VA - Audiogon Presents The Wake Up Your Ears Sampler (2013) [Hi-Res]

If you want to hear how good speakers or headphones can sound, you have to play recordings with excellent sound. This old rule of "garbage in, garbage out" works because if a recording doesn't meet the requirements, no speakers or headphones will be able to make neither speakers nor headphones will be able to make it sound better than it really is.
Chesky recordings are free from dynamic range compression, processing and other types of studio trickery, so they convey the sound of music more accurately than most conventional recordings. That is, instruments and voices sound more like how they sound, so when you listen to music through speakers or headphones, the question is, how realistic does it sound? In highly processed recordings, i.e. in most rock, pop, hip-hop, electronica, etc., it is impossible to understand how they should sound.
Uncompressed music is not "loud" all the time, so a quiet whisper of vocals does not sound as loud as a scream. We are all used to hearing music mixed and mastered so that the volume level is constant. Since the music on this sampler retains its natural dynamics, you will probably have to increase the volume on your phone or Hi-Fi by one and a half to two inches from your normal listening level to enjoy the full dynamic range of the music."
— Steve Guttenberg
Our goal at Audiogon is not only to provide a secure market for your evolving system, but also to give you the tools to raise your hobby level. This sampler is Wake Up Your Ears!!! Contains hand-selected tracks designed to help train your ears to listen actively by showing off their audio components. While listening, you may find that you need to make some changes to the system in order to fully evaluate the capabilities of your high-performance equipment. Without compressing the dynamic range of compression present in other recordings, David Chesky produces high-quality music rich in subtle nuances and emotions, which are so lacking in most modern studio recordings. Audiogon is proud to partner with HDtracks to help you wake up your ears!!! Happy listening!
The Binaural+ series is the first of its kind and changes the way people listen to music with headphones. Binaural+ sessions were recorded in high resolution at 176 kHz and 192 kHz/24 bit with a special binaural head (a human "dummy"). a head with specially calibrated microphones at the locations of the ears). This technique allows you to convey the sound of music as if you are sitting in front of a group.