[RoadTripper]

I was a all vinyl guy prior to about 1985. When Compact Discs arrived on the scene I was over the moon. No more popping, skipping, flipping, bad sound in general (I was a low budget audiophile, very low), Columbia record club etc. etc.

I soon figured out that I wanted those CDs labeled DDD. Records redone to CD from vinyl didn't sound as clear, live etc. They were muddy and hazy. I avoided them. That DDDs sounded crappy in their own right is another subject. It took me a while to admit this. But DDD clearly was preferable.

Fast forward to 2019. I now use Qobuz which contains a lot of stuff recorded from before 1985. Way before. And they sound pretty spectacular (with exceptions). I have to ask how they do it. I assume they are starting with the same stuff the record companies started with when they made those AAD or ADD discs available.

Does anyone have insight in current technology here?

[Mag]

Well they knew how to record back in the '60's. If you've heard music by the Monkeys, Doors, for example they are damn good.

I think there may have been a fear from recording companies when cd came out that people would be able to copy near perfect recordings. Thus they would lose control of the master content which they own. So I speculate they deliberately produced compressed cd copies for this reason. 

Also cd, digital being new, editors didn't know or care to exploit its potential. Even now I find the vast majority of cd's clip my pre-amp, meaning they are recorded at above 2 volts. And this is the reason vinyl is preferred by many audiophiles because the recording or dynamic range is smooth and more pleasant to listened to than a hot digital recording.

Thus my reason for having many dvd and blu ray. Dvd, blu ray are generally not compressed to the extent of cd, however there are dvd's that have been compressed worse than cd.

Digital can be mastered smooth like vinyl meeting the THX standard and I have a couple of blu rays that meet the THX standard, they don't clip my pre-amp in multi-channel mode.