... thoughts on Taylor Swift's REPUTATION CD...

Listening now to qualify for your criteria. I don't think I will make it through, so this is all I got.

http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Taylor%20Swift

Please explain to me in layman's terms what this tells me, and how this is useful in a discussion regarding sound...
This may sound combative - it is not intended to be - I just want to understand why you are using this 'scale' to quantify sound...

He is referring to the dynamic range of the CD. As I understand it the dynamic range is the range of audible sound or tone from quietest to loudest. (Probably all the wrong terms but you can get what I'm saying). 

The CD you referenced has very poor dynamic range. This is a product, again as I understand it, of pushing up the loudness of the CD which compresses the dynamic range.

This isn't a knock against Taylor Swift or that CD per se because the problem is almost universal these days. It is very hard to find a new CD or downloadable file that doesn't suffer from this production technique.

Search Wikipedia: "loudness wars" if you want to learn a little more.

What I hear in these compressed CDs, compared to older ones, is that first it is loud. Too loud for the corresponding volume setting on your gear. After that to me they sound too bright, too strident and they make my ears tired. They lack 'richness' in my opinion. Some of my favorite new bands have albums with nearly identical DR to the Swift CD you mention. Their DR hovers around 5 or 6. Well recorded CDs like Mark Knopfler's 'Tracker" and Steely Dan's 'Two Against Nature' have DR values in the 12-16 range. And they are fairly recent. They just made the effort.

I'm sure I haven't laid this out exactly or with the most precise terms but the effect is fairly obvious to me sonically.

New vinyl seems to fair better....but still not as good as good old vinyl.

Also, the DR can vary A LOT between different CDs of the same album when it comes to older CDs and "remastered" CDs notoriously have worse DR than the original releases.

I am honestly wondering where all of these oddball posts are being generated. I have been a member for quite a while and I don't recall seeing so many pedantic posts. It is as if there is a "hired staff"  with little knowledge of audio to generate posts, thereby generating interest in Audiogon. Frankly these seem fake and rather pointless, not trying to be offensive here and I am sorry if I am but has anybody noticed this phenomenon ? Even the post headlines are very odd. Something like "HAVE YOU EVER NOTICED..." , or "WHEN I TURNED OFF MY AMP SOMETHING WENT WRONG...." This is just weird and very uninviting. Make a header that says something. Make some sense please!