Reference CD

[Lizard_king]

Thanks for the suggestions SN. We need more input from other people to select which songs to use.

[drews_hifi]

this is in reference to tmazz comments on engineering to the cheapest effective solution.

my understanding is that each of us, at work, should strive for cost effective solutions that meet the needs of our customers and fit in the business model of the company.

no insults to recording engineers here.  it is common knowledge that Clearchannel requires very narrow dynamic range for songs to be played on the radio- ie, so that all their stations sound loud all the time.  OK, that about does it for commercial pop.

classical/jazz is another story- certainly k johnson's RR label shows what kind of dynamic range and naturalism can fit on a CD.  Certain jazz releases follow that road, and Mapleshade demonstrates all the good and bad of a strict hifi approach.

recording equipment is quite good.  engineers generally know what they are doing.  it doesnt cost more to make a good sounding recording- it doesnt even take more effort, it just has to be the product goal.

The customers and business model for RR and Sony are different.  The Sony customer wants the song to cut thru road noise in the car and wants to rip the song in mp3 to his i-pod.  The RR customer wants to hear everything that happened during the recording, exactly as it sounded.  Unfortunately for audiophiles, there are waaay more of the former than the latter.

[tmazz]

I definitely agree, recording engineers don't "dummy down" a recording because they want to, they do so because that is what is demanded by the markets they are trying to sell to.  We as audiophiles are not the average bears so we can't expect the mass market companies to conform to our wants or needs. Lucky for us there are still companies out there like RR and Mapleshade who do.