The Death of High Fidelity

Ponca City, We Love You writes "Rolling Stone has an interesting story on how record producers alter the way they mix albums to compensate for the limitations of MP3 sound. Much of the information left out during MP3 compression is at the very high and low ends, which is why some MP3s sound flat. Without enough low end, 'you don't get the punch anymore. It decreases the punch of the kick drum and how the speaker gets pushed when the guitarist plays a power chord.' The inner ear automatically compresses blasts of high volume to protect itself, so we associate compression with loudness. After a few minutes, constant loudness grows fatiguing to the brain. Though few listeners realize this consciously, many feel an urge to skip to another song."

Comments

Re:NEWSFLASH! MP3's suck. Use a lossless CODEC.

[Bloke down the pub]

I can't tell the god damn difference between mp3 or ogg files vs CD or FLAC..etc higher fidelity formats anyway.

That's a well known phenomenon. Certain frequencies are masked by transverse standing waves which form as a result of meta-resonances when the current/voltage phases drift.

You need to get some of those speaker baffles made from oxygen-free copper.