High quality sound albums

[Irvrobinson]

I hear obvious improvements on even 2 channel SACD over CD. Not as much with classical solo instrumental, chamber, vocals, etc., but recordings with a bigger bottom end. Especially some of the rock/pop SACD's, which are sadly few and far between nowadays. I imagine the differences even greater on mutil-channel, assuming they were produced/mixed correctly.

Your comments on SACD vs. CD leave me as perplexed as you are about Vinyl vs. CD.

Hmmm. Recordings with a bigger bottom end? Why would that be the case, do you think? I can understand where a young person with very good hearing might conceivably hear a difference beyond 22KHz (I'm stretching things, I know), but CD is well nigh perfect down to 20Hz. There shouldn't be *any* difference in bass response between the two formats.

I think there are of great SACD recordings because great sound is the value proposition of the format, but I just can't hear the format differences. Are you actually referring to format differences, that you can hear the difference between the layers on hybrid SACDs?

 

[adwilk]

bb

What is your equipment list? These improvements over CD will only be discernible on very good systems.

Couldn't disagree more.

"Very good systems" ??? According to who? You? Thats ridiculous. Even the OP was off base by limiting the discussion to a certain perspective being gained by having equipment costing a certain amount.

Am I way off? I guess I'll read the rest of the thread.. (only read up to quoted post)

 

[adwilk]

BTW, Third Eye Blind looks incredibly out of place on that list, but it really is a great recording.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Hmmm. Recordings with a bigger bottom end? Why would that be the case, do you think? I can understand where a young person with very good hearing might conceivably hear a difference beyond 22KHz (I'm stretching things, I know), but CD is well nigh perfect down to 20Hz. There shouldn't be *any* difference in bass response between the two formats.

I think there are of great SACD recordings because great sound is the value proposition of the format, but I just can't hear the format differences. Are you actually referring to format differences, that you can hear the difference between the layers on hybrid SACDs?

Just a little something to back up your position:

http://theaudiocritic.com/plog/index.php?op=ViewArticle&articleId=4&blogId=1

 

[GO-NAD!]

Couldn't disagree more.

"Very good systems" ??? According to who? You? Thats ridiculous. Even the OP was off base by limiting the discussion to a certain perspective being gained by having equipment costing a certain amount.

Am I way off? I guess I'll read the rest of the thread.. (only read up to quoted post)

Whoa dude - lighten up!

For what it's worth, I agree with you. But, I think I understand where these guys are coming from. I think they are a bit over the top regarding equipment requirements, but the basic point has some validity. The quality of a recording - or lack thereof - might not be apparent when played back on a boombox or a Bose system, but I think they overestimate the performance/investment requirement needed to do justice to quality recordings. Good/bad recordings are certainly distinguishable on my system, which wouldn't meet the suggetsed price parameters.

Peng did add a back-handed disclaimer to his post:

I know list price does not always relate to sound quality but it is difficult not to generalize in this case....

I don't think I would've suggested any arbitrary prices, as it's almost as easy to spend a lot on a poor system, as a good system. I hope we don't ignite a flame war over this, as it's counterproductive and distracts from the primary purpose of the thread, which is to compile a list of top quality recordings.

 

[j_garcia]

Price shouldn't be a factor IMO. One can certainly build a very nice system from used gear without laying out a ton of cash. This thread seems to be specific to identifying great recordings that can be enjoyed regardless of what you listen to them on; so what you play them back on is up to you.

 

[PENG]

Price shouldn't be a factor IMO. One can certainly build a very nice system from used gear without laying out a ton of cash. This thread seems to be specific to identifying great recordings that can be enjoyed regardless of what you listen to them on; so what you play them back on is up to you.

Agree, in my preamble I tried to make the point that sometimes the quality of the recording has more impact on the perceived sound quality played through the final transducer, i.e. the speakers, than the format as well as system components including the speakers themselves.

I made reference to price points thinking that was one way to preclude HTIB, low end Bose, entry level AVR etc., because with those kind of components, quality of recordings would not likely be the bottleneck in the overall scheme. I wish I had communicated better in the beginning, instead of throwing out arbitrary price points. Actually I still couldn't make my point clearer, but thanks for eveyone's help doing it for me in the end.

 

[ChrisL9472]

Hmmm. Recordings with a bigger bottom end? Why would that be the case, do you think? I can understand where a young person with very good hearing might conceivably hear a difference beyond 22KHz (I'm stretching things, I know), but CD is well nigh perfect down to 20Hz. There shouldn't be *any* difference in bass response between the two formats.

Yes, recordings with a full bottom end. Like full orchestral, rock/pop, synthesizers, etc. One disc that sticks out in my mind was The Police: Greatest Hits, which came out briefly in SACD. The track 'King of Pain' took my breath away when I first heard it, and that was on a modest 2-channel set up. Even the mostly mono Sam Cooke: The Legend was noticeably improved over other CD incarnations I heard. It could possibly be because of superior remastering, but I really think SACD had something to do with it. I don't mean to rip off Darth Vader, but there was presence there I had not felt since...

I have sometimes only noticed very subtle differences (or none at all) with solo piano, solo violin, or solo female vocals, which is why I believe the benefit of SACD lies more in the lower frequencies. But I haven't heard these in multi-channel, which may be where they really shine.

I think there are of great SACD recordings because great sound is the value proposition of the format, but I just can't hear the format differences. Are you actually referring to format differences, that you can hear the difference between the layers on hybrid SACDs?

I'm referring to SACD vs. redbook CD, not the SACD/CD layers of the same disc. I haven't done much comparison with that.

 

[j_garcia]

One more to add:

Dave Brubeck Quartet
Concord On A Summer Night
CAT # SACD-1025-6

 

[PENG]

As soon as the C$ gets a little higher I will be ordering a few from the list. I should mention that I have acquired quite a few HD Flac albums but have not found one so far that is worth adding to our list. I could list at least one free download that does sound really nice, but that would be just one track.

If the list continues to grow I can update it as required. A longer list should not hurt because I am sure we all have different taste so to each of us the list will invariably shrink to a "short" list.

 

[PENG]

One more to add:

Dave Brubeck Quartet
Concord On A Summer Night
CAT # SACD-1025-6

Is this the one?

Amazon.com: Concord on a Summer Night (Hybr): Dave Brubeck: Music

http://www.amazon.ca/Concord-Summer-Night-Brubeck-Quartet/dp/B0000C23AV/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328748385&sr=8-1

US$99 or C$195.62 used!! Is the C$13.55 CD version also good?

http://www.amazon.ca/Concord-Summer-Night-Dave-Brubeck/dp/B0000006EB/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1328748385&sr=8-2

 

[j_garcia]

Is this the one?

Amazon.com: Concord on a Summer Night (Hybr): Dave Brubeck: Music

http://www.amazon.ca/Concord-Summer-Night-Brubeck-Quartet/dp/B0000C23AV/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1328748385&sr=8-1

US$99 or C$195.62 used!! Is the C$13.55 CD version also good?

http://www.amazon.ca/Concord-Summer-Night-Dave-Brubeck/dp/B0000006EB/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1328748385&sr=8-2

Yes, that's it. I believe it may be out of print unfortunately, which is why the prices are high now.

I only have the SACD, so I am not sure how the CD sounds, but it is one amazing recording so I would imagine even the CD will sound great. This is one of those recordings that really impressed me, but the SACD multichannel tracks are sublime - one of those ones where it sounds like you are THERE, even in 2ch.

 

[djreef]

Agree, in my preamble I tried to make the point that sometimes the quality of the recording has more impact on the perceived sound quality played through the final transducer, i.e. the speakers, than the format as well as system components including the speakers themselves.

I made reference to price points thinking that was one way to preclude HTIB, low end Bose, entry level AVR etc., because with those kind of components, quality of recordings would not likely be the bottleneck in the overall scheme. I wish I had communicated better in the beginning, instead of throwing out arbitrary price points. Actually I still couldn't make my point clearer, but thanks for eveyone's help doing it for me in the end.

Besides j_g (the used audio condor) has assembled ultra high performance systems for pennies on the dollar picking and weaving his way through every second hand stereo venue on the planet. Price is really inconsequential when you know where to look (from 2000 ft up).

DJ

 

[PENG]

I am still in the process of listening to some of my older CDs and am very impressed with this one:

Yo-Yo Ma & Friends songs of Joy & Peace. This album offers the following features and qualitites.

- Performances by multiple highly talented artists
- Huge dynamics
- Huge soundstage, depth, 3-D sensation
- warm (again I hate to use such descriptions but..) sounding
- Overall sound quality top notch, equal to some of my best SACDs
- Bonus 60 minutes DVD with music video

To top it all, just listening to (and also watch) Alison Krauss sing The Wexford Carol is worth the money, time and effort. Among those I picked so far, I would give this one top overall score, for now anyway.

Where is jostenmeat these days? He needs to buy this album and sell it to the Focal dealers so that they can start clearing out their inventories.

The 1028 Be is quite at home with this album and I could definitely hear things I have not heard before. Seriously I am sure Jostenmeat would not have trouble listening to that Be tweeter playing this album.

 

[DS-21]

I don't and will not own SACD or DVD-A. I'm strictly a two channel man when it comes to music reproduction and I like both CD and vinyl formats depending on the recording engineer.

That's too bad. Merely good multichannel can bring one closer to the music than the best two-channel. The best multichannel is simply sublime. Bad multichannel is, however, probably worse than bad 2-channel....

A few other suggestions, thus far unmentioned so far as I could see:

Blu-Ray:
Adele, "Live at Royal Albert Hall"

DVD-A:
R.E.M. - Green, Out of Time, and Automatic for the People

Beck, "Sea Change"

Queen, "A Night at the Opera"

SACD:
DSOTM

CD:
Radiohead, all

Natalie Merchant, "Tigerlily" (Mo-Fi)

Everything But the Girl, "Acoustic"

The Who, "Quadrophenia" (Mo-Fi)

Yuri Temirkanov conducting the St. Petersburg Philharmonic through Shostakovich 7

John Elliot Gardiner conducting the Philharmonia through Holst's "The Planets" and Percy Grainger's "The Warriors"

Tokyo Kosei wind orchestra, "Year of the Dragon"

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, "Live Art"

 

[j_garcia]

Wow, I can't see how I forgot Beck Sea Change It was available on both SACD and DVD-A, but good luck finding the SACD for a decent price.

DVD-A:
Label: Geffen Records
ASIN: B0000Z80HU

 

[PENG]

The USD is low enough now so I will be ordering some from the list, but this one, #16 on our list:

Amazon.com: Brain (Hybr): Hiromi: Music

is only $10, so I want to order it anyway but what kind of music is it? I am too lazy to check who listed it..yet....

 

[PENG]

I am still hoping someone, like 3 db, will list a couple of nice vinyl albums that are worth me, or others hunting for.

 

[PENG]

Wow, I can't see how I forgot Beck Sea Change It was available on both SACD and DVD-A, but good luck finding the SACD for a decent price.

You are right about the luck thing, both SACD and DVDA are going for over $100 (Amazon.com). The CD version is affordable at $9.99, and I just added it to cart. Is the CD good too in terms of SQ?

 

[moves]

Adele BD
Jphn Mayer - where the light is BD

this is the ****