Agreed on down sampling, though I'm guessing that many modern recordings are digitally recorded and mixed in native 44.1KHz.
I would argue that the compression that is on CDs is not a limitation of the format. 96dB (the dynamic range of a CD) is a LOT of dynamic range. It's usually more dynamic range than is available between the noise floor of a typical room and the threshold of pain. It's definitely more dynamic range than typical music.
However, there is compression on most music that we find on CDs. This is usually done on purpose because most consumer audio systems don't sound "good" with that much dynamic range. For that matter, many recordings also have the bass EQ'd out so that it won't over stress systems that have no hope of reproducing it in the first place.
An annoying trend that I have seen in the last decade or so has been digital clipping. Grab any recent pop CD, rip it to a lossless format and check it out with a wave editor. You'll notice that the peaks are clipped. Big nasty digital clipping! With the dynamic range available on CD, this is totally unnecessary. Grumble.
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Date: 2007-04-03 06:01 am (UTC)I would argue that the compression that is on CDs is not a limitation of the format. 96dB (the dynamic range of a CD) is a LOT of dynamic range. It's usually more dynamic range than is available between the noise floor of a typical room and the threshold of pain. It's definitely more dynamic range than typical music.
However, there is compression on most music that we find on CDs. This is usually done on purpose because most consumer audio systems don't sound "good" with that much dynamic range. For that matter, many recordings also have the bass EQ'd out so that it won't over stress systems that have no hope of reproducing it in the first place.
An annoying trend that I have seen in the last decade or so has been digital clipping. Grab any recent pop CD, rip it to a lossless format and check it out with a wave editor. You'll notice that the peaks are clipped. Big nasty digital clipping! With the dynamic range available on CD, this is totally unnecessary. Grumble.