Thanks for the warning. Better to be safe than sorry with these kinds of things, no question.

(I'm sure that the woman who owns that dog has received more than an earful of feedback on the issue by now.)

A great and appropriate Bob Dylan reference, and a very fine essay indeed.

Very true. I think what Lewis is getting at through the character of the demon Uncle Screwtape is that the devil wins when people look at life as a zero-sum game; i.e. that someone else's gain is your loss. As opposed to truly loving one's neighbor as oneself.

Pete: Thanks very much. It's those, like you, in the vanguard of the anti-dynamic-range-compression movement who will truly earn the statues in the town squares some day!

Superb piece. Springsteen is as authentic a working class hero as Brooks is an authentic conservative.

I'm sure I'd sign such a petition, though I'm not personally inclined to organize one.

People will always argue about Dylan's voice, but that's not the issue in question here.

Personally, I'd only want to say "Not necessarily." I don't want to set myself up as the judge of all these CDs. I'm confident about what I've said in the article here, but I'm not a bona fide audiophile. But there are sites like www.stevehoffman.tv with forums where specific recordings get discussed in great detail.

Regarding Dylan's voice: one thing I noticed quickly when listening to the uncompressed vinyl version of "Modern Times" was that there was more going on in Dylan's voice than I had previously noticed, little weaknesses that I hadn't heard. These would be imperfections in a singer to whom we look for technical excellence -- a Pavarotti -- but for a singer like Dylan imperfections are part of the package. They're an element of his humanity and character and why we love him. They carry emotional resonance. So, smoothing these things out with excessive dynamic range compression is a terrible crime.

Regarding Dylan's voice: one thing I noticed quickly when listening to the uncompressed vinyl version of "Modern Times" was that there was more going in Dylan's voice than I had previously noticed, little weaknesses that I hadn't heard. These would be imperfections in a singer to whom we look for technical excellence -- a Pavarotti -- but for a singer like Dylan imperfections are part of the package. It's an element of his humanity and character and why we love him. It carries emotional resonance. So, smoothing these things out with excessive dynamic range compression is a terrible crime.