Your top 5 recordings for sound quality

Dont you hate it when you get home with a new disc and put it your high end system...you get in your listening chair and press play....and feel that wave of disappointment when you realize the recording engineer didnt give a damn how it sounded? :mad:

So my question is what are the 5 best sounding recordings you own?

mine are:
Jennifer Warnes--Famous blue raincoat (Attic)
Pat Coil--Just ahead (Sheffield labs)
Peter Gabriel--Security (Geffen)
Matt Dusk--Two shots (Decca)
Paul Simon--The rythm of the saints. (Warner Bros.)

They may not be my favorite artists but in my opinion among best engineered recordings I own.

I'm not getting something i dont like because its recorded great. First and formost, i gota like the music.

I'll listen to anything I like even if the recording is crap and will eschew anything I don't even if the recording is excellent. Still, it is nice to find when the best of both world converge and some great music sounds great as well. I'll toss out a couple anyway...

<b>David Johansen & the Harry Smiths</b>
Both discs these guys have put out on Chesky are truly wonderful sounding versions of great tunes. The band is top notch and Johansen is in fine voice. They do old acoustic blues classics on both discs. Heartily recommended.

<b>Air</b>
Any of the Air releases are excellent sounding and easily available on vinyl. Most people recommend Moon Safari, which I like as well, but I tend to prefer Premiers Symptomes. There new one is really good too, and I;ve grown to enjoy 10,000Htz. Legend, which is sonically stunning.

OK...busy...going now...hope to list more later...

I'm a big fan of the mastering engineer Steve Hoffman. He's most noted for his work with the now defunct label DCC although he worked for MCA prior to that and is currently acitve with other projects. I've got quite a few cd's from that label and they all sound great. On occasion you can still find these DCC gold discs in the brick and mortar stores even though everything from this label is out of print. Some of my favorites are:

Jethro Tull - Aqualung (probably the best sounding version you're ever gonna hear).
Jethro Tull - Original Masters (this version includes the complete first side of Thick As A Brick)
Art Pepper - Intensity
Art Pepper - Gettin' Together
Frank Sinatra - '57 In Concert
Metallica - Ride The Lightning
CCR - Willy and the Poor Boys

Audio Fidelity has just released a new series of gold discs engineered by Steve Hoffman. The first three releases are The Faces' A Nod Is As Good As A Wink, Doobie Bros' Minute By Minute and Bad Company's Bad Company complete with original artwork and packaged just like the old DCC releases. The Faces and the Doobies I have on order thru CD Universe (which keeps pushing out 'their' release date) but it's not likely I'm gonna get the Bad Company.

Other notably good sounding things in my collection:

The Columbia Legacy box sets of Miles Davis are really outstanding. All the ones I have sound very good. Those include The Complete In A Silent Way, The Complete *****es Brew, The Complete Jack Johnson and Seven Steps: The Complete Recordings 1963-64.

Some of my favs from Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs:

Pink Floyd - Meddle
Pink Floyd - Atom Heart Mother
Dave Mason - Alone Together
Elton John - Tumbleweed Connection
Jethro Tull - Stand Up

Darren

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Originally Posted by MikeyBC

Dont you hate it when you get home with a new disc and put it your high end system...you get in your listening chair and press play....and feel that wave of disappointment when you realize the recording engineer didnt give a damn how it sounded? :mad:

So my question is what are the 5 best sounding recordings you own?

mine are:
Jennifer Warnes--Famous blue raincoat (Attic)
Pat Coil--Just ahead (Sheffield labs)
Peter Gabriel--Security (Geffen)
Matt Dusk--Two shots (Decca)
Paul Simon--The rythm of the saints. (Warner Bros.)

They may not be my favorite artists but in my opinion among best engineered recordings I own.

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I was surprised to find that Beck's Mutations sounds really good. Some of the arrangements have instrumentation that could've sounded harsh and irritating, but the sound is big and lush even on cd.

Another one that surprised me was Miles Davis' The Musings of Miles. When he comes in on "A Night in Tunisia" it's like he's in the room. I get this sensation more with the vinyl on Prestige than I do with the DCC gold disc, but it's good too. Side 2 is one of my favorite all-time album sides. (BTW, music for a song used to have DCC gold disc cut-outs for dirt cheap.)

Another of my all-time favorite album sides is side one of Bab Marley's Natty Dread. I picked up a remastered version of this on vinyl that sounds excellent. I thought this release was from Speakers Corner but the only label info I can find is "Island."

A good sparse recording (distinct, simple instrumentation and vocals) is the MoFi release of REM's Murmur on vinyl. This thing sounds far superior to the original release.

Blue Note's 180 gram vinyl release of Coltrane's Blue Trane.

Some others of note - Pavement's Terror Twilight on vinyl; Dave Brubek's Time Out; ABKCO's vinyl release of the Rolling Stones' Beggar's Banquet - this sounds like rock-n-roll to me, even though it has the reputation for being poorly recorded (side 2 is another of my all-time favorite album sides).

You can't beat it when good music and good sound meet.

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Originally Posted by MikeyBC

Dont you hate it when you get home with a new disc and put it your high end system...you get in your listening chair and press play....and feel that wave of disappointment when you realize the recording engineer didnt give a damn how it sounded? :mad:

So my question is what are the 5 best sounding recordings you own?

mine are:
Jennifer Warnes--Famous blue raincoat (Attic)
Pat Coil--Just ahead (Sheffield labs)
Peter Gabriel--Security (Geffen)
Matt Dusk--Two shots (Decca)
Paul Simon--The rythm of the saints. (Warner Bros.)

They may not be my favorite artists but in my opinion among best engineered recordings I own.

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That Rhythm of the Saints album was a real grower for me. I remember initially not thinking much of the album, and frankly shelving it for a long time, then one day I went back to it and next thing I knew it was in constant rotation for awhile. Funny thing is, I never thought of the recording as being very good, do you own a remaster? Maybe I should pull it out of the garage for a spin, it's been awhile.

I have no idea which are the top five recordings, but Narada & Chesky label cd's are generally top notch, Jesse Cook; Vertigo comes to mind.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MikeyBC

Dont you hate it when you get home with a new disc and put it your high end system...you get in your listening chair and press play....and feel that wave of disappointment when you realize the recording engineer didnt give a damn how it sounded? :mad:

So my question is what are the 5 best sounding recordings you own?

mine are:
Jennifer Warnes--Famous blue raincoat (Attic)
Pat Coil--Just ahead (Sheffield labs)
Peter Gabriel--Security (Geffen)
Matt Dusk--Two shots (Decca)
Paul Simon--The rythm of the saints. (Warner Bros.)

They may not be my favorite artists but in my opinion among best engineered recordings I own.

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Mikey, your system sounds like a nice setup. Do the Silvers have anything close to the bass of the Gold. I ended up with the Dynaudio 82s over the PSB and B&W of same price. I only have Jennifer Warnes on one fabulous track on a David Benoit disc called Urban Daydreams, and not a bad recording.

My best sounding....that I can think of now are:
Bob James--Grand Piano Canyon (Fourplay before they were called Fourplay)
Craig Chaqico--Any of em
Elements--Liberal Arts on the Novus label (Danny Gotlieb & Mark Egan)
SRV--Couldn't Stand The Weather....a bit overcompressed but the disk that made me buy the Danes
King Crimson--Court of the King..Pressing from Holland with all the original album artwork and black sleeve and disk looking like an album.
Chesky Demo Disk
Chesky 10th Anniversary collection
Pretty much any disk I own on the GRP label. Mostly smooth jazz.
Oh, and all of Carl Filipiak's disks on his own Geometric label.

Hyfi

Well i'll add a couple as thats about all i have,Grand Funk Railroad-Grand Funk Pastmasters,the rest is in Japanese so i dont know what else it says. Donald ***en-Kamakirdiad. I've seen some call it a refrerence cd. It sounds pretty dam good.

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Originally Posted by newtrix1

I have no idea which are the top five recordings, but Narada & Chesky label cd's are generally top notch, Jesse Cook; Vertigo comes to mind.

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Have you heard Jesse Cook's Live in Montreal? I think I have this right. I listen to a nightly radio show and the host just added a song to his rotation by Jesse Cook from an album called Live in Montreal. It features guitar. The track has a Middle Eastern feel, I think. Am I in the ballpark? Anyhow, I like the track but had never heard of the artist.

I cant seem to enjoy the music if it doesnt sound halfway convincing, I guess each of us has different tolerance levels about sound quality.

newtrix1....the rythm of the saints has a couple of tracks that feature a lot of percussion that sounds very convincing when played loud...especially in the dark...you'd swear they were playing in front of you with a very realistic soundstage, thats why I included this disc.

Hyfi..the silvers cant match the golds in the bass slam department, two 6.5 inchers can only do so much. Though they do play quite deep.

I love all kinds of music and I find all of your replies very helpful in my search for good and good sounding music.

A few years ago before I hit this site on a regular basis I would have said the usual audition demo stuff from Mofi, DCC or some of the more specialist recording labels but although it's good sounding stuff it's also kinda' boring for me. I agree it's a shame some stuff just sounds plain horrible which does put me off sometimes but then I hear it on the radio or in the car and you get past the sound and think yeah it's ok.

We did a similar thread a while ago which is where most of the list below came from with a few more thrown in, whilst not 'audiophile' I personally would rate these for sound 7+ out of 10.

Red House Painters – Ocean Beach, really spacious recording
Robert Rice – 7 Veils, top to bottom huge soundstage
Elysian Fields – Bleed Your Cedar
Dada - Puzzle, great pop rock from 92' and I've just spotted they have remastered it
Dzihan & Kamien – Gran Riserva if you fancy a bit of electronica with some deep bass
Gordon Goodwin – XXL
Whiskeytown -
Grandaddy – Sumday great chugging basslines
The Glands – The Glands, overlooked gem
Blue Man Group – Complex
Jack Johnson – On and On
Notwist - Neon Golden
Peter Gabriel - just about all the remasters
Greg Brown - Further In
Sonia Dada - Lay Down and Love It Live
Damien Rice – O
Govt Mule - Dose
Tosca - Suzuki In Dub, more electronica in the style of Kruder and Dorfmeister
Beck - Sea Change

Cheers
Mike

Patricia Barber, Modern Cool or any of her recent recordings.

Rag Jhinjhoti, Rag Pilu. Imrat Khan, sitar; Vajahat Khan, sarod; Shafaatullah Khan, tabla. Nimbus NI 5195.

Philip Feeney, Dracula. John Pryce-Jones, Northern Ballet Theatre Orchestra. Naxos 8.553964

Brahms, Symphony no. 4; Beethoven, Egmont Overture. Fritz Reiner (Brahms), Rene Leibowitz (Beethoven), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Chesky CD6.

Beethoven, Symphony No. 9. Otmar Suitner, Staatskapelle Berlin. Denon 198C37-7256. Symphony No. 4 on 7254 is also very well recorded.

As someone else also said, my first priority is the music, but these all are excellent performances in excellent sound.

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Originally Posted by dean_martin

Have you heard Jesse Cook's Live in Montreal? I think I have this right. I listen to a nightly radio show and the host just added a song to his rotation by Jesse Cook from an album called Live in Montreal. It features guitar. The track has a Middle Eastern feel, I think. Am I in the ballpark? Anyhow, I like the track but had never heard of the artist.

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Nope, haven't heard that one. I wonder if it's on DVD, sure would be cool to watch him play. I found out (luckily after I bought one of his albums) that he's plays flamenco (sp?) style. Good thing I'd already purchased an album, 'cause the flamenco refererence would have probably have scared me off :)

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Originally Posted by MikeyBC

newtrix1....the rythm of the saints has a couple of tracks that feature a lot of percussion that sounds very convincing when played loud...especially in the dark...you'd swear they were playing in front of you with a very realistic soundstage, thats why I included this disc.

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I guess I know what my next home listening session will be :). Hope I didn't come across like I was questioning your opinion, it's great to hear other peoples perspective. Another album that came to mind (great music/great recording) is Andrew Bird'sBowl of Fire Swimming Hour, which (if memory serves me) received fairly universal praise here at Raverecs when it first came out.

Supertramp -- MoFi
Tears for Fears -- MoFi
Tyner -- New York Reunion -- Chesky gold
Steely Dan -- Gold
Dream Theater -- 6DOIT
Return to Forever -- Romantic Warrior -- Remaster


DVD:
Eagles -- Hell Freezes Over
Fleetwood Mac -- The Dance

For me the music content matters first, like others, some stuff may "sound good" but I might despise the music.

For me:

Steely Dan - Aja and Gaucho on MFSL compact disk. As close to analog as you can get on a digital platform.

Genesis - Trespass on "Definitive Edition Remaster", available only on import from Holland. This 1970 recording is so doggoned clean it's stunning.

The three RUSH albums on MFSL compact disk are also clean.

Gary Numan's "Telekon" on Beggars Banquet see dee remaster is superb.

The Tulls are done well as are the Yes re-re-re-re-remasters, and Kansas's Masque is the bomb, and Marillion's catalog on EMI remaster is superb as well.

Dave

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Originally Posted by newtrix1

Nope, haven't heard that one. I wonder if it's on DVD, sure would be cool to watch him play. I found out (luckily after I bought one of his albums) that he's plays flamenco (sp?) style. Good thing I'd already purchased an album, 'cause the flamenco refererence would have probably have scared me off :)

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Since I have a couple of J.Cook albums, I made a mental note of this album after reading your post dean, checked it out at allmusic.com, (pretty good write-up), and promptly penciled it in on my "wish" list. Wouldn't you know I found myself in an HMV today and what's playing over the stores sound system,.....sounds just like Jesse Cook-style guitar, so I bide my time to see if there is crowd noise after the song ends, and sure enough it's the live in MTL disc. Sounded good, but while looking for the disc, I'm thinking "sounds pretty much like the albums I already have and I probably have all the Jesse Cook I'll ever need", so I didn't buy it. But I would think it is probably ideal as an introduction.

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Originally Posted by Ex Lion Tamer

Since I have a couple of J.Cook albums, I made a mental note of this album after reading your post dean, checked it out at allmusic.com, (pretty good write-up), and promptly penciled it in on my "wish" list. Wouldn't you know I found myself in an HMV today and what's playing over the stores sound system,.....sounds just like Jesse Cook-style guitar, so I bide my time to see if there is crowd noise after the song ends, and sure enough it's the live in MTL disc. Sounded good, but while looking for the disc, I'm thinking "sounds pretty much like the albums I already have and I probably have all the Jesse Cook I'll ever need", so I didn't buy it. But I would think it is probably ideal as an introduction.

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Thanks for the info, Ex Lion Tamer. I did a little checking myself and discovered that the name of the track I've heard is Baghdad.

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Originally Posted by MikeyBC

I cant seem to enjoy the music if it doesnt sound halfway convincing, I guess each of us has different tolerance levels about sound quality.

newtrix1....the rythm of the saints has a couple of tracks that feature a lot of percussion that sounds very convincing when played loud...especially in the dark...you'd swear they were playing in front of you with a very realistic soundstage, thats why I included this disc.

Hyfi..the silvers cant match the golds in the bass slam department, two 6.5 inchers can only do so much. Though they do play quite deep.

I love all kinds of music and I find all of your replies very helpful in my search for good and good sounding music.

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How do you like those PSB Stratus speakers?

We recently bought Stratus Minis as we don't play super loud and also have a big subwoofer to take care of the deep bass. They are so good, better than I ever expected them to be before I heard them.

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Originally Posted by Mike

Red House Painters – Ocean Beach, really spacious recording

Elysian Fields – Bleed Your Cedar

Cheers
Mike

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OCEAN BEACH is nice, but I think I like SONGS FOR A BLUE GUITAR better. It sounds more natural to me, more relaxed. I think the vocals on OCEAN BEACH are mixed too loud.

and.. BLEED YOUR CEDAR.. what can you say? mmmmmmmmmmm :)

-jar

but here's my two-cents...

Donald ***en - Nightfly
Thomas Dolby - Aliens Ate My Buick
Dire Straits - On Every Street
Lindsey Buckingham - Out Of The Cradle
Bob James - Trio
Steve Winwood - Back In The High Life
James Taylor - That's Why I'm Here

Pick any Dream Theater or Spock's Beard CD as well.

Pretty weak, moderator...

LP's recorded at 30ips and on 35mm magnetic tape always have live, open and rich

sound.

Let me share 55 years of secrets with you . ..

1- The sound of Music (orig cast) {Columbia}

2- Carousel (35mm) {Command}

3- Miles Davis - MILESTONES {Columbia}

4- LIVE! It's Peter Allen (2-LP set)

5- Vickki Carr {Liberty) I had a radio station copy

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Originally Posted by Dave_G

The three RUSH albums on MFSL compact disk are also clean.

Dave

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You should pick up the Rush Remasters..they absolutely trounce the MFSL versions!

Herb Albert - Rise (Bernie Grundman)
Keith Jarrett - Still Live (Some German guy)
Dave Grusin - Mountain Dance (Rosen)
Steely Dan - Aja (MFSL) (Gary Katz)
Rufus & Chaka Khan - MasterJam (Bruce Sweiden)

Another 5

Doobie Brothers - Livin' on a Fault Line
Rachelle Farrelle - Individuality
Pat Metheny Group - This Way up (brand new)
Kenny Burrell - Midnight Blue (over 40 years old!)
Al Jarraeu - L is for Lover (Al Schmitt)