What is your personal reference audiophile recording (best sound quality)?

[Jud]

Can't divorce musical quality from recording quality, because unless it has the former, I'm just not going to listen to it. With that proviso, the following have proved to be references of mine over a long period of time for various aspects of music reproduction in my system:

 

The Harrow and the Harvest, Gillian Welch - This is really good quality straightforward recording of voice (with recessed harmonies that allow the main vocal to shine through) and acoustic guitars. A system has to do the simple basics really, really well or it hasn't got a prayer of handling orchestras and live rock concerts. This recording is every bit good and spare enough to show you whether your system can pick up nuances of expression in vocals and acoustic guitar.

 

The List, Rosanne Cash - Her dad Johnny Cash wrote down 100 songs that he felt she (and everyone) ought to know as The Great American Songbook. Here she performs a selection of her favorites from that list, with production from her husband, who lovingly puts her voice front and center. 500 Miles is a particular favorite, and probably my acid test for vocal reproduction.

 

The Brandenburg Concertos, J.S. Bach, Jordi Savall conducting Le Concert des Nations - Not only point/counterpoint, but five and six-part harmonies, particularly among the strings. This is aided by the use of period instruments, overall quieter than a modern orchstra, so certain instruments are less likely to dominate or drown out others. Extremely talented players on an individual level, and probably without peer as an ensemble as conducted by the amazing Savall. So beautiful and so much clarity into what each of the instrumental parts is doing that you can practically hear Bach inventing Western music for the next few centuries. My reference for orchestral music, especially massed strings. I have the pleasure of being able to hear it in DSD format (albeit converted - very nicely - to PCM by Audirvana Plus).

 

Take It So Hard, Keith Richards and the X-Pensive Winos, from Live at the Hollywood Palladium - Ever been to a Stones concert (or any live large-scale rock concert, really)? Felt the bass thud through your chest, the whack of the drums, the hoarse, raw edge to the vocals? This song has all of that. My reference for how real, unpretty, butt-kickin' rock and roll should sound.

 

Heigh Ho, Tom Waits, from Stay Awake, an album of Disney soundtrack music - Squashed, growled and rough as you'd expect a mining song sung by dwarves to be. The "soundstage" on this comes up maybe to your knees. My reference for when something in my system is trying to present a grand soundstage that doesn't exist. All your references for choosing components can't be pretty, or when you need rough out of your system it may not be there. This is rough, man.

 

Go Tell It On the Mountain, The Blind Boys of Alabama - The growling bass and howling tenor of gospel, with all the ranges in between, backing up singers like Aaron Neville, Chrissie Hynde, Tom Waits, and Richard Thompson. My reference for harmony vocals, from angelic (Neville) to rock (Hynde) to down-'n'-dirty blues (Waits).

 

Nice thread.

[Jud]

My all time favorite CD's for realistic voice and acoustic instruments all come from Mapleshade Recordings. Their redbook CD's surpass any other medium (digital file or SACD or DVD of any resolution/format) that I have heard. Not a lot of their jazz is easy to listen to but there are some real gems in their catalogue. One of them is my reference disc for voices. Its an acapella recording by a group of ex drug addicts called the ARC choir that sing Gospel music. Nothing else even gets close in my system to the realism of the voices and the soundstage accuracy.

 

mapleshaderecords.com

 

 

Cincy

 

Also love Mapleshade's recordings. The great sound is, it seems to me, some justification of Pierre and Ron's equipment (mostly cable) designs, which Pierre uses for all the recordings. I have a number of the CDs, most recently Diplogenesis (two guitars playing classical - quiet, contemplative music for when you're in that sort of mood).

[Jud]

I just checked out Mapleshade's web site. Lot's of interesting stuff, but it looks like they only sell CDs? I really don't need a piece of plastic shipped over the ocean if I only care about the zeros and ones on there. Have I missed lossless downloads somewhere?

 

Nope. Pierre doesn't offer d/l at this point. I'd certainly appreciate if you would add your voice to those of us who've been asking.

[Jud]

Does that mean no Charlie Parker,Hendrix,Miles''birth of the cool,''Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters,Pablo Casals,Louis Armstrong,Duke Ellington......and...and....and...?

 

How very strange you should think that was what I meant. The thread is about recordings people think are references for sound quality. I said sound quality by itself doesn't interest me, I need something that's also good musically. How you interpret that to mean the exclusion of great musicians, I'm not sure.

[Jud]

So sorry Jud. Please take no offence.I was a little too fast.

 

Me too - my apology as well, no offense taken. I've got a Robert Johnson record that isn't "audiophile" by any stretch, but that's a small price to pay to hear the guitar and voice that launched a thousand blues-rockers. Muddy Waters' "Folk Singer" *is* justifiably considered an audiophile recording. Also have a nice Mosaic box set of Louis Armstrong's stuff....