One problem with music today (regardless the source) is that it's processed to be the LOUDEST F***ING THING ON THE F***ING DA*N DIAL!!!!
There's no dynamic range...everyone wants to be the loudest...if they can keep the "needle" between 99% and 100% legal loud, then they are doing their job. And that's just plain BS.
Music is suppose to breathe...soft softs...loud louds...and the ability to breathe between passages...on commercial radio, that method of processing audio died a painful death back in the later 60s...
Listen to any radio station in a large, metropolitian area...and I mean listen to it for 30 minutes or so. After 30 minutes...
Do you feel tense? Do you feel irritated? Even it it's the music you like?
That's because the loudness factor is set to "kill" and your brain and auditory nerve-system is being bombarded by a constant, mind-numbing level of audio that'd kill a normal lab rat.
Get yourself one of those "car-audio-analyzers" (Mal*Fart was selling one for about $29.95 the other day) and test up and down the radio dial to see...I'd venture to say that 99% of the stations on the dial don't have any more than 2-3 dBs. of dynamic range...the normal person can't put up with that kind of audio bombardment, regardless the format, for more than 30 minutes.
And the muddiness factor you think you're hearing?
You're hearing all right...It's your hearing that's telling you that you've damaged it.
Plus, some of you folks hit the nail on the head about talent (or lack thereof)...
As for me...I buy what I can tolerate in the CD player in the truck...hope my tires make less noise than the stereo, and keep on eye on the road to be sure I'm not impeding the progress of some emergency vehicle 'cause the stereo's too loud and I didn't hear the siren.
