I'm starting to see some real patterns in mastering strategies used by different artists, or more likely companies. It appears to me that Victor uses more-or-less linear dynamic range compression. Most of the Victor titles I have avoid clipping style dynamic range compression in that differences among loud parts are not completely eliminated. Since peak saturating is avoided, it's not as annoying as other CDs that peak relentlessly. However, it doesn't eliminate the fact that dynamic range is compressed down to a small range. If anything, certain Lantis artists' CDs with peak saturating sound more exciting as they maintain a bit more instantaneous dynamic range, at the expensive of consistently annoying peaks.
I believe Victor titles will sound pretty decent if played using a crappy equipment (Signal to Noise Ratio of maybe around 70dB or so). On a high-end equipment, it may be possible to bring back some life to the music by using a dynamic range expander, at the expensive of resolution, of course. On other non-linearly compressed CDs, it's not possible to do this because the loudness differences have been eliminated completely.
It's a sad state of affairs everywhere I look.
