrote as wanting to limit your questions at all!

Cheers

Treasure your hearing, fellas... When you love music, reproduced as well as performed live, the former can become a real issue when your hearing is compromised due to damage or age, the latter not so much as it's not compressed in the studio/mastering and other senses come into play.

 

[Sal1950]

True, but it also seems unfair to criticize an artists output for limited dynamic range by cherry-picking the formats that happen to have limited dynamic range!

I didn't criticize one particular artist, but simply used "Swifty type pop" as a example of that pop music genre, along with rap and hip-hop.
I can't say with certainty who makes the decisions on how this music is produced and decides to squash it to single digit DR, but it is a shame.
I can only fall back to Mark Waldrep of AIX records stated dismay of sending out his final masters to the "Bosses" and having it returned 2 and 3 times with instructions to "make it LOUDER!"
OTOH, the good news is I don't purchase any of it so, no problems here.
YMMV