The Loudness War

[thineshan54321]

Hey guys, this is about a problem that has been haunting audiophiles in the modern age. I dont wanna explain what this is and stuff as wikipedia can do a better job: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudness_war

I am sure you all have atleast one pyramid CD of Rahmans. Put this in and listen to the songs, now find the same songs from another distributor (alai oosai, ayngaran), you will notice that the volume is noticeable higher. This is because of the loudness war. Distributors nowadays are increasing their volume levels to "sound" better, when what is at stake is audio dynamics. Some of you might be wondering why this might be a problem (just reduce the volume and its all fine). However, what happens is, there is a maximum volume level that a CD can accept (this is called a loudness ceiling). basically u cannot increase the volume higher than this level, so what distributors do is increase the parts that are not at their maximum. The end result? We get tracks that have a constant volume (static) wtihout any dynamics. What ARR might have initially planned to sound soft and subtle now sounds loud. This causes distortion and no matter how much you reduce the volume on your speakers to match lets say the volume levels of a pyramid CD, that distrotion is still there because the original has been altered.

This was not that noticeable till we heard mayilirage (what a track that was!), but because ARR designed that track with very very high dynamics especially with the bass tabla, when audio distributors increased the volume, those sounds that were already at their maximum now sound distorted and so the complaints by many people about its quality. Let me tell you all something, ARR made no mistake with its quality, its all distributors fault. I also noticed the same problem with guru (tamil) version. The hindi version (Sony BMG) was CRYSTAL clear, but the same song at the same places had distortions in tamil (Ayngaran).

For the time being, lets contribute to this discussion about which distributor has the better quality. IMO, pyramid tops them all! Let me know what you all think. Remmeber dont just look at volume levels, but observe the dynamics. low volume doesnt necessarily mean better. You can put ur tracks into programs like goldwave and observe the waveform. I have done this with some tracks and pyramid scores! but unfortunately i only have pyramid sony bmg, and ayngaran.

1. pyramid
2. Sony BMG
3. ayngaran

many of you might think ayngaran is better but trust me they have spoiled both aaruyirae from guru and mayilirage from ah ahh. the hindi version of aaruyirae (tera bina) by sony bmg did not have distortions of any kind.