Dynamic Range • pleasant surprises 2016 (new releases)

It's really sad...many new releases have an average dynamic range of only around DR6. I refuse to purchase albums which sound too compressed (and cause ear fatigue).

So what qualifies as a "pleasant surprise" ? >>> I'd say all albums with a dynamic range of AT LEAST DR9.


P.S.:
By the way...Dynamic Range Day 2016 is on April 29th >>>
Dynamic Range Day »

 

I think the new The Heavy clocks in at DR3!!! no sale from me. DR9 or better is tolerable to excellent, the Bowie remasters got it right, the new Steven Wilson EP is fine.

 

New Avenged Sevenfold CD clocking in at DR 12. Last album hit #1 with a DR of 10 so if this one can hit #1 at 12 maybe it can start a shift.

 

I don't care anything about Avenged Sevenfold, but I gotta say I'm shocked that a new album would have such a DR measurement.

 

Yello - Toy is DR 10

 

Below are the ones on my computer from 2016 with DR 9 or higher, sadly only about one third, though the ones with lower numbers still mostly sound OK ...

Black Tape For A Blue Girl - These Fleeting Moments DR 10
Califone - Insect Courage EP DR 9
Dead Skeletons - Live in Berlin DR 9
Hiss Golden Messenger - Heart Like a Levee (Deluxe Edition CD 2) DR 12
James Blake - The Colour In Anything DR 10
Pines - Above the Prairie DR 11
PJ Harvey - The Hope Six Demolition Project DR 9
Reinhold Schmölzer & Ochest•ra•conteur - Aerial Image DR 9
Richmond Fontaine - You Can't Go Back If There's Nothing To Go Back To DR 9
Robbie Fulks - Upland Stories DR 10
Soft Hearted Scientists - Golden Omens DR 9
Thalia Zedek Band - Eve DR 9
William Tyler - Modern Country DR 9
Wovenhand - Star Treatment DR 9

 

Leonard Cohen - You Want It Darker - DR 13
Kendrick Lamar - Untitled Unmastered - DR10

 

The CD and HDtracks download of Eric Clapton's "I Still Do" is DR11.

 

De La Soul - and the Anonymous Nobody... (DR9)
Charles Bradley - Changes (DR10)
Chance the Rapper - Coloring Book (DR11)

 

The 2015 Coldplay album was a ghastly, messy DR5.
The new 5.1 mix released last month allows you to create a 2.0 downmix that measures DR10. Much easier on the ears...shame it wasn't the far better Ghost Stories album as that also measured DR5.

 

A couple other DR11 CDs from my other device, both very understated, but both really nice too ...

Brian Eno - The Ship
Tindersticks - The Waiting Room