I expect it is still best to provide the best substrate for user destruction if for no other reason than artistic pride. Should a cordon bleu chef stop trying because he suspects the diner will dump ketchup on his signature dish at the table? The tendency of listeners and less than perfect playback systems to alter the music is not new. Radio stations have done so from the dawn of radio time. It was hard to find a consumer stereo that did not have a "loudness" button even in the days of vinyl. The modern MP3 ripper software that "normalizes" the audio so that the guy with the plugs in his ears will not have to adjust the volume while jogging beside a freight train are just more of the same.

remember some of the stuff is also mastered for playing in clubs = any trick to boost the volume without causing the limiter to cut / protect the speakers . that and mp3 players probably make up a big percentage of what stuff is played on.

"I was thoroughly obsessed with Dolby Systems. When something was recorded on a cassette deck from vinyl or radio to a Dolby System, I always thought it sounded way more professional than any decks I had. Obviously, it wasn't Dolby that did it, but the decks that included Dolby Noise Reduction were in a higher class, and thus recorded better." There was me thinking I was the only person as a kid who had that obsession
 

Of more concern is that the majority of those listening to music these days are listening to tracks in a lossy format with a 5-10X reduction in filesize on sub-par earbuds worth (legitimately) just a few bucks.
 
KEv

brconflict
I was thoroughly obsessed with Dolby Systems. When something was recorded on a cassette deck from vinyl or radio to a Dolby System, I always thought it sounded way more professional than any decks I had. Obviously, it wasn't Dolby that did it, but the decks that included Dolby Noise Reduction were in a higher class, and thus recorded better.
 
Anyone remember the Nakamichi Dragon?
 
But yeah, the abuse of the audio spectrum has driven us to sub-human standards.

Wow.. I remember the Dragon and the Autorevers RX 505 still sends me to my therapist. Also the Aiwa M800 and the Tandberg TCD 440a were awesome pieces of equipment. To me then it was really about the accurate reproduction of music and the emotional connection that was made when that took place. Technology was a useful means to that noble end.
 
I am now yearning for some Khorns...... powered threw  a McIntosh tube amp... sigh....

I think this subject if more reaching than just music. Attention spans are far worse today than us forty something have and older ladies/gents had better attention spans than we did. It's all about having it fast and right now rather than patience. To me, I think this is where the problem lies.
 
Bob Katz talks about this quite a bit and you can find it on Youtube where Bob talks about the loudness wars. The Loudness War is essentially the crux of this thread but I don't think forgetting our tenant is the best way. We should continue to give the best mixes we can. If the consumer wants to eq it the way they want, so be it. All we can do is the best we can. We can't go into their homes or cars and show them how to work their audio systems. We can suggest things though.
 
When I was in college I had a friend over and he say's, "Can I fix your eq", I caught him before he got to it. What I did was turn it up to a louder level and had him listen. He agreed that he could hear everything and feel the bass and bass drum. Then I turned it down and pressed that Loudness Button and It bought the lows and high back at a lower level. He was one of those smiley face eq people. Now he knows better.
 
A lot of people don't know how the ear works and how fatiguing it is to listen to loud music. Maybe someone should start a Youtube series on how to set up your audio system in your home or car. With free apps for spectrum analyzers, they could be taught how to do it. Then maybe they will realize what a bunch of **** this loudness war is and demand better from the criminals behind it all. Which is us really or, rather people who demand it be louder by us.
 
Other than that, I have no idea what I'm typing about.

So, Bob Bone, are you saying you were listening to Bennie Goodman on a crystal radio set made out of an oatmeal box?
 
I saw The Beatles live (I was a kid) and that is as much as I will date myself.

Some of us know that our playback EQ's are for room compensation, not remix.
But I've also become aware that not all mixes from the individual producers use the same system or method to do it, and what they think is pleasing to their ear may not be to mine. Younger ears (generally below 30YO) are known to hear higher frequencies and maybe some of the 'bass bumping' helps compensate for that, but usually it's just so they can feel the music in their genitalia. Reducing a CD to MP3 quality also takes its toll on the recording. No one has the memory on their players to go full on .wav and so there's that compensation to deal with. Granted, some are just ignorant of anything musical and only want the instant gratification of vibration and social acceptance for playing the same styles in the same manner as their group. I think I just read an article from CW or Roland or Synthtopia about how there is no such things as 'Treble' music but almost everyone knows what 'Bass' music is.

Welcome to the new millenium.

Geez... you guys are just old.   
 
I'm not sure I could ever part with my vinyl collection - most of which is circa the years those albums first came out all those decades ago - even though the only turntable I own is a USB version for digitizing.   But even back then, I remember we used to put matches up to woofers just to watch them blow out.  I guess that was our version of cranking the sub in the car.  Yet it still sounded so good.     Now I'm having flashbacks of those B&O straight arm turntables.... ahhhh.   
 
 

I think what you're referring to is something Cakewalk already has: the Concrete Limiter
 
I've ripped all of my purchased CDs to a hard drive and now the CDs sit on the shelf used only as a backup in case the hard drive crashes. Kind of sad in a way, but I love the convenience of being able to pick any song or album at will or randomize the selection. Also, I can stream the music to my smartphone or my entertainment center. Times have changed.