Stickers make you awkwardly aware of power use     It'… Read
more  Is dynamic range compression destroying music?  Dynamic
range compression isn't new, it's been used by recording,
mixing, and mastering engineers for many decades. A little bit
of compression is fine, but over-compression can sound downright
ugly. Most of today's music, whether it's on LP, CD, the radio
or iTunes is over-compressed. Most remastered CDs are over-
compressed.  Before we go any further, I'm not referring to the
lossy compression used in MP3s, or lossless compression used in
Apple Lossless. They've got their own set of problems, but
dynamic range compression is a very different predicament.  To
the casual listener compression can sound "good," mostly because
it makes the music seem louder and punchier, and once music's
natural soft-loud dynamic shifts are squashed flat music is
easier to hear in noisy environments like cars or over iPods.
Compression reduces the need to adjust playback volume--because
it's always nearly the same vo