Topic: What are your favorite "reference" recordings??

[BC]

Delos spring sampler/engineers choice disc (lots of various clips from a top-notch classical recording company. John Eargle at the helm for both of these discs, I believe.)

Yep, Eargle was the engineer at delos(still is I think)..and did all those recordings. in the liner notes of mine he lists mic technique, selection, etc.. also..his "king of the instruments" is great

I think I read that he stepped down this year. Definitely neat to read the liner notes in Engineer's Choice.

[Evil Taper]

this just sounds like everyones favorite albums to listen to.  how about some more stuff that actually is great for testing speakers with:

John Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Miles Davis - Sketches of Spain
Aphex Twin - Druqks (this album destroys most stereos, hits every frequency range with force)
Bjork - Post (this album is VERY demanding in terms of playback, her voice is fantastic for testing frequency transitions)

the jazz albums are ones that any music fan will most likely have in their collection, but they're fantastically natural sounding albums that will really show you how good a pair of speakers sound.  you really do need something with female lead vocals to test how smooth the mid to high transition is in a playback system.  these are by no means my favorite albums to sit and listen to, they're just albums that i bust out anytime i'm testing out stereo gear.  i'd love to be able to recommend a great classical recording, but i don't know of any personally.  teddy covered those already anyway.  so yes, i'm trying to drive the discussion more towards actual referancing discs instead of discs you're most familiar.  that is all.

[RebelRebel]

this just sounds like everyones favorite albums to listen to.  how about some more stuff that actually is great for testing speakers with:

Well it is supposed to be the ones that are great sonically, from a production standpoint. not "favorite albums". the ones I listed cover both categories.. I have a very picky ear with classical music.

[pfife]

I like to use the following:

Adam's Castle - One Year
Aphex Twin - Richard D. James Album
Brubeck - Time Out
Charles Lloyd - Jumping the Creek
Led Zeppelin I
Flaming Lips - Soft Bulletin
Pink Floyd - Wall
Tool - Aenima
Cash - any of the American Albums (these sound like he's sitting right next to me!   )

[Evil Taper]

well you're the man, man.  i just can't classify a betty-board dead tape as a referance disc though, no matter how many times you've listened to it.  fwiw, Sinead O'Connor has a really good voice for referancing as well, but who will admit to owning those albums.  anyone into car audio probably also has a Bass Mechanix cd for testing subs with, those might be handy for actually testing low end sound in audiophile gear (but i'd be afraid of causing damage).

what i've found out though is most of my absolute favorite recordings have a really natural sound as opposed to a very produced album (like Nirvana's Nevermind album).  i guess the average listener probably preffers the overproduced type albums with that very radio single sound of blahness, but i really rather listen to the stuff with more character to it.  for example, while Neil Young's Harvest is a fantastically produced and mastered album i much rather listen to Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere or Zuma because they have a really great garage band feel to them (thanks to the Crazy Horse garage band i'm assuming).  i'm probably going to get called a crackhead for this as well, but i think that the original releases of albums tend to sound better than the remastered versions in most cases.  it's especially true with older heavy metal albums, like the megadeth catalogue for example.  dave mustaine personally remastered all of their back catalog and it sounds like garbage to my ears, the same with King Diamond.  the remastering would be more effective if they master tapes were reprocessed with modern equiptment but mixed to sound identical to the original release, but with more detail via the higher quality transfer.  i guess there are artists out there who still put out releases with a decent sound to them, but i've pretty much stopped buying new albums because i've been unsatisfied with the SQ on the discs.  as pathetic as it is there's only 1 hip hop label left that actually puts out great sounding albums, everyone else has gone way of degradation via compression (as has been bitched about endlessly previously around here).  the music industry sucks goat cock...

[pjdavep]

Aimee Mann's "Lost in Space" SACD (from Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab) is a fantastic recording IMO.

As far as regular CDs, I really like both of pianist Christopher Riley's Radiohead discs.  They have great dynamics (no compression), and a nice quiet background.

Later,
   pjdavep

[bkirby]

I really like the SACDs for reference, and I usually prefer the Joe McQueen 'Ten At 86' disc, and Steely Dan 'Gaucho'. Excellent sonics on both!

[Tim]

Brubeck - Time Out

Yes! I love using that disc to listen for imaging

[jmz93]

1. Jazz At the Pawn Shop (I don't have the disc near me; it's Sweedish. I wish this would come out on SACD)
2.  Roger Waters - Amused to Death
3.  Kind of Blue (SACD)
4.  Frank Zappa - too many to list, a lot of the 1970's stuff.
5.  Metallica, Master of Puppets (gold DSD Remaster)

[scb]

http://www.archive.org/download/skb2003-02-15.dpa4022.shnf/skb2003-02-15d2/skb2003-02-15d2t03.shn

yes i'm a dpa homer

[capnhook]

Under the sub-category: Vinyl

may I suggest Ry Cooder's "Bop Till You Drop"

 

[jpschust]

teddy, did you ever take a listen to viva last blues?

[RebelRebel]

teddy, did you ever take a listen to viva last blues?

I ordered it, but havent heard it yet.

Ive been listening to South San Gabriel's Carlton Chronicles and REM early stuff all week.

Should have the album tuesday.

[som]

801 Live - One of the best, most dynamic live recordings I've ever heard.

[jpschust]

teddy, i just ordered one of the Goode Bethoven Sonatas.  I'm really curious to give this a listen both in my car and at home.  Now I'm of this new dilemna.  I'm getting ready to trade my car this winter and i will have an SUV (probably the Toyota or Ford hybrid) in the future (I do a lot of camping and traveling).  So here's the question- what do I pursue for a sound system?  Right now I'm on a bose car system and it's just ok. I can take this to another thread