# Dull Recordings Are Better for Car Listening



## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Recordings like "Mozart for baby geniuses" or "99 of the most essential beethoven masterpieces" make for better listening in the car b/c the dynamic range of the performances tend to be flatter and less variable.

At home I can get into the good stuff, but at work and in the car, the above will suffice .


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## Guest002 (Feb 19, 2020)

I have found Schiff playing Bach very good for car journeys:






Something about the clarity, precision, dare I say mathematical abstractionism.... help me concentrate on what's happening on the road around me. I guess it also helps that it has limited dynamic range, so one is never distracted by extremely loud passages or straining to hear extremely quiet ones.

Schiff playing any Bach clavier piece works wonders for giving me a, er, even temperament when I drive, too.  Thus, these are good too:






They are never dull, however. Just calming and mind-focussing.

Incidentally, I usually prefer Bach on the harpsichord, but not when driving. The 'banging on a tin roof' effect annoys me after a while if I try in the car!


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

In some ways the car is not the perfect place to listen to music but I find I concentrate on music better when driving long or longish distance. If there is a piece or performance that I really want to get inside of then it is in my car that I will try. I first got Carter while driving and Boulez as well I think. So - I seem to be saying the exact opposite to the OP.


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## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I've given up completely on classical in the car. It's all pop/rock for me.


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## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I find that chamber music is best for the car. 

The other day I put Dinnerstein's Goldbergs on in my Mazda - what a waste of time. The dynamic range was all over the place; I often could hardly hear any notes.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

I do about 75% of my listening in the car and I find it really helps me get used to a piece and then focus in on the performances I really like. I'm with Enthusiast on this one.


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

Merl said:


> I do about 75% of my listening in the car and I find it really helps me get used to a piece and then focus in on the performances I really like. I'm with Enthusiast on this one.


How do you manage the dynamics?


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

dizwell said:


> I have found Schiff playing Bach very good for car journeys


In general, I find Bach (and other baroque music) best for driving. The Violin S&P and the cello suites, in addition to his keyboard music.

I also listen to a lot of historic recordings (pre-1950), as they usually have a pretty limited dynamic range.


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

At one point in my life I had a job delivering auto parts in the middle of the night on a 300-mile route throughout northern Vermont. My CD collection was much appreciated -- but I stayed away from dull music like the plague.


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## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

I drive a roadster with all the road noise that entails. Classical doesn't work too well - at least the good stuff. I have few thumb drives that are loaded with hundreds of band marches, a large collection of country/western, and one with solo piano music which works pretty well. With the top down, driving at a good clip it's hard to hear anything musical - so it's talk radio.

But - as far as dull goes: the best sounding cds I play in the car around town at lower speeds are those I ripped myself from LPs. LPs have a much smaller dynamic range and that compression sounds good in the car. FM classical stations also compress audio and they can sound good too. It's just that the playlists usually suck.


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## WildThing (Feb 21, 2017)

I'm not sure what dull recordings mean, but I agree that classical music with less dynamic range is more ideal for the car. So like others I primarily listen to baroque and harpsichord music which I find is excellent for driving, some piano music recordings, and some chamber music recordings, primarily string quartets, quintets, etc. I don't even try to listen to orchestral music or vocal works in the car anymore.


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## Globalti (Feb 18, 2020)

Surely the same can be said for listening to music on earphones, especially in noisy environments like trains or aircraft?


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## Captainnumber36 (Jan 19, 2017)

WildThing said:


> I'm not sure what dull recordings mean, but I agree that classical music with less dynamic range is more ideal for the car. So like others I primarily listen to baroque and harpsichord music which I find is excellent for driving, some piano music recordings, and some chamber music recordings, primarily string quartets, quintets, etc. I don't even try to listen to orchestral music or vocal works in the car anymore.


You imply a good distinction here. Seek out composers that utilized little dynamic range in their music vs. finding versions of music that lack dynamics when they should be there.


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## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Captainnumber36 said:


> How do you manage the dynamics?


I have a very good sound system in the car and play everything fairly loudly. I'm used to the dynamics and I don't have a particularly noisy car so road noise is little problem too. I tend to find that my mp3 rips sound suitably good in the car. I often rip at 256k cbr or 320k cbr for this purpose. I've rarely experimented with VBRs in the car. The Mahler symphony Inbal rips I was playing on my journeys the other week sounded great on the move. They sounded even more impressive in my spare room on a dedicated stereo, last week.


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## Fabulin (Jun 10, 2019)

Art Rock said:


> I've given up completely on classical in the car. It's all pop/rock for me.


Same here. As one modern composer once said, in a car, he cannot listen to music that makes him think about music, or else he would crash into a tree.


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## Rogerx (Apr 27, 2018)

Just putt one the radio with a classical channel, problem solved .


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## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

Fabulin said:


> Same here. As one modern composer once said, in a car, he cannot listen to music that makes him think about music, or else he would crash into a tree.


Composers I have known have all been quite sensitive to sounds around them and have been at risk of being drawn into (or repelled, I guess) by them.


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## Allegro Con Brio (Jan 3, 2020)

I listen to Sirius XM radio in the car - easy to flip between channels for some nice, none-too-weighty driving music. Usually Symphony Hall and Met Opera Radio have something interesting playing, and if not; I turn it to one of the jazz channels.


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