1. A full symphony orchestra has a dynamic range of roughly 55dB or so, maybe around 70dB if we include extreme transient peaks but even the 70dB figure is more than ten times less dynamic range than 16bit offers. So what "truth" are you hoping to find of which CD/16bit is incapable?
2. What? You think record labels should distribute recordings beyond the capabilities of playback equipment? Recordings that are not truthful, where you can't actually hear all of it and if you could, would cause pain and injury?
Doesn't any of this sound at least a tad nonsensical to you?
G
Just a quick reply.
1. I have not been necesirilly referreing to the 35dB (or so ) noise floor of a quiet home room. This is head-fi, with reasonable headphones this noise floor can be at least 10 dB lower - which brings us to the grand total of maximum 131 dB ( and correspondingly less, given better isolation in headphones ). PLEASE do note that those 131 dBs would have been reached for a grand total of less than one second for the duration of a concert - say 2 hours - and the average level from an uncompressed recording would certainly have been LESS than most of us are familiar with from the commercially available recordings. There is VERY little (acoustical ) music that exceeds the loudness of a standing ovation applause ( really big symphonic works, with percussion and organ etc as finale, like Mahler*s 2nd ) - and as far as I am aware, nobody yet did suffer pain, let alone an injury or permanent hearing damage from an applause heard from within the audience.
2. Yes, I do think record labels should distribute truthful recordings. With the necessary warning/caution CLEARLY written up to which SPL/frequency range the equipment should be capable of reproducing any given recording. Dynamic range is an essential part of the music - and squashed orchestras and opera singers grander than these orchestras are in no way doing justice to reality . I agree that some form of "replay gain" is required - to keep things under control and reproduced at as nearly exact level as intended by the artist(s) - to prevent playback of say more than 3 dB above should be value.
In analogue days, it was next to inescapable to cut records with lower than optimum amplitude/velocity - because the majority of record buyers do not posses SOTA analog playback equipment adjusted to max performance. Such well reasoned limitations no longer apply with digital, where even the most inexpensive digital devices should trouble free reproduce up to 0 dBFS .
The limitations of the rear end ( amps, speakers, headphones ) remain the same - and can be further compounded by really high quality digital recordings, which can capture all the bass and all the loudnes the recording source is capable of producing. There USED TO BE testing of loudspeakers for the maximum SPL vs frequency ( at given max distortion, say 10 % ) back in the day, there used to be testing of dynamic linearity of loudspeakers ( much the same way digital players are being tesed ) - yet, "somehow" all of these measurements, which, once for a change, DID tell something how we can expect any given tested loudspeaker to perform in real life, disappeared from the reviews. Sorry, I do not care much for a loudspeaker that has very low linear deviations ( flat frequency response ) - but can not take any real dynamics. Or one that has to be "turned up" to have decent definition - where played at normal level for any given genre of music such speaker sounds muffled and lifeless. The speakers I am (unfortunately.. - I do not own them and they are illegal in Europe) familiar with that sport the widest and most true to life dynamics are Beveridge 2SW - and they can not play above say level required for a (larger) Mozart symphony. The problem of residual noise floor of real rooms , unfortunately, remains - and do not allow such extraordinarily good transducers to fully reveal what they are actually capable of. Yet given a chance to get Bevs for permanent, I would not flinch for a femtosecond !
I interrupted "chopping to sections" my binaural recording of Bach*s Johannes Passion to partially answer your reply - and one single soprano is dominating the whole bunch of other soloists, orchestra and chorus - her peaks float some 10 dB above what male soloists could muster. On commercially available recording using multimiking etc, such a difference in level is usually "mastered out" - along with realism... NO, THANK YOU !
I do not try to get the things out of context - and most certainly do mind my hearing. I found I was capable of reducing the monitoring level slightly BELOW what is being heard live - and that is usually much farther from the musicians and conductor position. Therefore I am exposed to less SPLs tha say a conductor. And conductors , by default, have to keep their hearing acute - up to a VERY ripe age.
But, it *can* be a *bit* embarrasing to have on the floor equipment worth 100K+ - which can not reproduce even an uncompressed recording of a grand piano, let alone a full symphonic orchestra.
I do realize that not all the cars on the streets can have the performance similar to Ferraris - and for the same reason, similar goes for recordings. Yet, as this IS head-fi, putting together a headphone system capable of say clean 120dB SPL above say 30 Hz with reasonable isolation ( to allow for dynamic range of say 80 dB ) should today not cost an arm and a leg. And recordings that do such a headphone rig justice IMO have their place under the sun. Again, with users clearly aware how to use such a equipment not only to get maximum enjoyment from listening, but taking precautions regarding hearing safety first.
No one is limitting cars - there are "any" cars on the street, in Germany there is at least one registered Porsche 917 on the streets ( ! ) (and to my knowledge, it is STILL in one piece and driving in regular traffic...) - so why limit the recordings, if all some of us want is a realistic representation of a live musical event ?
The reason behind all the opposition are commercial interests for the things to keep the status quo, not technical or scientific. Science can be used for progress - or for keeping the progress as slow as possible.
For bussines, as low size file formats as still "usable" is the best. One can not charge proportionally per file size - because Hi Rez PCM and/or DSD would reach prohibitive prices in no time compared to MP3s & similar.
