Hi ,
the problem is headroom. With proper recorded CD there is no problem with the volume. Today albums are awful for the only reason little headroom. I read somewhere that Roger Water recorded his albums at -18dB and they are just wonderful. Yes high volt may cause problems as there is difference between the levels, but think about noise level and difference between 2 exp 0 and 2 exp 16 you have more 64000 different levels for any possible combination. For that reason I haven' bought the new Metallica album.
Daniel
I can confirm that Roger Waters albums are properly recorded without the "loudness" thing, you have to turn the volume up high to listen to them, but then the dynamics are wonderful. And "Amused to Death" is a recording masterpiece, surround sound from 2 channels (Q-sound).
I also noticed that for Pink Floyd albums, those where Roger was the main contributor tend to be nicely recorded with good dynamics (e.g. "The Final Cut"), while where David Gilmour was in charge, the recordings tend to have the poor dynamics / gritty, dark, undetailed sound of the "loudness war" era (e.g. "Division Bell"). David's solo albums (e.g. "On an Island") are really bad from this point of view.
I guess there were some fights between Roger and David on recording/mastering. And guess who owns a recording studio now. David.
Nap.
