Inconsistent audio levels on podcasts and streamed content are maddening.
And worse? Commercials that are louder than the content. Whatever marketing genius that dreamed that scam up should be ashamed.
Anyone who listens to podcasts, audiobooks, or talk content through their main system knows the experience. A guest mumbles at a barely audible level. Then the ad break arrives at three times the volume. We reach for the remote, ride the volume knob for the rest of the session, and can never relax.
A well designed limiting/compressor might be just the ticket for these types of playback files despite the fact that it violates every high-end precept and law ever devised. Still, like a good SPAM filter, it could make for a much happier overall listening experience.
For music, the answer flips. Dynamic range is the soul of a recording. When a string ensemble plays from a whisper to a full forte, that swing is the whole point of the performance. Compress it and you compress the emotion. This is one of the central complaints our HiFi Family has had about modern mastering for decades — too much compression at the source, the so-called loudness wars, recordings that don't breathe. The last thing we'd want is to apply more compression at the playback end of a system designed to preserve every microdynamic shading.
So if a compressor button ever appears on a serious playback system, it has to be defeatable, transparent when off, and clearly intended for casual content rather than critical listening. Frankly, I think this is better handled at the source — by the streaming app, by the media player, by the device making the choice about what stream to send — than at the amplifier. I am definitely adding this to Maestro Music.
The amp's job is to be faithful. Let the software upstream of it decide when faithfulness needs a little help.
A button is a fine idea. A philosophy of when to press it — and when to leave it alone — is a much better one.
0 comments