[Audio Empire]

On Mon, 31 Jan 2011 10:29:52 -0800, Arny Krueger wrote
(in article ):

"Audio Empire" wrote in message


I mean the reasons WHY CDs are made to a lower standard
than they should be is not all that obvious.

It is the human condition. Some people do mediocre work, and some people
march to a different drummer when they work. Just because you don't like a
recording doesn't mean that it is substandard to everybody.

Audiophiles want every recording to have full dynamic range (the "music
first" market), but there is a big market for "music and..." which relates
to mobile and other casual listening.

The people who make and sell recordings are most concerned about getting
their investments back, hopefully with some profit. I'm under the impression
that most attempts to bring recordings to market simply lose money.

There is also music that has artistic and cultural interest, but can't get a
first rate technical job for one reason or the other, such as many live
performances.



As I just said to Bob in another post. Back when stereo was new, the major
labels produced the best product they could given the technology (which.
apparently, wasn't so bad, as many of these early stereo records are still
highly sought after, commanding big prices). They produced their product to
high standards, knowing full well that the vast majority of their sales would
be to people with mediocre playback equipment and worse. I don't remember, in
those days, any listener using a cheap console radio-phonograph or a
so-called portable record player complaining that these records were "too
good". So, I'd really like to hear the reasoning behind any business decision
that produces CDs compromised to make them somehow "better" for casual or
mobile listening.

Of course, I want it understood that I'm not lobbying here for the record
producers to clean up their act, I'm merely noting that CDs which don't live
up to the medium's potential seems to be the norm, these days and that the
idea of quality seems to have gone out of the equation.