If you're complaining about dynamic differences and are not willing to listen to all of the songs at their original recorded volumes, then your only solution is dynamic range compression..

After all the wonderful posts I've read of yours, I'm surprised to disagree with you here. Perhaps I'm missing something. Let me spout a few generalities and please gently correct me if I say something outlandish:

1) If your stereo doesn't have more dynamic range than your ears, you might like a better stereo.

2) CDs (and I believe the DAC on the empeg's Philips DSP) use 16-bit quantization.

3) We *can* hear better than 16-bits.

4) We *can* build better than 16-bits. (There are really nice 24-bit sigma-delta DACs out there that can sample at least 8x faster than CD's encode rate.)

5) To deal with the limitations of a CD, recording engineers tend to normalize to the loudest passage on the CD, so that the quietest passage in the CD is as high as possible above the noise floor.

6) To deal with 5), listeners tend to enjoy different CDs using different volume settings. (We turn down the harpsichord so that it's softer than the cannon fire, even if they're on two CDs at the same levels).

7) Considering music collection in it's entirety, I'd say the recording engineers have collectively compressed our music collection so that each CD can sound its best, without regard to the volume you might want to play it. (As they should).

8) When sc400 drives me to lunch, he cranks up head-banging tracks and turns down sentimental ballads.

It sounds to me like number 7) is similar to very slow compression. It sounds to me like 8) is similar to very slow expansion. I don't think that further compression is what sc400 is looking for. In contrast, during open top motoring in a Carrera, the difference between deafening and drowned out is less than 16-bits. For me compression is desireable, if done well.

In either case, one compresses just before passing through a channel that is limited in dynamic range. Once past the compromised channel, inverse operations are in order. If the compromised channel is the air, you have to wait until someone invents a pshyco-acoustical expansion implant for your brain.


-jim <MkII:080000260 18G blue>