Reply #80: Asshat audio engineers put that hiss INTO Cds to try to make it sound like vinyl

[Cronus Protagonist]

Actual digitally recorded music is sweet and perfectly realistic. The engineers, almost to a person, like to add gated "aural exciters" to the vocals, especially so that the higher notes sound raspy or hissy, as they prefer that sound. It sounds like a needle running over somewhat smooth plastic, so they add that into the pristine recordings and, IMHO, spoil them. I hate it when I buy a great choral work and then find that the soprano sounds like she smokes 40 cigarettes a day. Even worse when the soprano is a little boy who sounds like he's got a bad cigar smoking habit.

And, by the way, if you check your kids equalizer settings, you will find they most likely have the bass and treble ALL THE WAY UP, and therefore the mid-tones are effectively non-existent. I check that everywhere I go and I have yet to find a listener under 25 who does not have their bass and treble all the way up.