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

[Brian A]

All of the below are capable of transporting you to the recording venue...

 

Benny Goodman & Friends ... A Tribute To Stevie Ray Vaughan ... The Fred Hersch Trio Plays ... For Duke ... Clifford Jordan Quartet 'Live at Ethell's' ...you just have to find what you dig.

 

More great suggestions. Bought the Vaughan ($0.31 + $2.98); want the Goodman and Duke, but used prices for them are above my (terribly low) threshold. Ahhh, consumer expectations.

[pacwin]

Wow, Holly Cole is a terrific suggestion. I love that recording. I listen to it often.

 

On the other hand, in CD, I haven't seen anything equaling Wilson's work. I do wish they were available as hi-rez material. I am not convinced more than well done 44.1 is needed. Wilson is about as good as it gets in that.

 

I have no idea about the 16 bit layer on these Hybrids but Analogue Productions has recently re-released these Holy Cole analog masters on Hybrid SACD's

 

Holly Cole-Temptation-Hybrid Stereo SACD | Acoustic Sounds

 

Holly Cole Trio-Dont Smoke In Bed-Hybrid Stereo SACD | Acoustic Sounds

 

So I can definitely recommend them to those who can process DSD/SACD

 

Another recent excellent Analog->PCM recording is the blu ray re-release of Patricia Barber's Modern Cool

 

Premonition Records which I think are superior to the Cole reissues good though they are.

 

Another couple of fine audiophile jazz SACD recordings out of Japan:

 

Chihiro Yamanaka - Because

山中千尋 | Chihiro Yamanaka - ビコーズ　【SA-CD SHM仕様】 - UNIVERSAL MUSIC JAPAN

 

Super PrimeTime – Joe Farnsworth featuring Eric Alexander, Howard Mabern, Nat Reeves

Sony Music Shop | (recorded, mixed and mastered in DSD domain)

 

There's hordes of mind bogglingly good recordings out there.

[Music Matters]

1. Trijntje Oosterhuis - The look of love

2. Dee Dee Bridgewater - Live At Yoshi's

3. Mighty Sam McClain - Give it up to love

4. Chris Jones - Roadhouses & Automobiles

5. Rumer - Seasons of my soul

6. Sarah McLachlan - Surfacing

 

All redbook...

[SoundQcar]

More great suggestions. Bought the Vaughan ($0.31 + $2.98); want the Goodman and Duke, but used prices for them are above my (terribly low) threshold. Ahhh, consumer expectations.

 

Brian,

 

The Goodman disc can be had used on Amazon for a penny....plus the usual $2.98 shipping cost. Amazon.com: Used and New: Benny Goodman & Friends

 

Can't help ya with the Ellington....it's always a bit high in price.

 

Good luck!

[One and a half]

Flim and the BB's, Thom Rotella Band or just about anything from the DMP stable, late 80's excellent recordings, with pioneering upsampling to boot.

 

Aimee Mann - Lost in Space MFSL

 

Todd Rundgren - Something Anything MFSL

 

Carpenters - A Song for you MFSL

[Cincy2]

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

[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).

[4est]

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

 

Although I am not religious, I love this recording. Another Mapleshade favorite of mine is Bad Influence "Live at the Bad Habits Cafe". There is some funky recording artifacts, but it just adds to the fun!

[Musicophile]

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?

[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.

[Jsmith]

I actually really like Nine Inch Nails for this. First I think Trent has done a great job remastering his some of his old work, and he often releases a lot of his new material in hi-res formats.

 

On most albums you can find very quiet songs (Hurt, Right Where It Belongs) where I swear you can hear his lips smack as he sings softly, all the way to thunderous bass (Down In It).

 

While the remaster of Pretty Hate Machine and the hi-res of The Slip sound great, my favorite right now is With Teeth.

[peterbj]

So far i have mostly been using old jazz recordings(vinyl)

George Shearing with Nancy Wilson;''All Night Long'' is an all time favorite.....great placement and balance.

Miles Davis kind of Blue,....space and depth.

Lately since using my PC as a high end audiophile jukebox I started searching for good downloads.

SoundLiaison has made three I.M.O absolutely astonishing albums presented as 96/24 waw downloads.

Carmen Gomes Inc;''Thousand Shades of Blue'' is a fantastic live in the studio album.4 instruments;voice,guitar,upright bass,and drums(cajon replacing the drums on the lovely title track).Everything is there great separation,stereo imaging,depth and balance.

The version of Bruce Springsteen's I'm on Fire is a musical and audiophile masterpiece,check out how the snare drum and the haunting guitar voicing complement but never cover up each other.

On the 2nd album,Poul Berner Band's lovely Elvis Presley tribute: Road to Memphis,

you've got tr.6 ''the Colonel''Michael Moore's sax enters oo.45 with just the sound of air,as if he is right there up close in front of you,so intimate.

Again only 4 instruments; guitar at 8 o'clock,sax at 11,bass at 1 o'clock and 2nd guitar at 4 o'clock.the sound stage is almost 3 dimensional.

On the 3rd album Torn,best described as a blues ballad album,you got everything an audiophile album should have (i.m.o.)placement, depth,separation,naturalness,the feeling of being there with the band visible in front you.And musically I find it a great album as well,a beautiful mix of covers and very well composed originals.

Music Store

 

Talking about Holly Cole,before I proceed, I better let be known that I am a HUGE fan, but I don't consider Temptations and Don't Smoke in Bed audiophile albums.Musically I love both albums,but Temptation suffers from too much compression and a poorly recorded bass,great bass playing,but not a very natural sounding bass.

Don't smoke in Bed has a very unnatural sounding reverb that does not help the depth a recording with such sparse instrumentation and great arrangements should have.

I know a lot of you,will disagree,but compare the bass sound (not the playing!) of Holly's ''Jersey Girl''(temptation) with ''Carmen's Let's go Get Stoned''(Torn).And I repeat I absolutely love Holly Cole and her band.

[Musicophile]

Don't smoke in Bed has a very unnatural sounding reverb that does not help the depth a recording with such sparse instrumentation and great arrangements should have.

 

Let me politely disagree.

 

I've used "So And So" as part of my comparison of new hifi equipment for quite a while (Itunes play count for this track is now nearly 100 plays, and even more skips), and while I agree you can have recordings that are more analytical, I really like the atmosphere of the mix. So I suppose it boils down to how you define "audiophile".

[peterbj]

But of course,audiophile is a subjective term,I guess.To me it is when the the whole process,from beginning to end product,has been done up too a certain standard.

''Don't smoke in bed'' is from 1993 and the reverbs and converters are not even remotely comparable to what we have today,maybe that's why we still love the old records so much;natural or analog reverb.

 

So and So has a fantastic atmosphere,great playing,absolutely fantastic arrangement, I like the mix too,except I do find the placement of the instruments could have been better.The real problem is the reverb tails.Compare ''So and So'' with Carmen's ''Lets go get Stoned'',that's also just bass and voice in the first part of the tune.To me there is a world(20 years) of difference. If you haven't got it,it is down loadable for 1.75 at the SoundLiasion website.

Oh,and maybe we should start a petition for a new mix of ''Don't Smoke in Bed''it is a marvelous album.

[chumlie]

Vinyl- Nei Young's Massey Hall

CD- MFSL The Yes Album

SACD- Pink Floyd's Wish You Were Here

[Boris75]

Perhaps my favourite test CD is Master of Chinese Percussion K2HD. It is also very nice musically speaking.

[peterbj]

here is a review link;

SoundStage! Xperience | SoundStageXperience.com | Carmen Gomes Inc.: "Thousand Shades of Blue"

[grakhamA]

my favorite singers group is Scorpions. It's old-fashioned may be, but I love it.

[mav52]

The Nordic Sound 2L

Dark Side Of The Moon - Pink Floyd - Toshiba/EMI - Japanese SACD Gold

Diana Krall "Ther girl in the other room" CD/SACD hybrid is incredible.

Linda Ronstadt - Don't Cry SACD for female vocal

Mark Knopfler - Shangrai-La (SACD)

Yo Yo Ma's Soul of the Tango

Steely Dan's Gaucho-SACD,

Saint-Saens: Symphony No. 3 "Organ" by Christoph Eschenbach and the Philadelphia Orchestra on SACD

Jesse Cook- Gravity

KEB' MO' - KEB' MO' (NUMBERED LIMITED EDITION HYBRID SACD)

[Daudio]

This thread got me interested in the Carmen Gomes Inc;''Thousand Shades of Blue'' recording, but the SoundLiasion website appears to be offline now...

 

I was curious how much it cost, but a little hard to discover now.

[elcorso]

This thread got me interested in the Carmen Gomes Inc;''Thousand Shades of Blue'' recording, but the SoundLiasion website appears to be offline now...

 

I was curious how much it cost, but a little hard to discover now.

 

They are 16.50 Euros/album.

 

I DLed Carmen Gomes, Inc. "Torn". Incredible artist and outstanding recording quality.

 

They have some problems with the PayPal link: After you pay, PayPal doesn't get you to the DL. You have to go again to their web place and "Inloggen" that means "Login". I wrote them and Frans de Rond answered very, very fast, fixing the problem.

 

Highly recommended!

 

 

Roch

[peterbj]

this one is beutifull.

[Teresa]

Some good choices listed so far. While these are among my best sounding recordings, I also like the music as I don't keep music I don't like. I listed them with the most realistic first.

 

DL=download

 

Opus 3 DSD Showcase 1: Various Artists (Opus 3 5.6MHz DSF DL)

Opus 3 DSD Showcase 2: Various Artists (Opus 3 5.6MHz DSF DL)

Puttin' It Down: Terry Evans (AudioQuest Music SACD)

David Johansen and the Harry Smiths (Chesky 24/96 DL)

Wayne Horvitz: Sweeter Than The Day (Songlines SACD)

Dave Grusin: Discovered Again (Sheffield Lab LP)

Bill Berry and his Ellington All-Stars: For Duke (M&K RealTime Direct Disc LP)

Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon (MFSL LP)

Duke Ellington: Blues In Orbit (MFSL SACD)

[Blake]

Perhaps my favourite test CD is Master of Chinese Percussion K2HD. It is also very nice musically speaking.

 

 

A big +1 on this one. Stunning.

[peterbj]

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:

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...?