Great audiophile recordings/albums

Audiophile recordings

Ok,
Here is my 5c. I used to run a “real” recording studio and have a good understanding of audio production techniques. One thing that should be established in this discussion is whether we’re talking about “well recorded” or “well produced” albums. The distinction is: have the engineers attempted (and ultimately succeeded) to capture the performance so that the listener can be transferred to the event space (given good reproduction chain), or have they set out to make a great sounding album in a given genre of music. A lot of recordings that people are listing in this thread are great examples of “well produced albums”. They tend to sound great to good on most playback equipment, showcase the talent in best possible light and use a lot of tricks of the trade to accomplish the goal (bottom line). Very talented producers are hired to make those productions and it takes months to deliver a finished product. Are they “audiophile quality”? Yes and no. Depends on the definition of audiophile. They certainly deliver high quality sound, the captured instruments are reproduced with full frequency spectrum (for the most part), and the final mix is such that all the ingredients can be distinguished. The drawbacks? Limited dynamic range, tonality that not necessary reflects the source and many times humanly impossible performances given the ensemble (results of extensive overdubbing, editing and creative processing). Don’t get me wrong; these records are great to listen to- kind of like watching a great action movie or a sci-fi flick. In my humble opinion they can be used for meaningful loudspeaker evaluation, but by trained listeners.
The other kind of records- the “well recorded” ones tend to only sound great on great equipment in a good acoustic space. They have much wider dynamic range then the “well produced” ones making them seem “weak” at first listen. It’s because there is plenty of headroom left on the recording to accommodate the loud parts and transients. The highly compressed productions use different tricks to achieve the sense of soft and loud.
But, as soon as you match the perceived average SPL levels, the superiority of the true “recordings” is obvious. Now, a lot of older CDs do sound weaker than the newer ones. That doesn’t necessary make them “well recorded” They might still be highly compressed on tracking, mix-down and mastering. It’s just the transfer to CD that fell somewhere below the max and maybe no peak limiting was used.
My suggestions for a “well recorded” CD: Beyond Words by Oregon -some synth stuff, but for the most part acoustic live performance by a great jazz trio in a nice acoustic space. A “well produced” album by the same group- “Always, never and forever”. Still nice and acoustic, but with more overdubs, compression, EQ, creative miking and artificial ambiances. Both are on my favorites list. Both sound great in their own way.
 
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My choice, electronic music, pretty heavy, I think well made. This is the album I'd use to demo another system, and one of the only albums I've bought twice incase the vinyl goes out of print.(and I damage my copy).:)

Squarepusher : Go plastic

Rob
 

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Well , nice thread.

I start with 2 selections of live recordings ;

Being a fan of Joe Jackson I can't miss to signalize an outstanding recording and performance of the trio J Jackson , Graham Maby . Gary Burke live in New York called "summer in the city".
The musicians here are flying , literally.Unforgettable "Fools in love /For your love" , a nice cover of "King of the world" (a song by Steely Dan) and incredibly performed " You can't get what you want" and "One more time".
(Sony Classical)

the other is a live recording of Michel Portal and Richard Galliano
"Blow Up".This CD is an incredible emotional performance "Leo, estante num instante" and "Blow Up" but also "Oblivion"(by Astor Piazzolla)are absolutely beautiful songs : the clarinette basse played by Portal and the accordeon by Galliano are shoking and shooting.
(Dreyfus Jazz- distribution by Sony Music France)


It is my intention jump in this thread with more
:)
 

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one of my favorites is Magda Kalmar singing Vivaldi -- "Laudate Pueri", "In Furore" and "Nulla in mundo pax sincera" == she won the Grand Prix du Disque for this recording -- if you can find it.

Amanda McBroom singing "Dreaming" -- Gecko Records, and Amanda McBroon and Lincoln Mayorga "Hollywood Town" on Sheffield Labs.

Rostropovich playing Haydn Cello Concerto's in D and C Major on Angel,

Peter Hurford J.S. Bach Toccata on Argo at the Ratzeburg Cathedral.

Charles Dutoit conducting Montreal -- two of these are wonderful -- Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique and Pines of Rome.
 
Some of my favorite "audiophile" recordings:

Joe Jackson- "Body and Soul". Great recording, mostly stereo mic'd. "Losaida" and "Cha Cha Loco" are especially well done.

Pink Floyd: DSOTM is my standard "reference" recording, but most of their stuff is well done. "Meddle" has some great stuff. "A Pillow of Winds" features some great acoustic slide guitar by David Gilmour.

Steely Dan: Another meticulous studio band. "Aja" in particular is a good recording. I have the MFSL CD, and it's another standard reference recording. Pretty much all of their stuff is well done, especially if you like guitar.

Dire Straits; "Love Over Gold" and "Brothers in Arms" are both well made. Some of their earlier stuff isn't as well done. I was listening to "Communique" yesterday, and was kind of dissapointed. Some of the cuts sounded a bit flat.

Genesis: "A Trick of the Tail"- Some standouts are "Mad Man Moon", with some great piano work, "Ripple", and "Entangled".

Supertramp: "Crime of the Century" The first MFSL record I ever bought. Actually, it was one of the very first MFSL recordings, after "The Power and the Majesty". Now, there was a speaker killer!

Beatles: "Revolver", "Sgt. Pepper", and "Abbey Road". All well recorded and produced. Great headphone music.

Rolling Stones: "Let it Bleed" and "Sticky Fingers" are two of my favorites. Both well recorded. On LIB, the choir on "You Can't Always Get What You Want" is very well done, as are Mick Jagger's vocals.

As you can see, I'm pretty much a classic rock kind of guy.

:D
 
Although I'm not a country kind of guy, this album is one of my favourite. It's a 5 disc set of all songs and outtakes that didn't make into the four previously released American recordings albums by Johnny Cash. I made a one disc compilation of the best tracks, and I can listen to it everyday. I can honestly say that this is amongst the best music I have ever heard, and this is coming from someone that generally can't stand country music. ;)
 

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Peter, it looks like the stuff you posted is all CDs. Does this mean you haven't jumped on the high res bandwagon yet? I did so recently and it's really renewed my interest in music. While many high res disks probably shouldn't have been released as such due to mediocre sound quality, the best of DVD-A and SACD are really good sounding, much better than the best of CD IMHO.

Jorma Kaukonen's Blue Country Heart SACD-only release is great. He used to be the lead guitarist for the Jefferson Airplane in the late '60s and early '70s. Now he plays mostly blues, but with a country sort of flavor. This is a DSD recording with excellent sound quality. It won't play on CD-only players though. I went to a concert of his about 10 years ago. After it was over, I heard a teenaged member of the audience say "If I knew he was going to be that good, I would have paid twice as much!".

Ray Brown's Soular Energy DVD-A also has excellent sound quality and nice music. It's 24 bit/192 kHz and just sounds very clean, alive and natural. It's a bit more on the "easy listening" side for my normal jazz tastes, but the music is very nice, with superb sound complementing his great acoustic bass playing.
 
my three cents. much of audiophile music is too over produced to give a good feel.

My favorites to audition include:


laughing hyenas
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killdozer
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and of course rikki lee jones
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I was almost thrown out of a stereo shoppe for bringing in my own albums.
 
david slusser - Delight at the end of the tunnel
Tzadik label

This guy is a commercial sound designer/musician/artist. He has worked with Coppola, Lucas,and David Lynch, does his own compositions, and has work in the Museum of Modern Art. This stuff is facinating, fun, approachable, and the sound quality is about as good as it gets. When I bought this cd I happened to wander into a hifi shop that had the b&w nautilus in the back room. I persuaded the guy to let me hear some of this disk, not knowing what was on it. It was absolutely stunning. It sounded like a cosmic event was taken place in the room. There are a few "highbrow"pieces, like one for prepared piano and something for an accordian, but most of the disc is made up of "sculptures" based on the composers very large sound collection. Its really something you just have to hear.

Even if this doesn't sound like your cup of tea, the other reason you should have this disk is that there is nothing else I've ever heard that will put audio gear through its paces like this. You get deep, floor shaking bass, high frequency, spacious effects and complex, but extremely detailed textures. Its very dynamic, it has music instruments, recorded voice, spacial effects, you name it. This will really put your diy creations to the test.

Unless you really dont like artsy stuff or you are only interested in musical perfromances, I strongly recommend you track it down. Unfortunately there is pretty much no chance of finding it without doing a special order but I dont think youll ever find anything else like it.
 
NICE choice. very very obscure stuff, but will really throw a system through the wash. it can point out all problems with a system.

RobWells said:
My choice, electronic music, pretty heavy, I think well made. This is the album I'd use to demo another system, and one of the only albums I've bought twice incase the vinyl goes out of print.(and I damage my copy).:)

Squarepusher : Go plastic

Rob
 
Hi,

dvdwmth said:
david slusser - Delight at the end of the tunnel
Tzadik label

{snip}

Unless you really dont like artsy stuff or you are only interested in musical perfromances, I strongly recommend you track it down. Unfortunately there is pretty much no chance of finding it without doing a special order but I dont think youll ever find anything else like it.

This album is available on Amazon.co.uk - And you can listed to the first 5 or so tracks.

Very atmospheric stuff.......

HTH

Jon
 
Jerry Bruck, Engineer Producer, Posthorn Recording
http://www.stereophile.com/recordingofthemonth/867/

If you like the Beethoven Cello concertos you should find this a good listen too. Wonderfully recorded, dark and brooding.

I remember when when the Joe Jackson Body and Soul was released (3 sides?) It was one of the first times I had come across an album where the artist had exercised enough creative control to specify that the discs were pressed on high quality vinyl. I remember they were mocha transparent, no reused plastic with shredded paper in it. After that I started examining vinyl with a black light. The god stuff was almost always black. The run-of- the-mill would often have specks and swirls visible where the recycled components had been mixed.

Around that time I had a Windom Hill album called "Elements" It may be my only "new age" recording. It is beautifully recorded piano and oboe duets. When it was released on CD I was very disappointed... A cheapee re-master with all the life sucked out of it, no more dynamics, no sublet nuances, not breathes, sustain pedal thumps, nothing. The vinyl made me feel as if I were in the same room with the performers. The CD did nothing for me at all.

Great topic Peter, sorry if I rambled a bit.
 

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Da5id4Vz said:
(...)Around that time I had a Windom Hill album called "Elements" It may be my only "new age" recording. It is beautifully recorded piano and oboe duets. When it was released on CD I was very disappointed... A cheapee re-master with all the life sucked out of it, no more dynamics, no sublet nuances, not breathes, sustain pedal thumps, nothing. The vinyl made me feel as if I were in the same room with the performers. The CD did nothing for me at all.

I've had a similar experience with CD vs vinyl. There is a jazz album that I love very much, John Coltrane's "Selflessness" LP that has a song called "I want to talk about you" on it. This was recorded at the 1963 Newport jazz festival. I consider the tenor playing in this song to be the best jazz tenor saxophone ever played by anyone anywhere ever. Not only does it show off Trane's incredible technical ability, but it is very moving to me emotionally as well. I bought the CD that contains this song, called "Live at Newport" I believe. It sucks. I still am amazed at how such an incredible performance can be completely ruined by... well what it is I don't know. Just call it incompetence I guess. Looking in my local music store, I see this disk is now 18 bucks! What a bunch of clowns in the music business nowadays.