Elizabeth is correct. I've looked at the sound waveforms of their Prokofiev "Romeo and Juliet" recording, using a computer program, and the difference in volume between the loudest notes and the softest notes is around 55 db! That corresponds to about 316000 times as much power being required for the loudest notes as for the softest notes.
Many popular recordings, in contrast, are compressed to the point where that difference, in db, is in single digits. Presumably one of the reasons that is done is that it will make those recordings sound as loud as possible when listened to on car radios.
I suspect that an additional reason for the relatively low average volume on the Sheffields is that since the direct-to-disk process does not allow any post-processing or editing, recording levels were adjusted to provide more margin, relative to anticipated peak levels, than would normally be used with other recording techniques.
Regards,
-- Al
Many popular recordings, in contrast, are compressed to the point where that difference, in db, is in single digits. Presumably one of the reasons that is done is that it will make those recordings sound as loud as possible when listened to on car radios.
I suspect that an additional reason for the relatively low average volume on the Sheffields is that since the direct-to-disk process does not allow any post-processing or editing, recording levels were adjusted to provide more margin, relative to anticipated peak levels, than would normally be used with other recording techniques.
Regards,
-- Al