This is somewhat of a stretch on the concept of aural fatigue.
Aural fatigue occurs in one of two ways: amplitude based, and frequency based.
amplitude based fatigue occurs when you are listening to something too loud for too long and your ears finally start filtering out details. If I recall correctly it is because the cilia which vibrate to define all the sound characteristics are over-vibrated and cannot handle the amount of atm pressure involved. As a result, finer details get muddy, and you would be unable to hear well if you turned to a lower volume because everything in those lower amplitudes was overwhelmed. However, this would not really have to do with compression, it would have to do with how loud you have chosen to listen to the CD as a whole, which is completely in your own control. Dynamics wouldn't really do all too much to alter this - if you go to a heavy metal show, they pause between songs, but it is not as if those intermittent periods keep your ears from ringing and everything sounding funny when you leave.
Frequency based fatigue is similar to the mention in the article of listening to a sine wave from an extended period. Hearing one particular frequency for an extended period of time results in the cilia essentially saying 'I really do not want to vibrate at this frequency any longer'. It's similar to when you stare at one color for a long time and then you look away and see the opposite - you've fatigued those particular optical receptors to the point that they can't deal with the color anymore. Compression would have nothing to do with this because frequency (pitch) varies based on the composition and has nothing to do with compression (which operates on amplitude).
The type of aural fatigue mentioned here is more of a general, long lasting fatigue that occurs not just because of compression, but when you are getting similar instrumental density or similar tone colors between songs. In other words, the fact that every song employs heavy thick guitar is just as much to blame as the compression - if they filtered in a tune on banjo and washtub here and there it would be a lot less fatiguing.
Still, this general fatigue is so minor compared to the other two, and should not be confused with them. For comparison, if you were at the gym, amplitude fatigue would be like if you were lifting too great a mass and hurt your arms so you could not continue working out with that muscle without pain and reduced success. Frequency fatigue would be like doing way too many reps on one machine until those muscles quit working well for the rest of the day. This general fatigue spoken of in relation to compression is more like when you've been working out for a couple hours and your body sort of generally says 'hey, let's take a break, eat some food, recharge the batteries'. It is far less immediate/long lasting/intense than the other two. If you hurt your arm lifting you are sidelined for a couple days, if you need a break from working out in general though, you're often ready to go again in less than an hour.
My point is, over-compression is not an issue because of aural fatigue - it's an issue because it kills off a valuable asset of musical effectiveness - dynamics. When used correctly, dynamics are extremely effective in creating a varied and emotionally powerful atmosphere. Just listen to Debussy's La Mer - there are elements of that piece that are extremely subtle but add a ton en masse. Furthermore crescendos and diminuendos lose their effectiveness. Orchestras have 10 levels of volume dynamics available from pppp to ffff. If you compress everything, all the attention to these levels is lost.
There are NO CDs released with hard clip digital distortion as the article states. hard clip distortion results in clicks, pops, and hiccups - no one likes it and everyone makes sure that does not get into completed CDs. As for soft clip distortion, lets not forget that soft clip distortion is the entire basis for distorted guitar tone. People have been using soft clip distortion for ages, in fact that is why some people prefer analog to digital, because the medium results in some soft clip distortion and makes things sound warmer/more saturated.
Be aware when you read articles that the person writing the article is not just out to do the world a service - he has a job and he's trying to put together a very partisan piece because those are more interesting to read. Everything is going to end up with a slant, tons of information will be omitted. Saying something as incendiary as 'every CD is causing aural fatigue!' will garner more readers than 'there are pros and cons to compression'. It is important to do your own research and be realistic about WHY people are writing what they are writing.
