As an audiophile the "Loudness Wars" is a very large reason why listening to new music for me is very challenging. Most of the recording/mastering engineers, when they are producing music for final output, do so with the knowledge (and corporate direction) that music will, typically, be played back, not on audiophile gear but, rather, through earbuds, connected to portable smart phones, listened too in not so quiet settings and in a lossy (mp3) format. So, they record with low RMS variability and crest factor and, oftentimes, unwanted distortion. Such delivery method is ideal for the portable nature of ear bud listening but sounds horrific when played back on a real audio playback rig. Since very few of todays youngins care much of quality audio playback they are content with much of the crap that passes as music these days and you get ... what is described in the above video.
