You may find the Dynamic range info you’re looking for at
DGP
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there is a website specifically in operation to tell you exactly this. something about the loudness wars. google loudness wars database and it will appear.
you can search by artist / album and then format. it’s good. i use it a lot
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The problem that loud parts sound annoying when you tune loudness to the silent parts points to a problem with system balance and streaming quality. I had similar issues and for most songs this disappeared with improving the system source. Now the loud parts in most cases sound rich and textured.
That said, i think this type of “ balance” across the entire dynamic range of the music is much easier to achieve with vinyl, in my experience
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The widest dynamic range I’ve experienced with recorded music is the Telarc 24 bit 192 MHz release of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 x but it really does need speakers and amp capable of handing very high sound levels! Before my current speakers I used to have to play the orchestral parts at unnaturally low levels so as not to overload on the canons.
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Re-reading your initial post I’m not certain if you like recordings with great dynamic range or not. As a classical music aficionado I love them and I even look for them. Over time I developed a historic approach to the problem.
In the 1950’s and early 1960’s, a number of record labels seemed to assume that classical music listeners had high fidelity systems that could benefit from a higher dynamic range.
For example, Mercury records, EmArcy, London FFRR, RCA Victor Living Stereo, to name but a few, released albums with little or no electronic compression. Everest Records went all the way and recorded classical music on 35mm film, which allowed both better dynamics and extended frequency range… albeit at a prohibitive cost.
Then at the end of the 1960s sound engineers were told to limit dynamic range for marketing purposes - radio stations were afraid to lose auditors during low level music and listeners complained that they had to turn volume down during loud passages. In addition, cassette tapes had very limited dynamic range and recordings were made to accommodate them as they gained substantial market share.
As one audio engineer once put it, “late 60’s is when engineers learned to record poorly.” Recordings were made with electronic compression systems that made sure volume would never get too low or too high. Or, from a classical music perspective, systems that made recordings bland and boring.
Fortunately, there was a number of amazing performers in the 50’s and early 60’s, so there’s a heap of records from that era that deserve your attention.
For more recent recordings, it becomes a matter of luck. For example I have a number Deutsche Grammophon or Hyperion records with very good dynamic range… alongside others with shameless compression.
Claude
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Depending on your musical taste just Google Jazz or Classical audiophile vinyl releases or even individual release titles and then cross check on Discogs who will have all of the information you need plus usually at the bottom of the page user reviews.
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Some good points here Claude. I like the idea of a good dynamic range, and enjoy it in practice. It seems that it’s not digital for me though, as if either 0 or 1. I can get to much of it, and then I don’t like it anymore, because it’s messing up my listening experience. Thanks for the pointers though, I will look it up.
Thanks for your tips on the practical approach Bob, I’m glad to learn there is an existing path how to do this.
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Agree with you about the live rock band in my living room, at least for 99,9999% of time 
. Even though hifi is often described as a band playing in your living room, I don’t see it that way. I see it as something that came out of music, but it’s different, and still very enjoyable.
Some new terms for me to learn about, thanks mate. The wife’s unmistakable feeling of the right volume fascinates me, it comes in the package Turning the volume up and down on different parts of music is what I noticed long time ago when visiting a hifi store in Germany. I thought the guy just couldn’t rest and listen. Today, I understand it better.
Interesting view. And about the cables, funny but it’s the part I gave the least attention so far, hoping I won’t have to go as deep into it as with other components. Maybe I will after all.
…although, an acoustic guitar would be ok