there's a site i've seen where they rate the top 100 best and worst produced cd's. it was surprising what albums were produced well and which ones weren't.

And that website is located where? :-)

I have bought several new CD's lately only to be severely disappointed in the quality of the recording. Most appear to suffer from the loudness adjustment. It's just a shame that some really talented musicians end up with their music ruined by some idiot sitting behind a mixing console. Where have all the really good sound engineers and recording studios gone????

Just to add some fuel to this discussion. You should "see" what compressing music does to the quality. I took a good live recording and analyzed it using nero. I then took the same track and ripped it at the highest bit rate MP3. I even tried some of the formats that claim to be lossless. I haven't tried FLAC yet, but I will. Take a look at the difference between the original recording, and the "high quality" MP3 recording.

I analyzed the exact same point in the track. Sorry for the small image. The top window is the original, and the bottom is the MP3. Take special note of the frequency response curve ( the two black boxes at the bottom of each window). You will see that all the data in the upper range is gone. I plan to do this test in the car using the RTA to see what the difference is in the car.

So does anyone still think it sounds the same? If most people think it's just as good, does this mean the majority of the population has complete hearing loss above 10KHZ. I admit I have listened to recordings in MP3 that I thought sounded good..... until I heard the original uncompressed recording.

I have bought several new CD's lately only to be severely disappointed in the quality of the recording. Most appear to suffer from the loudness adjustment. It's just a shame that some really talented musicians end up with their music ruined by some idiot sitting behind a mixing console. Where have all the really good sound engineers and recording studios gone????

Just to add some fuel to this discussion. You should "see" what compressing music does to the quality. I took a good live recording and analyzed it using nero. I then took the same track and ripped it at the highest bit rate MP3. I even tried some of the formats that claim to be lossless. I haven't tried FLAC yet, but I will. Take a look at the difference between the original recording, and the "high quality" MP3 recording.

I analyzed the exact same point in the track. Sorry for the small image. The top window is the original, and the bottom is the MP3. Take special note of the frequency response curve ( the two black boxes at the bottom of each window). You will see that all the data in the upper range is gone. I plan to do this test in the car using the RTA to see what the difference is in the car.

So does anyone still think it sounds the same? If most people think it's just as good, does this mean the majority of the population has complete hearing loss above 10KHZ. I admit I have listened to recordings in MP3 that I thought sounded good..... until I heard the original uncompressed recording.