Flutterby™! : How do we do it? Volume!

I've seen this a number of places today, probably first clicked on it over at Dave's Picks: albums with audio analysis from the Evergreen Albums Analysis page, focusing on the dynamics of albums. As I read through this I realized two things:

1. Why, from outside an establishment, I can instantly tell if there's a live musician playing or if it's canned music.
2. Where the audiophile crowd gets off with some of their statements about audio quality on vinyl versus CD: It's nothing inherent in the medium, it's about the cultural and business issues surrounding the mastering of each.

It also explains why so many commercial recordings today sound like crap, and why many of the "toss a Hamilton in the tip jar" CDs sound so good, but require volume adjustment.