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When CDs first came onto the market in 1982 .......

Everyone was "blown away" with the perceived clarity of sound.

I might be wrong (hence this post) but my recollection was the major difference between a CD and it's vinyl analog was merely volume. 

CDs were mastered with an audio stream turned up to 1.2v (?) whereas all analog recordings (vinyl, tape etc.) had been mastered using an analog audio stream of 0.8v

Is this on the money or am I mistaken ... ??

ozymandias_
bolong
390 posts
 

The more recently recorded and mastered CD's from artists like Deuter do not sound "loudness war" compressed to me. I have heard that the commercial CD burns now do not engage in such travesty to the extent they that they used to.

chmaiwald
75 posts
 

As far as I know the dominance of streaming ended the loudness war as we knew it. Spotify, Amazon etc let their own algorythms adjust the loudness (and whatnot) after they were uploaded. That’s why we rarely have to adjust the volume when listening to streamed music. LUFS - a more psychoacoustic way of measuring perceived loudness - is what counts now. I am not an expert and can’t say how a LUFS-oriented mixing/mastering approach affects dynamics but from what I read it does not make overcompressed and turned up to the max mixes and masters as neccessary as before.

relayer101's avatar
relayer101
606 posts
 

There is a good article in Wikipedia. Just plug in Loudness War in their search field.

It mainly occurred in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. It was not a good time for CD sound quality and I can usually pick up on it pretty easily when listening to CD’s from that era.

 

 

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