audiophile sound on FreeBSD ?

[Ralf Mardorf]

Comparing the same album from different sources is tricky for several
reasons, already if you compare two LPs played by the same record
player or two CDs by played by the same CD player. Two LPs or CDs from
different editions done in the same year, without any remastering,
could sound different, caused by fabrication issues. Two LPs or two CDs
from different years could differ by e.g. reduced dynamic, caused by a
remastering with an insane amount of compression, to increase the
impression of loudness, it's known as the loudness war. The peaks might
have the same level, while passages with lower levels might get higher
levels, so there is less difference between a silent passage and a loud
passage of a recording. There are many other known issues, especially
if something was released as a record first and years later was
released as a CD. Theoretically a CD could sound better than a record,
but indeed, often records sound much better. Let alone that a very old
record might suffer from disgusting scratches, but still could be
played, while a very old CD might suffer from fatal data loss, so
playing the CD might be impossible and even recovering of the still
available data and burning the recovered data to a new CD might lead to
nothing.