Interesting dynamic range test

[geebo]

I have three version of Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms album:

1. A regular Redbook CD I've had for a very long time

2. The Hybrid SACD

3. A DVD-Audio DualDisc (5.1 DVD-A on one side and Redbook CD on the other)

I loaded Money for Nothing from each into Foobar and got the DR numbers for each then loaded them into Audacity to get a graphic representation. Note that I have no way of loading the DSD layer of the SACD so it's not shown. The results:

This is from the Redbook layer of the SACD. 44.1/16 DR=7


This is from the CD side of the DualDisc. 44.1/16 DR=7


This is a two channel downmix of the 5.1 mix on the DVD-A 96/24 DR=12


And this is from the old Warner / Columbia House CD. 44.1/16 DR=19


Who would have thought the old original CD would be the dynamic range leader.
My preference? I like the CD and the downmix of the 5.1 DVD-A mix the best. They both sound good but the mixes are different and I like some things in one and other things in the other. The other two are very similar and while they sound decent, the lack of dynamic range is apparent.

[MusicHead]

They do not make anymore sound engineers the way they used to :-)

[guzz46]

It doesn't surprise me, that's the loudness war at play, this is a good place to check out dynamic range on albums

dr.loudness-war.info/album/list/dr/desc?artist=dire+straits

I haven't heard the DVD-A version, but I've heard the MFSL-SACD and the SHM-SACD, and my preference is the SHM, the MFSL is good but a little darker.

[geebo]

Dec 19, 2015 1:00:22 GMT -5 guzz46 said:

It doesn't surprise me, that's the loudness war at play, this is a good place to check out dynamic range on albums

dr.loudness-war.info/album/list/dr/desc?artist=dire+straits

I haven't heard the DVD-A version, but I've heard the MFSL-SACD and the SHM-SACD, and my preference is the SHM, the MFSL is good but a little darker.

That is a very informative website. It's what got me looking into this in the first place. There are a few versions of the CD that don't have the range my old one does.

[Gary Cook]

Why stop at 1db? It seems to cut the top end off the Redbook layer of the SACD. I have 2 of those 3 versions plus a couple more and the SACD stereo version is easily my favourite.


Cheers
Gary

[geebo]

The scale is not a dB indication. It's a linear scale where 1 is the maximum positive signal and -1 is the maximum negative signal. I measured the actual dynamic range with both Foobar and jRiver. Both agree that the redbook layer of the SACD is 7 while the original CD has a dynamic range of 19. Quite a difference.

[MusicHead]

The way I see it, killing music's dynamic with heavy handed compression IS a form of distortion.

What do I care about 0.000000001% THD of an amp if the source is a recording all squashed at the OdB point??

[audiobill]

It's all about the quality of the recording, and rock is some of the most compressed.....