Volume Wars-- Are things improving, getting worse, or status quo?

I believe compression started off as product of the loudness wars, I’m not saying this justifies using compression, but these are the pathetic good point of it.
It’s better in cars as the road/engine noise won’t drowned out the quieter passages, because everything’s at the same level.
Also compressed music is good for the i-phone earbud brigade as they won’t blow up as many earbuds with sudden dynamics, and also probably save the users hearing, if turned up too much to hear the quite passages above the traffic noise while waking around.

Cheers George

The Loudness Wars are still raging but you can find exceptions. The Steven Wilson Remixes of some of the big prog-rockers (ELP, Yes, King Crimson, Jethro Tull) are considered to be tastefully done with good dynamic range.

Yes these are sadly but a few that didn't get "squashed up" in the re-mix.

When there's no or little compression, not only do you get the sense of the massive dynamic swings, but also there seems to be more space between the notes, your brain must be getting a chance to relax and therefore no listeners fatigue seems to set in, compared to compressed relentless wall of sound version of the same album.

Cheers George 

Worse with digital because the music is getting more and more compressed

http://dr.loudness-war.info/

Cheers George