Compression has ruined today's music (imo). It causes "ear fatigue" for me. I like music that I can turn up, and still hear the dynamics, and sound stage. You can't do that with compressed music, because its already LOUD and very one-dimensional. I can put on a record (vinyl), and really enjoy music almost as it it were live, because there is depth. I made the mistake years ago of replacing many of my favorite c.d. with "remastered" versions when they came out. This was a big mistake, because they compressed the music (made it louder) and did not really remaster it from a "quality" standpoint (get a better source: "master tape"). Go to the Steve Hoffman audiophile forum (
www.SteveHoffman.tv), and there are many threads addressing this bad trend.