High quality sound albums

[cpp]

Russian Violin Concertos - Fischer/Kreizberg first "proper" SACD (as in hybrid & MCH too) and what electrifying playing + recording to match.


Mozart: Quartet & Quintets - Kuijken String Quartet


The wife loves this one; The Doobie Brothers - What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits Ultradisc UHR™ SACD , http://www.mofi.com/store/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=275&idcategory=

 

[j_garcia]

Throw in Jack White's new album "Blunderbuss"

Yes. Well engineered, awesome separation. There is some crush in a few tracks, but I can't tell if it is intentional or not.

 

[Jeepers]

"Roadhouses & Automobiles" from Chris Jones (CD : Stockfisch Records)

 

[PENG]

Looks like by weekend I should update the summary list again and perhaps order a few more from it, to take advantage of the higher C$.

 

[K-wey]

Johnny A, pop/rock/ jazz guitarist, does chord-melody like nobody's business. He produces his own records, and they're wonderful sounding: uncompressed, clear as a bell, proper track separation - and most of all, wonderful playing.

"Sometime Tuesday Morning" and "Get Inside" are his two albums to date.

 

[PENG]

As of now the list would include more than 80 titles of all formats, except tapes’. Just a quick reminder, I wanted this list because I find that there is a point of diminishing return in terms of gears. That point is at a level that is getting reasonably affordable, thanks to technological advance.

Once that point is reached, and I believe I have, the single most important element in the home audio setup is the source media. That is, a well recorded/mastered piece, be it a CD, vinyl, BR or HD flac will sound better, that is more like "live"; and I mean audibly as well as obviously better (so obvious that no one needs an ABX) than a less well recorded/mastered one played through a superior (based on specs, reputation, cost etc.) system. That means, to me, we can save a lot of hard earned money by acquiring high quality source media discs/vinyls/files instead of super high end hardware/components.

I will post the updated lists, sorted/unsorted alphabetically by tomorrow.

 

[STRONGBADF1]

As of now the list would include more than 80 titles of all formats, except tapes’. Just a quick reminder, I wanted this list because I find that there is a point of diminishing return in terms of gears. That point is at a level that is getting reasonably affordable, thanks to technological advance.

Once that point is reached, and I believe I have, the single most important element in the home audio setup is the source media. That is, a well recorded/mastered piece, be it a CD, vinyl, BR or HD flac will sound better, that is more like "live"; and I mean audibly as well as obviously better (so obvious that no one needs an ABX) than a less well recorded/mastered one played through a superior (based on specs, reputation, cost etc.) system. That means, to me, we can save a lot of hard earned money by acquiring high quality source media discs/vinyls/files instead of super high end hardware/components.

I will post the updated lists, sorted/unsorted alphabetically by tomorrow.

So true... I just hope that there will be something for me on the list.

 

[PENG]

#58-#83 in the unsorted list have been added since Feb 27.

1 Third Eye Blind (CD)
2 Mahler: Symphony No 5 / Abbado, Lucerne Festival Overture (BR)
3 Anesthetize by Porcupine Tree (BR)
4 Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms (CD/SACD/Vinyl)
5 Depeche Mode – Violator (CD/SACD)
6 Cake Fashion Nugget (CD/Vinyl)
7 Breaking Silence (Gold CD, Limited Edition)
8 Aja by Steely Dan CD with the MCA label, Catalog # MCAD-37214
9 Patricia Barber's Cafe Blue and Companion (CD/SACD)
10 Grace for Drowning BR
11 KEB' MO' - KEB' MO' (NUMBERED LIMITED EDITION HYBRID SACD)
12 Guitar Noir by Laurence Juber (on DVD-Audio)
13 Miserere/Vox Patris Caelestis
14 Jazz at the Pawnshop CD/SACD
15 Gaucho DVD-A/SACD
16 Brain (Hybr) [Hybrid SACD – DSD
17 6 and 12 String Guitar by Leo Kottke
18 Donald Fagen-The Nightfly (vinyl, DVD-audio)
19 Pink Floyd-Wish You Were Here (Nimbus vinyl, Analogue Productions SACD)
20 Sonny Rollins-Way Out West (vinyl, MoFi CD)
21 Ry Cooder-Jazz (vinyl) (actually, any Ry Cooder recording is pretty high quality)
22 John Coltrane-Blue Train (vinyl, SACD)
23 Fry Street Quartet Beethoven, ISO Mike
24 Fry Street Quartet Haydn, ISO Mike
25 The Harper Brothers, Remembrance, Live at the Village Vanguard. Polygram
26 David Benoit, Waiting for Spring, GRP
27 Michel Camino, Solo, Telarc.
28 Larry Goldings, Awareness, Warner Brothers.
29 Houston Person, The Art and Soul of, 3 CD set, HighNote
30 Carmina Burana, Telarc CD-80056
31 Symphonie Fantastique, Reference Recordings RR-11CD1812, Telarc CD-80041
32 Silk Road Journeys, Yo-Yo Ma & The Silk Road Ensemble, Sony SS89782 (SACD)
33 Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone (Hybr) (Snys) (Hybrid SACD – DSD)
34 Tchaikovsky, Korngold: Violin Concertos, Deutsche Grammophon (SACD)
35 Dancing in the Dark, Telarc SACD-63592 or any of the Tierney Sutton SACD
36 Concord Jazz SACD Sampler Volume 2
37 The Most Happy Fella, KOC-CD-8507
38 Patricia Barber nightclub UDSACD 2004
39 Concord On A Summer Night Dave Brubeck Quartet, CAT # SACD-1025-6
40 Yo-Yo Ma & Friends songs of Joy & Peace, CD
41 Live at Royal Albert Hall, Adele, BR
42 Green, R.E.M., DVD-A
43 Out of Time, R.E.M. DVD-A
44 Automatic For The People, R.E.M. DVD-A
45 Sea Change, Beck, DVD-A
46 A night at the opera, Queen, DVD-A
47 DSOTM, SACD
48 Radiohead - all CD's
49 Natalie Merchant, "Tigerlily" (Mo-Fi), CD
50 Everything But the Girl, "Acoustic", CD
51 The Who, "Quadrophenia" (Mo-Fi), CD
52 Yuri Temirkanov conducting the St. Petersburg Philharmonic through Shostakovich 7, CD
53 John Elliot Gardiner conducting the Philharmonia through Holst's "The Planets" and Percy Grainger's "The Warriors", CD
54 Tokyo Kosei wind orchestra, "Year of the Dragon", CD
55 Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, "Live Art", CD
56 Dvorak New World Symphony, RCA Living Stereo, SACD
57 Saint-Saens Violin Concerto, Vieustemps Violin Concerto, London Symphony Orchestra, Kyung-Wha Chung, The Super Analogue Disc (Vinyl)
58 Fiona Apple - When The Pawn
59 Luis Miguel - Romance
60 Luis Miguel - Aries
61 Karl Denson's Tiny Universe
62 Karl Denson's Dance Lesson #2
63 Nickel - This side
64 B&W - A sound experience
65 Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Sessions
66 Cantate-Domino by Oscar's Motet Choir SACD
67 Queen, A Kind Of Magic, vinly version
68 John Mayer - where the light is Live in LA, BD version
69 Led Zeppelin albums 1,2,3, and 4 (Vinyl version)
70 Tom Petty's MOJO (Vinyl version)
71 Pink Floyd's "The Wall" (Vinyl version)
72 CSO Brass Live - Hybrid SACD (CSO Resound)
73 Mylo Xyloto by coldplay
74 Tracy Chapman - Crossroads, vinyl version
75 Tom Petty's Hard Promise (Vinyl version)
76 Radiohead - The King of Limbs Live from the Basement (BR version)
77 Jack White - Blunderbuss
78 Russian Violin Concertos - Fischer/Kreizberg first "proper" SACD
79 Mozart: Quartet & Quintets - Kuijken String Quartet
80 The Doobie Brothers - What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits Ultradisc UHR™ SACD
81 Chris Jones - Roadhouses & Automobiles (CD : Stockfisch Records)
82 Johnny A - Get Inside
83 Johnny A - Sometime Tuesday Morning

I see no point to make a sorted list now because the descriptions don't always start with the artists names. It is easy for anyone to copy it over to a spreadsheet for sorting and text searching. Except a couple of expensive and hard to find ones that I seem to remember having trouble finding on Amazon.com, all of the listed titles should be available for online purchase.

I don't beleive there are overlaps except for the Radiohead ones for the obvious reason, other than that please let me know if you catch any mistakes or repeats, thank you all again. I look forward to updating it again if it ever reaches 100, and then I will stop.

 

[skizzerflake]

For bluegrass fans (I assume there are some fans of this music that often appeals to fans of chamber music), Alison Krauss and Union Station's new one, Paper Airplane, has wonderful sound. Rich strings, especially dobro, fine, crisp vocals, no obvious compression or clipping, great "air", make this a sonic delight. As usual, their music is played excellently too, with sterling musicianship. Sometimes, in this era of lossy compression, clippped recordings and general grit, I forget that albums can sound this good.

It reminds of of some years back, when we all dallied with surround for a while and I had a 2 disk SACD set of the band in a live performance. It was my favorite demo disk for surround doubters, since it made the live performance so palpably real that it was like you were there. This band seems to delight in fine sound and Paper Airplane gets a lot of good sound from a CD and 2 channels.

 

[macddmac]

An all time favorite of mine is Dan Fogelberg and Tim Weisberg's Twin sons of different mothers (original vinyl) Both the music content and production were top rate IMHO .

 

[LAB3]

Norah Jones SACD "Come Away With Me" has Great seperation etc. I looked for it on the list.

 

[PENG]

Norah Jones SACD "Come Away With Me" has Great seperation etc. I looked for it on the list.

I wanted to buy that one but I owned the vinyl version already. If you say it sounds great I will add it in the next updated list.

 

[LAB3]

I wanted to buy that one but I owned the vinyl version already. If you say it sounds great I will add it in the next updated list.

I played it today in the bedroom system in a CD player, L&R seperation was awsome. I wish all my CD were recorded like this. I have a CD from "Back Door Slam".... Roll Away . I wish it was done SACD as it to has good seperation and killer bass.

 

[j_garcia]

Fiona Apple's new one The Idler Wheel... has some excellent recording/mastering.

 

[Send Margaritas]

Norah Jones SACD "Come Away With Me" has Great seperation etc. I looked for it on the list.

+1

Also, what is very much missing on the list:

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (Remastered) on SACD
Stevie Ray Vaughn - The Sky is Crying on SACD (The version of 'Little Wing' is fantastic.)

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I have a few of the albums on the list.

But none of them sound as awesome as Dave Mathews & Tim Reynolds Live at Radio City Music Hall on CD & Blu-ray.

I don't even like Dave Mathews. Don't even memorize any of his lyrics. Don't sing any of his songs.

But this album is so awesome, it doesn't matter.

This album is so great, Bose speakers will sound good playing it.

I will try the Third Eye Blind and see how it compares to the Mathews/ Reynolds Radio City album.

 

[afterlife2]

I don't even like Dave Mathews. Don't even memorize any of his lyrics. Don't sing any of his songs.

Can't stand him, but I like John Mayer.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I'm listening to Third Eye Blind now. Sounds pretty good. But I still think Mathews/ Reynolds Radio City is a better, even though I actually know more songs from Third Eye.

 

[MinusTheBear]

That album has a lot of "punch" to it. I love the guitar tones especially on the bass. I bet you have never heard a drum sound like this until you hear the snare throughout and rimshot at the end of Semi-Charmed and Jumper. It should sound absolutely haunting cranked up on the Salons!

I would love to hear this album start to finish with the Salon2 set to full range, no subwoofer.

 

[AcuDefTechGuy]

I'm listening to Yo-Yo Ma Plays Ennio Morricone now. Ah, definitely high fidelity sound quality. Marvelous. Outstanding.