dB indicator flashing red

[PhilP]

The loudness wars site reminds me of how frustrating it is to use a hifi nowadays.
It seems almost completely pointless to own a quality hifi system when so very much of the music being made available to listen to over the last few years is on such very poor quality recordings.
What is worse (IMHO) the LP release seems to always have a higher dynamic range than the CD which is monumentally irritating when CD has a considerably higher dynamic range capability than LP. And the LP is ludicrously priced and fragile.
Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahh!

To me wide dynamic range seems to be the most difficult aspect of the hi-fi recording and playback chain to achieve.  Detail resolution in decent hi-fi systems is generally excellent in fact I think you can probably hear more detail in music on a hi-fi than you can in many live performances but very few/no? recordings and hi-fi systems get close to the dynamic range that you experience in a concert.

This is probably why Naim equipment is so popular - as a manufacturer they seem to focus on leading edge dynamics (using large transformers and capacitors) making music sound alive and exciting albeit at the expense of detail resolution and neutrality at least in their lower-mid level kit.  The great thing about Devialet is that the dynamics are there but so is the detail and lack of colouration - throughout the range.

Digital re-mastering often seems to focus on making recordings appear more-detailed (i.e. 'better') than the original but this is often accompanied by reduced DR which actually makes them sound 'worse' which is why I generally don't buy them any more.  I will quite often listen to a re-mastered recording via Qobuz just because its interesting to hear what's changed but then go back to the original for any future listening.

Many early CDs had decent DR - some on a par with the vinyl equivalent - but the proportion of new CD recordings with acceptable DR seems much lower whilst DR on new vinyl recordings is still generally very good.  24-bit downloads typically don't have any greater DR than their 16-bit equivalents. Maybe the answer is to buy the vinyl and then digitize it ??