The death of dynamic range

Picture taken from Mike Richter's article.

In this article, Mike Richter highlights a worrisome trend in quality of digital recorded audio. In order to make CD's louder, the dynamic range (the range between silent and louder parts) gets sacrificed. To squeeze the dynamic range, crucial musical information is thrown away by clipping. And dynamic range makes a difference. It is the stuff that triggers the goose bumps and the adrenaline. It is one of the features that made the CD stand out against the LP in the first place. Add on top of this the lossy compression to MP3 or Apple's AAC and one can question how recorded music benefited from the whole digital revolution.
The 24 bit digital audio format like SACD and DVD-Audio never achieved critical mass to substitute the standard 16 bit CD format. Is 16 bit good enough? If we continue on this path, what about Standard Definition (SD) and High Definition (HD) video formats? Will HD substitute SD or is SD good enough?

Read as well:
"Where’s the Other Half of Your Music File?" in the New York Times from the May 31, 2007 by Wilson Rothman.

UPDATE Sep 13, 2007: "Are Technology Limits in MP3s and iPods Ruining Pop Music?" in the Wall Street Journal of Sep 12, 2007 by Lee Gomes.

UPDATE Sep 13, 2007: "The Web is awash in anti-MP3 audiophiles." in the IHT of Sep 5, 2007 by Victoria Shannon.