2. digital
  3. 179221-46419

Volume level of commercial CD's.

Originally I could only play CD's directly on my CD player. A while ago I got a Sony Blu-ray player that can feed FLAC files to my dac. After converting several CD tracks to FLAC, I see that many are so loud that my preamp barely goes past 9 o'clock. In order to readjust the volume to have the preamp at 12 o'clock, I started converting the CD rips to wav and then using the Wavegain program and converting back to FLAC. Now the volume is much more adjustable on the preamp and it looks like a good solution to me, except for the hassle of having to run everything through Wavegain.

Is this the best solution?

rff000

Showing 3 responses by retiredaudioguy

retiredaudioguy
33 posts
 

Another oops: those posts should have been in response to the "How Loud" discussion.  Getting old!

retiredaudioguy
33 posts
 

For each 6dB you are losing a bit of resolution, so, if you play Redbook 16 bit stuff do attenuate AFTER the DAC.

I monitored my playing of  Mahler 2 this afternoon.  At my seat the range was from 44 dB to 94.  Most passages were at about 60 to 65, moderate crescendos at 75 to 80 dB, the 95 was a hard transient. Classical symphonies live can be as much as a 60 dB range.

On a CD a 50 dB range is 8+ bits so you are left with an 8 bit recording for the quiet parts.  This is why the 24 bit recordings of wide range music is such an improvement, the quiet, slow, passages can have an ethereal quality that CDs cannot match.

I also listened to the Op. 132 quartet, that was mainly in the 55 to 65 range, some pp passages down in the 50s.  Parts of the Heileger gesaang even down in the 40s.

retiredaudioguy
33 posts
 

OOPS: Typo Heiliger gesang

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