What is the least compressed signal?
Here, read this: https://grimesaudio.wordpress.com/2018/10/23/the-loudness-wars-a-brief-history/ Also google "loudness wars" for more, including the BBC's samples of Thriller. |
ddjr, I believe what your friend was attempting to tell you was that radio is typically not a great source in terms of quality. Seek a more direct source, such as LP, digital file, or streaming audio from a good source like Tidal or Qobuz. There will be a world of difference in sound quality! You will be shocked! If you enjoy listening it will be well worth the money and time invested. :) As an example, if you were to hook up a CD player directly, you likely would hear a radical difference between sound quality of a CD played back versus same song on radio. Note that cables make a substantial difference in the resultant sound quality. |
Well, not just the source but everything matters. Everything. It is literally endless. Just for starters consider that your speakers are "hot-rodded" which means someone figured out that to get the most out of those speakers you first need to change the speakers themselves! Internal wiring, discrete component selection (better caps, etc) on and on. Speaker cables, interconnects, power cords, fuses, cones- on and on. Do enough of these and your speakers will be sounding so much better you may eventually come around to understand that when it comes to getting great sound the speakers are no more important than anything else. They just happen to be the last link in the chain. In terms of the best least compressed source though I think its pretty obviously the direct to disc LP. With direct to disc the signal goes directly from the microphones through a mixer to the cutter. Not a lot are made because its so difficult. Not many recording studios adjacent to cutters. Each side must be cut beginning to end complete. Not a lot of performers these days capable of playing 20 straight minutes. If its more than one song they have to physically play however many songs one after the other, no stopping, there is no "Pause" when cutting vinyl. So the music selection can leave a lot to be desired. But hunt around, check out Sheffield (they did a lot) and when you find one it will not take long for you to appreciate what I'm talking about. |
But don't get confused here. There are two types of compression being discussed. Both are important. One type is file compression. It can be lossless or lossy. When it is lossy some of the 1s and 0s are left out. Dynamic range is another form of compression where the dynamic range is compressed. There are good links about that above. It is a plague with no purpose and no seeming cure. And the problem is that you don't know on which recordings it is worse. You can certainly hear it. But if you want to avoid it and know what you are buying then go to the DR database linked to above. There are those (who know far more about audio than I do) who say you can tune your system to compensate for DR compression. But that sounds like putting lipstick on a pig if you ask me. When dynamic range isn't there........it isn't there and nothing you can do can get it back. |
