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What is the least compressed signal?

Hello everyone.I was wondering what everyone's thoughts might be about what is the least compressed front end signal? A friend of mine recently told me that radio signal is compressed. So I thought maybe a direct connection to a CD player? Or, since CDs are pretty compressed, maybe a record player? Thoughts?
the reason I ask is, my friend recently gave me a fantastic pair of speakers. And I've been listening to the radio through them. He had a disgusted look on his face and told me I was not using these speakers how they were meant to be used, because the radio signal is kind of crappy and compressed. I would love to use the speakers as they were intended. Meadowlark kestrel hot rods hooked up to an Integra receiver w/ kimbers
ddjr
jrpnde
271 posts
 
The statement of the most previous poster is correct. Tape speed is most important as pertains to sound quality. Not mentioned thus far is 8 track tapes. Sure, they were large, clunky, and due to their poor construction they often ejected from their players with a stream of tape type confetti. But......
Their play speed was almost twice that of cassettes and, during their short lived lifetime, they sounded better due to tape speed in.ips. Cassettes were smaller and not prone to mechanical failures. Note.... Both of these recording mediums were primarily built for those who wanted good music in their cars.

marklings
61 posts
 
The previous post about the 2 different types of compression is mostly relevant.
When you fear that tuner signal might be compressed you are talking about dynamic range compression. DR compression is really bad from the SQ stand point.
File compression not so much. There's a subtle difference bewteen a high quality compresses file and a non compressed one (or lossless compressed which is to say same quality as non compressed)
DR compression is immediatly audible instead and there's not really much you can do about it except go look for another source 
CDs as a rule are not compressed at all. They present the full Red book audio signal in non comprsssed format.
I am sure I added a lot of confusion, sorry about that . . .
wolf_garcia
6,695 posts
 
Recorded music has to be limited to some degree or it simply wouldn't work. Try this...find a live sound mixing board and run a mic to it from a kick drum and into nearly any amp connected to a favorite home hifi speaker. Adjust the mixer channel to flat and and a moderate level, hit that kick drum and you should hear a brief ffffttt sound. That's the sound of your woofer exploding.
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
When I use the word compressed I’m referring to the overly aggressive dynamic range compression that’s become common in the industry for all formats but especially CD. The Unofficial Dynamic Range Database shows this clearly in colors so anyone can understand. For you young uns out there - If the 3 colors (low, high, avg dynamic range) shown in the data base are ALL RED it means the CD has been way, way compressed. Look for the ones that are ALL GREEN. Those are the good ones, kiddies.

http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=Rolling+stones&album=Sticky+fingers
audioman58's avatar
audioman58
4,129 posts
 
Wav files are the least compressed ,
and DP power amp is a Great inexpensive program for ripping cdsto a hard drive. The have a Flac file #8 which is uncompressed
and very close sonicly to a Wav file and still taking up 40% less volume.
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