How do you deal with badly mastered music on good headphones?

Question

My setup at work is not exactly headfi, beyerdynamic dt 990 pro 250 ohm on a fostex hpa-4 dac.But it's good enough that I get into trouble with much of the music I like to listen to, like static-x and system of a down, they clip so much, I can see it when I import the flacs into audacity, I've tried ripping the original CD's too and the clipping is there!I've though about trying some valve amplifier, to hopefully soften the clips a bit..Or maybe there's a filter, I'd like there to not be too much distortion, but not have the hard clips eiter.. What do you do?

skydhash · Accepted Answer

If the music files already have clipping, there&rsquo;s not much that can be done.I just steer away from badly mastered music. There are enough good producers out there to not subject myself to that.

b20000 · Answer

looking at the time domain waveform and seeing what you think that looks like clipping does not mean it was badly mastered
people in mastering studios know what they are doing, much better than you
there is probably something else going on with your setup or you are listening to lossly compressed material using mp3 etc

mintaka5 · Answer

use a limiter. clipping is due to the gain peaking beyond reasonable decibel levels. you DO NOT want to amplify an already hot signal. you need to limit the gain levels. maybe try lowering the input volume when recording if you can't use a limiter.

ksherlock · Answer

Train an AI to unclip music.

pestatije · Answer

which cd from SOAD? i never heard any clipping