CD players should read a flag and apply the proper de-emphasis, but ripping appliactions generally do not. This is similar to RIAA EQ on vinyl, or NAB EQ on tape, but it’s not as drastic. Pre-emphasis boosts the highs (and maybe cuts the bass, but I’m not sure). If it’s the rip, it could be pre-emphasis which was used on some early CD releases. I’ve got quite a few early CD releases of prog rock (SuperTramp) jazz fusion (Weather Report) that sound flat and tinny with kick bass reduced to tap sounds…ĭo these CDs sound bad played on a CD player, or only after being ripped? Thanks for any input and I hope the linked article will be helpful for others on finding the right kind of monitoring system for music editing. Things that were bright and upfront on HP’s seemed to fade within the background of the wall of sound on speakers. I can say the pitch/speed edits didn’t change much of the sound on speakers even though on headphones the before/after was quite startlingly different and a big improvement on the sound of loud, high pitched screeching trumpets. I had to reduce bass in both my car and home speaker systems. Of course I should’ve gone by the Plot Spectrum to control the bass because I went way overboard mostly in the subwoofer spectrum.

RMS measured on the burned to CD aiff file in Audacity’s Wave Stat was around -9 to -12db on most of the songs.

Perceived loudness suffered as well even after applying George Yohngs W1 Limiter of -6db. It appears even though applying 30% wet/dry AUMatrixReverb “Plate” preset to the stereo music in question gives it a VERY realistic, upfront and bright 3D sound listening on headphones (Sony MDR V6), makes it sound distant on speakers both in my car and my vintage home audio stereo system. It’s been a learning experience through trial and error for me and I’m just posting to share and maybe gets some tips on what I should do, one of which is obvious which is to get some decent computer speakers. Those who are already familiar with my original thread-on beefing up the dynamics of flat sounding 70’s & '80’s music reissued on CD and heard my edited before/after samples I posted may be already hearing what this article addresses on your speakers. To cut to the chase on why I’m posting on this scroll down to the subtitle “The Binaural Difference” on the linked article below on the use of headphones as monitors for editing and judging the sound quality of music…

Izotope ozone 5 reverb