Why do some CD's (usually older ones) play so much lower on the CD player than other CD's? I laughed when people said they were cranking the radio up over 20 or 30, but I had mine at like 22 or 25 just trying to hear it at a normal level - then went deaf when I switched over to FM without lowering the volume.

Just curious...

 

My guess is recording technology improvements. I too have noticed that older CD's seem to be mastered at a lower volume than newer ones.

 

You would think it sets the volume to a certain level when changing from CD to radio or whatever. It doesn't do this?? So if you have the CD volume turned way up then change to radio it blasts you Fing ears off? That's awful from a readio of this caliber! :tflamer:

 

The reason for the volume difference is simply the quality of the signal. Take XM radio stations for example - some sound much better than others. It's not because the satellite feed is different between stations - it's because the actual song is recorded better (less white noise). Newer technology and better engineering has made for better recording - it's that simple.

Now traditional radio stations broadcast a "lossy" signal, that's why they don't sound as good as CDs. I guess we'll leave that for another thread though...

 

The answer is simple - older CDs were recorded at a lower level than recent ones. If you take the same CD, rip it to a PC, increase the level a few DB (with software like SoundForge), you will get a louder CD with the same quality. It has nothing to do with the "quality of the signal" or "technology improvements." Current red-book CDs are the same and built to the same specs as the first CDs that came out. They're just recorded louder.

 

yes. And unfortunately this compression of a CDs dynamic range (the difference between loud and quiet) is not a good thing. Most CDs now adays are boosted so high and recorded so hot that they "play loud"

The better recordings use all the dynamic range a CD (audiophile recordins like stuff from chesky, jazz, blues, classical) has to offer and hence the overall "volume" will be lower...requiring a bit more gain on the volume knob.

 

Well, I have been reading this forum ever since my wife and I have decided to buy a TL, and I love it so far!

I did have one question after searching the forum... Can anyone verify that the TL can play a CD-RW disc? Just thought I would post this question under this topic since it is kinda related, yet a tad off topic...

I'd also like to say that sometimes when I make a compliation CD from various CD sources, some are louder than others. I'd also say that it is a matter of which recording studio recorded what and when.

 

340, I couldn't disagree more. Innovations in microphones, noise gates, software, and digital recording in general have made a HUGE difference in CD quality over the past 15 years. The effect is that they take out much more impuritites and sound much "louder". You are correct that CD specs haven't changed, just the quality of the signal has.


You are correct that you can amplify a signal and get a louder CD. But you haven't increased the quality of the original recording. If anything, you've amplified the impurities. Think of it like a digital picture. If you zoom the size of a picture, it gets bigger, but the flaws are more exposed. If you were to take the picture with a better camera, you could get the larger picture without the impurities. Same goes with recording.

To test my theory, you can get a CD that has been remastered - Jimi Hendrix's Axis for example. Then get the original CD, rip it, and amplify it. If you play them side by side, the "remastered" version will sound much better, even at the same volume. Technology at work.