As We Hear It: A High Dynamic Range Christmas Playlist by Allan Folz

A High Dynamic Range Christmas Playlist

[Guest Post by Allan Folz]

For this Christmas I'd like to share with Archimago and readers the albums that have become a large part of our family's holiday tradition.

In the old days, when all our music was on CD's I'd load up the 5 disc changer with these albums the Sunday after Thanksgiving and they were almost the only holiday music we'd have for the next month. Streaming wasn't a thing in the early Internet years. You listened to the albums you had and you liked them.

I bought all but one of these CD's more than 20 years ago and got them largely by (some really good!) luck of the draw. For the longest while I thought they were my favorites because they were such a constant part of our lives from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Later, after I learned about dynamic range I realized it made perfect sense that they were my favorites.

After getting more deeply involved in the hobby I discovered that all my favorite albums had a high dynamic range. This was interesting to me because I had formed my opinion on my favorite albums long before I'd learned about album dynamic range. Only after looking at the dynamic range of my favorite albums did I realize that almost always the common element was a high dynamic range. The corollary also held true. The albums I bought that were disappointing once I got them home and had a few listens had a low dynamic range.

MEASUREMENTS: Tannoy REVEAL 501a powered monitors

Today, let's have a look and listen to the speakers you see above.

These Tannoy REVEAL 501a, though discontinued now and replaced with the newer Tannoy REVEAL 502 released in 2014, have been well-regarded over the years in home studio use (check out some user reviews here and on Amazon). They were first released back around 2010 and there's a good Sound On Sound write-up from mid-2011. These were budget priced at <US$500/pair on release (typically sold as individual speakers) although over the years, could be found for a relative steal down at US$200/pair.

These are biamped powered speakers - 40W mid/bass and 20W tweeter, unknown without opening them if these are Class A/B or D amps. There's a 1" soft dome tweeter, 5" mid/woofer, flared front port, and the box is MDF with curved front baffle. Dimensions are 11.9" x 7.3" x 9.4"; relatively small speakers. Each box is individually powered unlike the AudioEngine A2 or Edifier S2000 Mk III previously discussed where there is a cable tethering the speakers together, weighing about 6kg and quite solid in the hand.

MUSINGS: "People, please, you want to grow our industry?" - Comments on Jonathan Scull's Stereophile article and what is "High End" audio good for?

Make sure to consult this site if you see anyone ever consumer one of these mushrooms BTW... :-)

As you can see, I have a picture of George Carlin (from 2008, RIP), known for the quoted comment beside some arguably "pretty" Amanita mushrooms above. These pictures represent some ideas I'll be talking about in today's post. The mushrooms by the way grow around these parts of Southwestern British Columbia and Pacific Northwest US. They look quite pretty in the wild, but these are toxic if consumed. They're bad for ya... Of course, there are many things (and people) in life that look good on the surface, but ultimately unwise to be enmeshed with, pretty mushrooms are just an innocuous example. :-)

When I say that those mushrooms are actually "bad for ya", I trust nobody would disagree, right? After all, it's easy to say that as humans, since these mushrooms will damage our health, we can easily judge them to be "bad" and should simply avoid getting near.

I could not help thinking about this a week back when I read Jonathan Scull's article "Something's Coming" in Stereophile.