Looking for some good recordings.

[Soundman]

I recently purchased some new speakers and have been slowly going through my CD collection and have noticed that some of my existing material sounds horrible on the new speakers. I know this is partly due the the higher quality of the new speakers. And also, b/c of the compression issue mentioned in Rolling Stones Magazine. And, of course it has been mentioned here numerous times as well. Some of my current material sounds pretty good, but some of it is quite terrible. My goal is to replace some of this material with some well recorded ones. I'm quite sure this has been discussed before, but does anyone have a good list of some well recorded stuff. I have a pretty wide selection of music ranging from classical, Jazz, pop, rock. I'm pretty open to the genre of music. If it is well recorded, it's at least worth a listen. The funny thing is that the more popular the artist, the worse it sounds. Ironic, eh.... (I could just be imagining this). Anyway, any recomendations, links, or suggestions are welcome.

 

[The Chukker]

Speaking from personal experience, anything by Eric Clapton is beautifully mixed and recorded (One More Car One More Rider is the best sounding DVD I own -- and that includes movies). Some of his CD's (such as "Reptile") are recorded in the HDCD format as well (a high bit rate/high sample rate version of LPCM). Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers use this format as well; I have their box set "Playback" and it is awesome sounding.
Anything by Pink Floyd (or Roger Waters, or David Gilmour) is impeccably mixed and recorded.
If you have a BD player (and compatible receiver), check out Dave Matthews Live at Radio City in Dolby True HD 5.1 -- Holy Crap that disc sounds great.
Ummm...this list can go on forever...

 

[Swerd]

Look for CDs from Telarc.

I have several of their classical recordings and they are some of the cleanest sounding low-noise recordings I've heard. Some of their CDs claim they are 24 bit instead of the usual 16 bit.

 

[stratman]

This company puts out good stuff though limited.

http://www.mofi.com/productcart/pc/home.asp

 

[Brett A]

Out of the 1700+ CDs in my collection, my favorite ONE for sound quality and content is Lambchop -Is a Woman

As for just sheer quality of production (sound stage, detail, rhythm and pacing), Patricia Barber -Modern Cool is unsurpassed by anything else in my collection.

Steely Dan -Two Against Nature is considered perhaps universally to be a top-notch production.

Which reminds me, I have used the Grammy Award's list of Best Engineereed as a guide.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grammy_Award_for_Best_Engineered_Album,_Non-Classical

Happy hunting!!

 

[bandphan]

chesky records

http://www.chesky.com/

 

[chadnliz]

Chesky, Telarc, Deutsche Gramophone. Blue Note, are a few that come to mind.......having atleast a few from each of these I can say without a doubt they are superb. Small Indie rock albums can have fantastic sound, these guys still release on Vinyl aswell.

 

[Soundman]

Nice suggestions everyone. I'll have to take a look at those links.

 

[Soundman]

Nice ideas everyone, but does anyone know of any other mainstream music that is actually recorded well? I'm trying to get a list together. Thanks again everyone.

 

[Nomo]

I'm not sure what you consider mainstream.
A Couple of my favorites, for both content and sound quality; John Butcher's "Wishes" and "Pictures from the Front".

 

[j_garcia]

Jazz at the Pawnshop.

 

[Soundman]

Jazz at the Pawnshop.

At the pawn shop?

 

[ParadigmDawg]

It is an album, he is not saying to but it at the pawn shop

Some the the best Jazz that I have is the Spyro Gyra CDs that are Digital Masters from GRP Records. These can usually be found in a pawn shop for 4-5 bucks. Spyro Gyra also uses a second recording company but the recordings are not as clean.

At the pawn shop?

 

[boboi]

I recently purchased some new speakers and have been slowly going through my CD collection and have noticed that some of my existing material sounds horrible on the new speakers. I know this is partly due the the higher quality of the new speakers. And also, b/c of the compression issue mentioned in Rolling Stones Magazine. And, of course it has been mentioned here numerous times as well. Some of my current material sounds pretty good, but some of it is quite terrible. My goal is to replace some of this material with some well recorded ones. I'm quite sure this has been discussed before, but does anyone have a good list of some well recorded stuff. I have a pretty wide selection of music ranging from classical, Jazz, pop, rock. I'm pretty open to the genre of music. If it is well recorded, it's at least worth a listen. The funny thing is that the more popular the artist, the worse it sounds. Ironic, eh.... (I could just be imagining this). Anyway, any recomendations, links, or suggestions are welcome.

Check out The Eagles Hell Freezes Over album:

http://www.amazon.com/Hell-Freezes-Over-Eagles/dp/B000000OU0/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1204929055&sr=8-1

It's The Eagles at their finest with an ABSOLUTE KILLER acoustic take of the 1976 classic "Hotel California" that has to be heard to be believed! The Eagles also flesh out some of their better known rock hits that will definetly flex any audio muscle your system has.

 

[PhillyDan1969]

Check out The Eagles Hell Freezes Over album:

http://www.amazon.com/Hell-Freezes-Over-Eagles/dp/B000000OU0/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1204929055&sr=8-1

It's The Eagles at their finest with an ABSOLUTE KILLER acoustic take of the 1976 classic "Hotel California" that has to be heard to be believed! The Eagles also flesh out some of their better known rock hits that will definetly flex any audio muscle your system has.

Love this album, I have the DTS version, definitely one of top 5 recordings!!!

 

[1tribeca]

Although I've had my fill of this record over the last 20 years, "Brothers In Arms" Dire Straits was always regarded as a fine rec'd (and the first CD to sell a million copies as a matter of fact)