LOLOLOLOL!
That's a hoot!
Since vinyl has only ~80dB of dynamic range available, a regular ol' CD can easily cover all its highs and lows with a dynamic range of 96-98 dB. (16-18 dB of headroom is a lot)
The clipped highs and lows present in many modern digital recordings is due to intentional engineering and recording decisions to create a compressed recording. Music with a more consistent volume (loudness) get more ears.
In other words, high dynamic range doesn't sell as well as lower dynamic range music with high loudness.
But the digital recording technology itself isn't what clips the highs and lows.
“The clipped highs and lows present in many modern digital recordings is due to intentional engineering and recording decisions to create a compressed recording”
Agreed. I didn’t mean to portend that the the compression seen in digital music is a result of a failure of the media to capture the full dynaminc range. Obviously it is the intentional “mastering” of the incoming signal to fit within a specified digital container.
Better?
“The clipped highs and lows present in many modern digital recordings is due to intentional engineering and recording decisions to create a compressed recording. Music with a more consistent volume (loudness) get more ears.”
Nailed it. Also, modern music tends to be mastered to suit how folks listen to tunes nowadays. It is very rare to have a home hi-fi that is regularly used to listen to music. Most folks listen while they are doing something else like driving or jogging or surfing the web. And most folks listen on crappy gear like ear buds or whatever you call them and computer speakers. So stuff gets mastered so there isn’t highs and lows but all highs all the time, to get noticed.
Bottom line is a crappy master will make anything sound crappy, vinyl or CD.
Freegards