MUSIC For Speakers

[GOIRISH]

I'm new to this board and also new to audio. Just bought the following:
Yamaha RXV-2400 Receiver
B&W 604 S3
B&W LCR600 S3
B&W ASW 675 Sub
Mirage OMNI-250
I'm looking for some suggestions on CDs to buy. I like 70s & 80s rock mainly but they don't sound as good as some female country singers. I also have played a couple STING CDs and he sounds awesome; voice and instruments. Any other suggestions? Thanks...Paul

[trauski]

so strange last night at rehersal for our church band, i had the same siscussion with a guy named paul who like 80's rock and had recently been listening to his wifes female country music. i will give you the same recomendations. any diana krall cd,diane schure,shawn colvin, nora jones. all good on cd and great on vinly if you can find it. jack johnson had a couple out. some of the best recorded jazz fusion ive ever heard especially with the dynamics is" flim and the bb's" they will make your system sound incredible. frank sinatra duests is good. switching gears lets try john mayer"room for squares" any old " everything but the girl" is great but not her latest as she sold out to the dance groove remixers and really missed the mark on her tempermental cd. sting's-all this time- is great. sounds like the bass player is moving up and down the frets right in your room and its a n acoustic bass at that. those are a lot of my current favorites. good luck oh ya the cure has a new trilogy dvd out , ive only had a chance to listen to a few tracks.

[TinHere]

I can't seem to keep Natalie Merchant's "Tigerlily" out of the rotation for too long. Very sweet sound IMHO.

[Jim Clark]

Cowboy Junkies' "Trinity Sessions" is extremely well recorded and may be something to look up. It may be a really mellow for your tastes though so listen to some samples first but sonically it's a blast.

jc

[bturk667]

I can't seem to keep Natalie Merchant's "Tigerlily" out of the rotation for too long. Very sweet sound IMHO.
One of favorite CD, that's for sure!

[bturk667]

I'm looking for some suggestions on CDs to buy. I like 70s & 80s rock mainly but they don't sound as good as some female country singers. I also have played a couple STING CDs and he sounds awesome; voice and instruments. Any other suggestions? Thanks...Paul
Pink Floyd
Rush
U2
10,000 Maniacs
Sinead O'Connor
Tracey Chapman
Concrete Blonde
The Cranberries
Peter Gabriel
Bella Fleck and the Flecktones (Jazz)(Great instrumentals)
Roger Waters
Tom Petty
Bruce Springsteen
Tom Waits
REM

These are just a few, I could go on for quite a while.

[Mr Peabody]

Give a listen to Karen Therese Warrior Heart, a female vocalist and a great recording. May be listed under Native American

Anyway I have a different take, I find most country cd's have a un-natural or synthetic sound. Even HDCD's like Deanna Carter. It's clean and sounds good but there is just something about it, like many country recordings, that doesn't sound right. Although older rock cd's may tend to have a little grunge in the background, I prefer the wider soundstage and channel separation. Many newer recordings sound like everything is pushed together or to the center. I'm talking in general terms and mostly about rock. Nora Jones is one of the finest recordings I've heard in a long time.

Some of my old rock I like for sound. The Chicago stuff is good. They are my favorite horns. Whoever engineered their recording knew what they were doing. And who could go wrong with a Pink Floyd cd? My Fleetwood Mac Rumours I enjoy. Eric Clapton Slow Hand. I love that old Santana with the percussion and Greg Rollie's keyboard. The Zepplin early albums are amazing stereo separation but you will have to withstand some grunge. I don't have any re-mastered, it may be better. But also in the grunge is some stuff you wouldn't want to loose like an occasional pedal squeak or snare rattle. But you are right, many rock recordings are thin and bright, then when transfered to cd, Ooooo.

Depending on your taste in rock, you may want to transition into some Fusion which is typically recorded very well because of being Jazz artists. Try some Dave Grusin, Al Dimeola, Stanley Clarke, Jean Luc Ponte. Ponte has several high quality and digital recordings.

[psonic]

in what respect does 70s / 80s rock not sound as good as female country singers? can you clarify why country singers sound better than some of the best rock of all time? what are you looking for in rock?

[GOIRISH]

in what respect does 70s / 80s rock not sound as good as female country singers? can you clarify why country singers sound better than some of the best rock of all time? what are you looking for in rock?
Don't get me wrong I love ZEP, The Beatles, Stones, The Who, Clapton, Boston, Skynard etc. etc. etc... It's just that country with fiddles, banjos and other instruments sounds much more musical than rock. My wife put on a SEAL CD and it was incredible. Maybe I'm not explaining myself correctly, but different types of music I would have never listened to in the past sound much better than what I like.

[Beckman]

Pink Floyd - Any
Medle, Animals, and Piper at the Gates of Dawn are some of my favorite Floyd albums.

Led Zepplin - BBC Sessions
Recorded in a studio, great live album.

Greatful Dead - Ladies and Gentlemen the Greatful Dead
Excellent live recording made at the Fillmore East in New York. Four CD set. My favorite Greatful Dead set.

Beck - Mutations
Super mellow, sounds like country without the "Country"

A good place to read music reviews is Amazon.com

[Geoffcin]

If you like 70's and 80's stuff you got to get yourself a DVD-Audio player.

I've got on DVD-Audio so far;

Eagles Hotel California
Grateful Dead American Beauty
Yes Fragile
The Doobie Bros. The Capt. and Me
The Doors LA woman (60's but who's counting)

ALL of them are much better than the CD versions. Think the first time you got the LP record before it got all scratched up, and that's what DVD-Audio give you, and more because, in addtion you can play the 5.1 encoded tracks too! The 5.1 tracks are not as high rez as the stereo track, but they do give some cool effects.

[RGA]

Give a listen to Karen Therese Warrior Heart, a female vocalist and a great recording. May be listed under Native American

Anyway I have a different take, I find most country cd's have a un-natural or synthetic sound. Even HDCD's like Deanna Carter. It's clean and sounds good but there is just something about it, like many country recordings, that doesn't sound right. Although older rock cd's may tend to have a little grunge in the background, I prefer the wider soundstage and channel separation. Many newer recordings sound like everything is pushed together or to the center. I'm talking in general terms and mostly about rock. Nora Jones is one of the finest recordings I've heard in a long time.

It's interesting you note that Deana Carter CD. It's an HDCD disc and I agree there is an unnatural tinge to the sound.

I have found with my new system that my entire collection is at least listenable now and I note much far ranging variety within the discs.

Most Madonna, Gloria Estefan, Sade, Sarah McLachlan, Loreena McKennitt are well recorded(some outstanding).

Most of my recordings are actually prety good. Some rock and roll has some grainyness in the upper frequencies or just tizzy...no doubt because the RE for these bands is proabably half deaf from the volume levels.

A good everything tester from a pop track is Madonna's Vogue...if you don't mind the song, it has a "cool" factor from a sonics point of view.

[GOIRISH]

Thank You for all the replies!!! When this snow storm is over I'll be running out and grabbing some new CDs. Being a novice I have another question. I have a Toshiba SD2800 DVD Player (lost the owners manual) I have it hooked up to the Anolog L&R and yellow video jack. The front of the DVD player says it is DTS and Dolby Digital. When I try to select DTS on the EAGLES HELL FREEZES OVER DVD, no sound comes out but when I select PCM from the DVD, music plays. On the back of the Toshiba it has an Optical output which reads Bitstream/PCM????? Do I need to use the Optical output in order for DTS and Dolby Digital to work? My Receiver is a Yamaha RXV-2400. Thanks for the help.....Paul

[Mr Peabody]

Madonna's Vogue was recorded using a 3D type effect from Hughes corporation and it does give the track an interesting sound. You really notice it in the beginning of the song. This spacial effect item was available to the public as a stereo component. I don't know if it's still out there or not. I remember you had to have your speakers set up a certain way. My guess is it may have been simular to Carver's Holographic Generator. Loraina McKennit, I have the one with the Hummer's Dance and that is a great recording. It hits some low frequencies and has good instrumentation. Paula Cole's cd is another good recording and it is HDCD. I use the first track as a bass tester. I hesitate to guess how low it goes but the bass note that kicks in around the middle of the song is almost felt more than heard. If someone is into violin, I recommend listening to recordings done by The Ancient Music Society, like Vivaldi's Four Season's or Mozart's violin concertos 1-5. These are played on authentic instruments of the time and very high quality recordings. The instruments of the period have a different tonal quality than the modern ones. I find the ancient more pleasant to listen to. RGA, aren't you a music teacher? If you haven't heard any of the AMS recordings you really should. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the sound.

[RGA]

Madonna's Vogue was recorded using a 3D type effect from Hughes corporation and it does give the track an interesting sound. You really notice it in the beginning of the song. This spacial effect item was available to the public as a stereo component. I don't know if it's still out there or not. I remember you had to have your speakers set up a certain way. My guess is it may have been simular to Carver's Holographic Generator. Loraina McKennit, I have the one with the Hummer's Dance and that is a great recording. It hits some low frequencies and has good instrumentation. Paula Cole's cd is another good recording and it is HDCD. I use the first track as a bass tester. I hesitate to guess how low it goes but the bass note that kicks in around the middle of the song is almost felt more than heard. If someone is into violin, I recommend listening to recordings done by The Ancient Music Society, like Vivaldi's Four Season's or Mozart's violin concertos 1-5. These are played on authentic instruments of the time and very high quality recordings. The instruments of the period have a different tonal quality than the modern ones. I find the ancient more pleasant to listen to. RGA, aren't you a music teacher? If you haven't heard any of the AMS recordings you really should. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on the sound.

I didn't realize that about the Vogue track. Her new Die Another Day song has some interesting effects as well... I have several of McKennit's albums all of which are well recorded. Seems smaller artists want to make sure their cd at least is recorded well. It's a shame to have your talent attacked because the RE screwed up. I'm always on the hunt for good female singers. I sold off my tuner to get my speakers and have no car so for the last few year's I've been out of the loop for pop/rock music. I went in to listen to a few newer albums from Cold Play and Britney Spears(say what you will about Madonna but Spears is horrible...Madonna can at least hit her one octave pleasantly :)

A lot of these rock bands start sounding the same after a while and most are not very memorable(The only new female Pop artist I have bought was from Jewel). It seems like I keep looking for new cds from about 10 artists. I'll look out for Paula Cole. I'm also looking for good classical albums especially from Vivaldi(I have both the mentioned albums but from Naxos). it's hard to stomach paying $24.00 Canadian when the Naxos album is $6.50CDN.

I'm not a music teacher...I'm a student teacher with 4 more semester's to go...damn 5 and a half year program. No I played the oboe badly in high school that's the limit of my playing. I do want to try the sax one day though when I get some time.

[Jetsons]

Here are a few excellent recordings:

Elton John: All the Rocket label remasters

Pink Floys: Echoes

Dire Straits: All latest remasters

Steely Dan: All lastest remasters

Eagles: Very Best Of, 2003 remaster & Hell Freezes Over, XRCD2

Anything on the DCC 24K gold discs, are excellent but can be a pricey as they are out of print.

Madonna: GH Volume 2 & Immaculate Collection

Sade: Lovers Rock

All the above are excellent! Have fun listening.

Jet

[rb_1960]

For the considerable $$$ you've invested, DON'T cheap out now and forfeit the sound your system offers with limited quality of CD. Get yourself a DVD-Audio (and/or SACD) player.
I just bought a DVD Region Free player (JVC) that happened to included DVD-Audio. Last week I tested it out to see whether or not it was all just hype. I picked up the DVD-Audio of Queen/Night at the Opera to test against the CD I already owned. WOW! What a difference. I was blown away at the crystal clarity and ultra high fidelity sound that DVD-Audio offers. It "woke me up" to the high quality "audio" system I've actually had for the last few years (Yamaha/Definitive Technology). Sure, CDs sound great... until you compare it to DVD-Audio. Then they only sound ok. I'd bought maybe 6 CDs in the last year. In one week I've already bought 12 DVD-Audio & DTS Surround Music DVDs, and can't wait to get more. I can honestly say that DVD-Audio has revitalized my interest and love of listening to and really enjoying music. The only drawback is the limitation in DVD-Audios available at this time. More are coming. Maybe get a universal player (DVD/DVD-Audio/SACD player) and expand your choices. At the very least, buy the DTS Surround DVD versions (see www.dtsentertainment.com) instead of CDs. That way, you can still listen to the superior quality sound via a DVD player with DTS encoding.

Recommendations
(also have one or two of these CDs to compare with):

Moody Blues / Days of the Future Passed (Rock Symphony)
Fleetwood Mac / Rumours (True Classic 70s Rock)
Emma Shapplin / Etterna (Opera/Techno/Electronic? - Sonically Awesome)
Medeski, Martin & Wood / Uninvisible (Groove Jazz)
Blue Man Group / Audio (Percussion)
REM / Best of 1988-2003
Moist / Punch Through Machine

Congratulations on the great sound system you have, but you'll be congratulating yourself when you complete it with DVD-Audio.

Cheers!

[rb_1960]

Yes, Optical or COAX cable connection is required for 5.1.
Otherwise you get ProLogic at best.

Should you do your system full justice and purchase a DVD-Audio player (as I mentioned in my last thread), you will then need to connect to your Yamaha with 6 dedicated lines in addition to the COAX or optical cable, in order to achieve the true high end audio signal that DVD-Audio offers. Otherwise you'll just get DTS or Dolby Digital (yes, there is a difference in the sound quality, though not as severe as the difference beween DVD and CD sound).

Enjoy!

[GOIRISH]

Thanks for the advice. rb1960 what is the going price for a decent DVD-Audio (and/or SACD) player? Any makes and models you can recommend?...Thanks.....Paul