The self-inflicted damage of the recording industry.

[S]ome speculate that the return to vinyl is not just a hipster status move. The limitations of the vinyl medium itself prevent the extreme compression and loudness that CD's allow. CDs have always been something of a double-edged sword; they are great because they have far greater dynamic range than preceding media, capable of bringing sound quality closer than ever before to that of a live experience. On the other hand, this greater dynamic range means that the loudest highs are louder than on any medium before. Vinyl may have less dynamic range, and therefore be overall less capable than the CD, but, in practice, modern music mastering doesn't take advantage of the CD's greater dynamic range—only of its capacity to be the loudest. That's the real shame. What could therefore be the audiophile's wet dream is his nightmare, so he'll have to keep turning to vinyl, which at least isn't affected by the loudness war.

You can hear the problem on many of the remastered re-released albums. Even though the originals were mastered for vinyl, and CDs allow more dynamic range, the remastered CD instead sounds worse than the original album. Sadly, many albums are not available on vinyl. It is worth pointing out that with many of the LPs being released, you get the MP3 for free, indicating the true value of digital media.  ¶ 7:56 AM