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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
geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
You can not (rpt not) get better dynamic range than the source. If the source is Beatles LPs it’s whatever the LPs are, which varies. Here’s the The Beatles recordings, LPs and CDs, from the dynamic range database. Starts off with p. 1 of 3.

http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list?artist=The+Beatles&album=
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geoffkait's avatar
geoffkait
23,365 posts
 
You know, people, just because the industry declared CDs “perfect sound forever” doesn’t mean they really are. And just because CDs have been marketed as having Dynamic Range and Signal to Noise Ratio SNR of 90 dB doesn’t really mean they do. It’s called puffing. You’re not supposed to fall for it hook, line and sinker. 🐠🐡🐟 Maybe this is simply a case of gullibility masquerading as science, who knows? If you don’t think CDs by and large sound compressed perhaps there’s a good ear candling in your future. 🕯
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noble100's avatar
noble100
2,419 posts
 
     I agree, if readers here can't even agree that CDs generally have compressed dynamics mainly due to the Loudness Wars, and conscious decisions made by the recording engineers to compromise good dynamics for higher volume, then we either all go in for a group ear exam or we concede the obvious.
     CD as a format is still capable of recording and playing back musical content in high fidelity and with very good dynamics.  However, a sustained pattern of self-inflicted extremely poor executive decisions likely have damaged the general perception of the quality of CDs to such a degree that the whole format may just fade away due to disuse.  I know I've already moved on to 24bit/96KHz direct to digital recorded files that haven't been screwed up..... yet.


Tim  
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