Topic: What is on your Reference Disc ?

[Chuck]

What?  no Flim and the BB's?

Matt

Flim and the BB's were among the first jazz artists to release a compact disc. Not reference quality stuff however.

I worked as a salesman for medium-end a/v equiptment in the 80's when cd's were first starting to get mainstream.  The big thing in thoes days was a designation on the disk that was ADA, AAD or DDD, which if I remember right was recorded in - mastered in - and the final format as the last letter.  Flim and the BB's were among the first to be produced as DDD or direct to digital cd's.  Flim and the BB's were on the "recomended demo list" for speaker manufacture's like Advent, and Cerwin Vega.  Not highend stuff and certainly not referance material by current audiophile standards I'm sure.  More than anything else I wondered if anyone remembered them.

Matt

I remember

Back in those days, I made a decision to buy the Klipcsh Heresy's rather that the Advents. Now, looking back the Advents would have been the better choice. I was into high efficiency and loud rock back then...

[mmmatt]

What?  no Flim and the BB's?

Matt

Flim and the BB's were among the first jazz artists to release a compact disc. Not reference quality stuff however.

I worked as a salesman for medium-end a/v equiptment in the 80's when cd's were first starting to get mainstream.  The big thing in thoes days was a designation on the disk that was ADA, AAD or DDD, which if I remember right was recorded in - mastered in - and the final format as the last letter.  Flim and the BB's were among the first to be produced as DDD or direct to digital cd's.  Flim and the BB's were on the "recomended demo list" for speaker manufacture's like Advent, and Cerwin Vega.  Not highend stuff and certainly not referance material by current audiophile standards I'm sure.  More than anything else I wondered if anyone remembered them.

Matt

I remember

Back in those days, I made a decision to buy the Klipcsh Heresy's rather that the Advents. Now, looking back the Advents would have been the better choice. I was into high efficiency and loud rock back then...

FWIW my fav's in thoes days were Neil Young "After the Goldrush" (the impurity of his voice is hard to translate on a cheap system), Rodger Waters "Radio KAOS", and Anything Alan Parsons touched.  I still use Neil and Rodger when I need a reality check on my system before finalizing a recording that requires a lot of post mastering.  Here again I'm no audiophile though, and back in the day my goal was to step someone from a $499 rack system into a couple grand in seperates.
     I'll agree with you on the Advent's too.  They were nice speakers for a good price, but I always have prefered sealed enclosures.  For fun on a slow day we would pull out a couple of bridgable amps and see how long it would take us to pop the slow-blow's on the 15" CV refrigerators... ahhh them's was the days!


Matt

[ashevillain]

Bump

Anyone have any discs to add to the list? I've been asking people for reference album recommendations lately...so far I've heard multiple recs for:

Pink Floyd - The Division Bell (I agree on this one...listened to it a bunch)
Steely Dan - Aja
David Gilmour's solo albums (any particular one?)
Thomas Dolby - Aliens Ate My Buick (not my favorite)


Up 'til now, I've always used:
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms
Pearl Jam - Ten

[George]

Hands down:

Dave Matthews - Some Devil

[DigiGal]

I'd recommend Jack Renner's recording of Stravinsky's , "The Firebird Suite" by The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra with Robert Shaw conducting.  It's on the Telarc label available on CD and on Hybrid SACD/DSD.

Also recommend seeking out some of the specific discs that made Bob Katz's honor roll.

[ashevillain]

Also recommend seeking out some of the specific discs that made Bob Katz's honor roll.

Thanks!

[Chilly Brioschi]

Freebies for ya:
http://www.2l.no/hires/index.html


My current critical listening files:

Mozart Violin Concertos by Marianne Thorsen and Trondheimsolistene
Love Drum Talk by Babatunde Olatunji 
Caminho De Casa by Herbie Mann         
Buena Vista Social Club
Tchaikovsky's 1812 by Cincinnati Pops Orchestra
Not Too Late by Norah Jones

The Chesky Critical Listen and Audiophile Test disks are not too shabby for this purpose.
Virtually all of the stuff up on  www.dawgnet.com &  www.acousticdisc.com   is well mastered and would make a fine test disk once you've heard it enough to become critical about.

[Chuck]

Maybe this is a new thread idea...

Are there any generally agreed upon audience (microphone) recordings that people use as reference recordings?

[Fried Chicken Boy]

Peter Gabriel, "In Your Eyes": very good for testing sibilance.  On vinyl it will make the shortcomings of a mediocre cartridge pretty evident and separate the good from the awesome.

Pelican, "Glimmer": good for testing the depth and clarity of the low-end, particularly the bass notes toward the end.

Ry Cooder, 'Paris, Texas' soundtrack: great acoustic and slide album, will give the mids a chance to show what they can do.