Consider these two recently released captivating albums. The first is Music of the Spheres by Coldplay, featuring the well-known collaborative song with BTS, “My Universe.” The album was mixed by Serban Ghenea and mastered by Randy Merrill. Ghenea is a highly skilled engineer who has had over 200 chart-topping songs, including “Uptown Funk” by Mark Ronson and “Leave the Door Open” by Silk Sonic. He had his hands on 14 of the top songs on Billboard during 2019. Merrill is a part of Sterling Sound, a renowned sound mastering studio, and rose to prominence with his work on Adele’s 25, later working with Ghenea on “Uptown Funk” as well. The duo teamed up again for Music of the Spheres to give it its outstanding audio resolution and amazing sense of space.

The other album is Dawn FM by the Weeknd. The common thread between it and Coldplay’s album is Max Martin’s name on the list of producers. Martin only produced the one album for Coldplay, but has been working continuously with the Weeknd since 2015’s “Can’t Feel My Face.” He frequently works with Ghenea, who also mixed the Weeknd’s latest album. Dave Kutch, who also works with Korean artists, was part of the mastering team as well. Other than a few hiccups with the Dolby Atmos mix, this album is surely one of the best—and best-sounding—of 2022.

The engineers mentioned above are all regarded as masters in their field whom artists all over the world dream to work with. Interestingly enough, these engineers have a connection with BTS as well: Merrill took charge of mastering for BTS’s seventh release, LOVE YOURSELF: Answer, while Ghenea was responsible for mixing “Dynamite” and “Butter.” Looking back, once BTS started to work with them, the fidelity of the group’s sound improved dramatically, reaching world-best levels. I think it’s fair to say the engineers are partly responsible for BTS’s launch to number one on the Billboard chart.

People point to the so-called loudness war as a problem in the music industry. The loudness war refers to how records compete to reach higher and higher volumes to win over the attention of listeners. Because of this, you can only hear the vocals clearly; other tracks, like drums, are so muddied that present-day sound quality has reached new lows in the history of music. Jong Jin Kim of the group SSaW made a commemorative LP to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their album Bravo, My Life! and delegated responsibility for mastering it to Bernie Grundman. After hearing a test version of the LP, the people in charge all said the music in the first half of the album was mastered too low. This was actually a deliberate decision made to reserve some breathing room for the loud drums that come in later by the late Jeon Taekwan. What an irony that an expert touch sounds awkward after becoming accustomed to the fallout from the loudness war. When I listened to it for myself, the sound given to the LP by this legendary engineer was amazing, and Jeon’s performance on drums was so vivid that it felt like he was there in the room with me. The loudness war is an enemy that needs to be struck down at once.

When I heard BTS’s “Dynamite” and “Butter,” what impressed me most was how they maintained a sense of space and dynamics and didn’t resort to participating in the loudness war. In the intros, the vocals are clear, but not in your face. It may sound unusual to ears accustomed to other K-pop songs. As the songs pick up, the instruments rush in, surrounding the vocals and providing a three-dimensional soundstage. This is the signature of Chris Gehringer, who mastered both songs. His sound is characterized by its vast soundstage and dynamic range. Gehringer, who has worked with K-pop artists for a long time, had already proven his skills with Red Velvet’s “Dumb Dumb” and “Peek-A-Boo.” He was part of what brought BTS’s sophisticated sound to number one on the Billboard chart and created an even more expansive world of sound with FEARLESS by LE SSERAFIM.

LE SSERAFIM’s album was recorded at HYBE Studio, and all the tracks other than “Sour Grapes” were mixed by Geoff Swan, Manny Marroquin and Josh Godwin, while Gehringer took care of the final mastering. They actively invested the HYBE sound, developed with BTS over the course of several years, into LE SSERAFIM’s music. The sound quality of both the title song and “Blue Flame” is excellent, but the track that surprised me most was “The World Is My Oyster.” In the world of K-pop, I have never heard such a wide soundstage, such clear and resonating vocals or bass that’s this intense and holding its ground so firmly. With a high-end audio system, the song fills the whole room with its vast soundstage and powerful low-end attack, and even sounds flawless on earphones and headphones. What an unbelievable mastering job. It sounds fantastic no matter what kind of setup you listen to it on, but a bigger sound system draws out even more of its charm. I bet any audiophile who listens to the track will want to upgrade their system to get even more out of it.

I’ve been talking about the details of HYBE’s sound as relates to overseas engineers, but the sound was really perfected by its principal producer, HYBE. The HYBE sound has gone through a lot of trial and error under trying conditions—going back and forth between domestic recording and overseas mixing and mastering—but the techniques accumulated over that time solidified and became clearer. I have been listening to music for a long time and I was curious when I would be able to hear top-of-the-line audio techniques in K-pop. After giving the whole LE SSERAFIM album a listen, I believe HYBE is closest to what it is I’m after. And I can’t wait to see where HYBE takes their sound next.