Two unrelated thoughts: 1) While degrading sound quality the dynamic range compression actually helps with sound damage since you can hear quiet parts of a rec

Two unrelated thoughts: 1) While degrading sound quality the dynamic range compression actually helps with sound damage since you can hear quiet parts of a record without turning volume to eleven. Sure, it is nice to listen sometimes to Deep Purple or Beethoven 9th with proper dynamic range but it is rather taxing on ears in the louder parts then and probably not advisable in long run. 2) It looks like every singe headphone user I've encountered listens on insanely loud volume. Whenever I listen to someones work/home setup or stand near a listener in a bus/subway etc. in exactly 100% of cases the volume is too much for me (and I use headphones for two decades already). Tl;dr - turn volume down if you care about your ears.