Music for testing Audio Equipment

[christian u]

Pap - thanks for taking the time to put this together. It will be fun to slowly work down this list.

 

+1

great list and observations. Thanks.

[christian u]

I would also attribute some of what we hear to the rest of the system that I've been tweaking and building (most of it is in the sig but I have yet to add the DIY AC Filter box as well as a couple of other things I am working on in the sig).

 

Hi YashN

what does

it is in the sig

mean?

 

english is not my first language, thanks:)

[christian u]

sig = signature (i.e. the lower part of one's post which automatically gets inserted below each post). In mine you can see my audio system description as well as the DIY equipment.

Of course .........sorry......thanks .

[christian u]

If you are looking for the best piano recordings may I suggest the PlayClassics "Albéniz Iberia" album:

 

Try out track 3 "El Corpus en Sevilla". You can download the free 24bit 96kHz sample here:

www.playclassics.com/PlayClassics2496.wav.zip

 

Beautiful playing and recording. Thanks.

link for online listening;Albniz Iberia - PlayClassics, the art of true music

[christian u]

yes at least some things are getting better.

These albums have an incredible piano sound.

And the music is pure pleasure. Highly recommended.

Sound Liaison Music Shop

 

 

 

Vadym Kholodenko, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Edvard Grieg, Camille Saint-Saens - Grieg & Saint-Saens: Piano Concertos - Amazon.com Music

 

Reviews Rad Bennett

 

Here is one that I am enjoying at the moment;

http://www.amazon.com/Widmung-Piano-Works-Franz-Liszt/dp/B0054QZ8FC

[christian u]

I like that so much, the subtle differences in the performance when comparing it to the studio version, which of course sounds better, but you can really see where that sound comes from.

 

''Jazz; that beautiful never the same way twice music'' Kurt Vonnegut.

[christian u]

[video=youtube;a-32HucXPLA]

 

Oh those JBL's brings back memories:)

+1

[christian u]

yes at least some things are getting better.

These albums have an incredible piano sound.

And the music is pure pleasure. Highly recommended.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]21056[/ATTACH]Sound Liaison Music Shop

Sound Liaison is a Netherlands based partnership two bass players, Frans de Rond and Peter Bjørnild. They’ve assembled some terrific artists who play great jazz and given them high definition sound. I raved about their initial recordings on the Sound Stage! Network, and have enjoyed watching their progress in listening to their appealing new albums.Their newest program is titled En Azul and features the Witmer Trio, Cajan Witmer – piano,

Han Slinger – double bass, and Maarten Kruijswijk – drums. The trio has been together for 20 years and all the players sound very comfortable in their skins. Their emphasis is on melody with ornamentation and variation that heightens a sense of melody rather than distracting from it. And they’ve picked some terrific tunes to work with – Carioca,TheGentle Rain, Moon River, Moonglow, Rhapsody in Blue,Recado, and St. Louis Blues, to mention a few. The playing is delightfully impeccable and the recorded sound nearly so. The trio sounds like it’s playing in a real space and is nicely spread between speakers with no exaggeration. The piano sound is perfect as is the sound of the many percussion instruments that are so imaginatively employed. The bass is solid; I could use just a tiny bit more focus on the attacks. Sound Liaison recordings are only available as high quality downloads. Many download formats are available including DSD and PCM 24bit/96kHz stereo. If you’re searching for real sounding intimate jazz, give the work of these folks a try. You’ll not be disappointed and it’s so good-natured, I’ll bet it will put a smile on your face.

 

 

Vadym Kholodenko, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Edvard Grieg, Camille Saint-Saens - Grieg & Saint-Saens: Piano Concertos - Amazon.com Music

 

A companion disc puts us back on more familiar ground as Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenko, winner of the 2013 Van Cliburn competition, plays the Grieg Piano Concerto and the Saint-Saens Second Piano Concerto with Harth -Bedoya and the Radio Orchestra. There are already half a dozen good recordings of each composition in the catalog, but Kholodenko brings sensitive, controlled virtuoso playing to every passage and the smaller forces of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra achieve a transparency that other performances miss. I’d put Kholodenko neat the top of the list.

Reviews Rad Bennett

 

The worst sounding piano on a musically satisfying album got to be Duke Ellington with Ray Brown ''This one's for Blanton"

[christian u]

This brand new release has got what I am talking about in spades,

excellent placement with every instrument clearly positioned on the soundstage, marvelous SQ, natural but also very engaging,

and music of beauty but with a few fresh twists and turns.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]29678[/ATTACH] Sound Liaison Music Shop

 

It is on special offer too!

 

It is a superb album. Startas' fresh approach blending all kinds of influences to such gorgeous whole, is a very welcome audition to the world of music.

Track three is audiophile heaven. If that does not sound good on your system, you better start tuning!

[christian u]

On 11-1-2017 at 11:53 AM, blue2 said:

 

 

The Bad Plus, These Are The Vistas, track #3 Smells Like Teen Spirit well recorded piano, upright bass and drums. Nice decay on cymbals then holographic double bass comes in at 10 secs!

 

The youtube track has an extreme amount of compression, is that less on the CD or download that you have?

youtube Bad Plus

[christian u]

On 26-3-2017 at 9:19 PM, blue2 said:

Did you listen to the album on Qobuz via the link I provided? I don't think that sounds extremely compressed. I have a CD rip and it sounds excellent to me.

It is better indeed. Still I hear it as a bit too compressed for my taste but I do like their way of playing. It is very refreshing so I will purchase the download.

[christian u]

On 4-4-2017 at 8:27 PM, christian u said:

It is better indeed. Still I hear it as a bit too compressed for my taste but I do like their way of playing. It is very refreshing so I will purchase the download.

Got the new too. This is the best recorded track;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJqthwufnF0

[christian u]

Quote

Artist	Ozric Tentacles
Album	Pungent Effulgent
Year	1989
Album DR	14
Min. track DR	12
Max. track DR	15
Track DR	13 14 14 13 15 15 12 13 14 (might not be in original order)

Very respectable numbers indeed.

[christian u]

20 hours ago, blue2 said:

Very good question! I'm no expert but according to this article all their albums recorded in the 80's were converted from tape to RBCD and the SACD's were resampled from this!

But then it should be possible in theory to make new hi res masters if they still have the tape!

[christian u]

On 2017-4-30 at 0:54 AM, PAP said:

Dear Sphinxsix. I get your point now. Thank you for your very well formulated and well argued explanation.

At a friends house I recently heard the Grado 2000e and it was sounding very pleasing on recordings that I normally found to be unlistenable without a bit of tweaking an eq.

Your argumentation has convinced me, that I think that will be my next investment. Thanks.

I have a good collection of old Jazz and blues albums.

The Jazz albums are mostly sounding very good on my HD800 and my Harbeth speakers but some of the older blues stuff is indeed a bit pircing in the treble. Often they have been poorly remastered.

If they all had been recorded like this brand new DXD purchase I am listening to now, life would be a lot easier.

 

 

here is the link; http://www.soundliaison.com/

Dead Can Dance is not really my type of music but I did attend a concert with them once and was very impressed by their show. They can play!

 

The Carmen Gomes Blues album is superb. The SQ is amazing. It sounds marvelous on my HD800s.

[christian u]

On 2017-5-6 at 10:15 PM, Milan said:

Carmen Gomes sings the Blues is a perfect combination of what sounds to me as old fashioned recording technique paired with modern recording equipment.

Like all the Sound Liaison albums it uses real placement in the stereo field but this one reminds me more than the previous albums of a recording from the golden age. I mean recordings from 1958 to 1962 more or less. Back in the day when they would record three tracks to a 2 inch tape. This seems to be recorded in 352khz and somehow this extreme high resolution sounds warmer, maybe more analogue than other digital recordings I have heard.

  On the site there is a blog which says that: 

source: Sound Liaison DXD

If the coming albums all have this kind of quality there really is something to look forward to.

 

 

 

Check the photo from the session.  

It is a very simple setup. A few microphones and a very simple sound screen between the drum set and the upright;

Here is an old photo from the Kind of Blue session.

Very simple no screens;

[christian u]

here is another photo from a Sinatra late '50 session.

Sinatra always insisted on being in the room with the band and recording it live.

And all those albums sounds spectacular.

[christian u]

The Sinatra recordings such as Only the Lonely are having a very good sound stage but the placement on the Carmen Gomes Blues recording is very realistic indeed. But it is also much easier to realize with only 4 musicians.

[christian u]

On 2017-5-6 at 10:15 PM, Milan said:

Carmen Gomes sings the Blues is a perfect combination of what sounds to me as old fashioned recording technique paired with modern recording equipment.

Like all the Sound Liaison albums it uses real placement in the stereo field but this one reminds me more than the previous albums of a recording from the golden age. I mean recordings from 1958 to 1962 more or less. Back in the day when they would record three tracks to a 2 inch tape. This seems to be recorded in 352khz and somehow this extreme high resolution sounds warmer, maybe more analogue than other digital recordings I have heard.

  On the site there is a blog which says that: 

source: Sound Liaison DXD

If the coming albums all have this kind of quality there really is something to look forward to.

 

 

 

Only a few days left of the very cheap introduction offer;

Quote

First we would like to express our most sincere gratitude and appreciation for the very positive response we received after the release of Carmen Gomes Sings The Blues.
This album is our first DXD recording!
The album was used by Schnerzinger, Nagra and Zellaton at the Munich High End Show 2017 to demonstrate their new products.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efPBdM-5Spc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfxW-WlOvBQ

But all good things comes to an end, the saying goes, there is only 1 week left of the special introduction offer of this beautiful album.

source;http://www.soundliaison.com/

[christian u]

On 2017-5-30 at 1:05 AM, elcorso said:

http://www.marecordings.com/main/product_info.php?products_id=189&osCsid=876e92a15cd6d630fa527f052c3e0535

 

 

Roch

I am interested but the price is a bit steep. Is there anywhere on the site where you can hear samples of the music.

[christian u]

On 2017-5-31 at 11:02 PM, elcorso said:

 

Please ask them.  At page bottom, "Contact us".

 

Roch

I ordered the CD version of this one for 16.50 

I find 40$ for 176 download a bit too much. That is 2x more than the Sound Liaison download in the same sample rate.

[christian u]

one more Mare recording;

 

 

listening to the sample, it is well recorded but the bass is all the way to the left making the left channel a bit "heavy".

Seems that everything is recorded direct to a korg Dsd recorder with a stereo microphone, a refreshing approach.

[christian u]

On 3-7-2017 at 5:48 PM, elcorso said:

 

It is great to subwoofer burn in.

 

I only play it now to drive away the roaches and rats in the neighborhood 

 

Roch

That works?

[christian u]

What became of the studio?

That room should be on the Unesco World Heritage list.

[christian u]

What a pity!

Thanks for the reply