CDs Vs LPs

dynaquest4

... digital CD recordings are, and were designed to be, far superior to standard LP recordings in every way that matters

That may be true, especially if you think extended HF response doesn't matter.

No amount of money spend on beefy turntables and complex tonearms will produce the dynamic range of which the LP is incapable.

The problem with this claim is that the CD's potential for greater dynamic range (compared to LP) is rarely needed or utilized. In fact, the opposite is the case. As a consequence of the loudness wars, a CD is typically more compressed than its LP counterpart.

In fact, the opposite is the case. As a consequence of the loudness wars, a CD is typically more compressed than its LP counterpart.

Most Jazz and all Classical have never joined the loudness wars. 

phomchick

Most Jazz and all Classical have never joined the loudness wars.

You are either joking, or perhaps have just become accustomed to compression. And that's the problem with compression - many listeners come to expect that it represents how music is supposed to sound.

You are either joking, or perhaps have just become accustomed to compression

I am not joking. Check out any recording from SF Symphony Media, or AIX records, or Chesky Records, or ECM, or BIS, and I could go on and on and on. Almost no classical music recordings not mastered for vinyl are compressed.

I like modern classical recordings on digital media.  I do think they tend to be well recorded and mastered and have a dynamic range that is decent, compared to recordings done in the past and offered on vinyl.  But, that is not to say that they are not compressed. 

Compression is used for practical reasons, particularly with orchestral music.  There would be almost no system that could really handle the full dynamic range and most people would not like listening at whisper quiet levels for most of the music in order to have the peaks not be at an overwhelmingly high level.  I have a few CDs that were mastered without compression; they have warning labels all over the case and the CD because of the possibly damaging peaks if one played the soft parts at normal levels.  Of course, anything without compression would be unlistenable in a car, so that would be taken into account when mastering a classical CD.