jpm Posted May 27, 2004 Share Posted May 27, 2004 One may have the finest stereo system known to man, yet be at the mercy of the mixer. Sucks!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colin Posted May 27, 2004 Share Posted May 27, 2004 Every tweaking audiophile needs a few high quality audiophile CDs it all starts at the source! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-MAN Posted May 27, 2004 Share Posted May 27, 2004 Ain't it the truth? I tend to rely on my collection of Flim and the BB's for a recording reference for testing tweaks and such. DM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpm Posted May 27, 2004 Author Share Posted May 27, 2004 Would you be so kind as to recommend a few selections of nicely mixed/produced cd's? I like jazz, blues, rock, symphony, acoustic. Pass on the opera, bluegrass, folk, etc... I have a pair of RF35s, a RW12 sub, nice integrated amp. and cd player. Not top-of-the-line stuff, but okay for my casual listening needs. (At least until the kids are raised). hehehe Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
D-MAN Posted May 27, 2004 Share Posted May 27, 2004 Here's some of my favs: Flim and the BB's, "Tricycle" and "Big Notes", DMG (jazz) Ravel, "Daphne et Cloe", Deutch Grammophon, (Symphonic) Yellowjackets, "Four Corners", "Green House", DMG (jazz) Linda Rhondstat with the Nelson Riddle Orchestra - especially the one with "Skylark" on it - I can't remember the title... (analog but good) For other symphonic music, typically any on the TELARC label is pretty much fabulous... My favorite is Faure and Durufle, "Requeim", TELARC (symphonic). some SONY symphonic stuff is good, too. The Sony recordings will be slightly "softer" than the more-edgy TELARC stuff. I didn't list any rock in that the requirements for rock are such that IMO, the actual recording quality isn't as much of an integral part of the music... I appologize for not having all of this info handy, but I'm at work and my cd collection is at home... DM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpm Posted May 27, 2004 Author Share Posted May 27, 2004 Hey D, thanks for the titles. Appreciate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strabo Posted May 27, 2004 Share Posted May 27, 2004 Pick anything off the now defunct DCC label, old Mobile Fidelity CD's, New Mobile Fidelity SACDs. Anything from Analog Productions. Maybe Audio Fidelity titles if they float your boat. Anything from Telarc. I don't have many Blue Notes but they are known for being good too. There can be great stuff in early CD's too. Look for early (no upc) CD's manufactured in Japan (Toshiba black triangle discs) or W. Germany (WEA targets). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TBrennan Posted May 27, 2004 Share Posted May 27, 2004 This is funny. The music comes first. I don't hold with "audiophile" recordings as such. Bad sounding good music is better than good sounding bad music. Of course good sounding good music is very good but so what. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clipped and Shorn Posted May 27, 2004 Share Posted May 27, 2004 the message vs. the messenger unlike "the medium is the message" music is a language in a sense confusing the symbol for it what it symbolizes and vice versa I'll finish this later..... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted May 28, 2004 Share Posted May 28, 2004 Every tweaking audiophile needs a few high quality audiophile LPs it all starts at the source! Just a minor change... No surprise to anyone that my list would be made up of entirely classical recordings. Allan can provide Jazz recommendations. (apologies for the layout - I just copy and pasted from my spreadsheet - but you shuold be able to work out what is what): I have more if anyone really wants them.... As follows: Corelli/Pachelbel/Ricciotti/Gluck Concerto Grosso/Kanon/Concertino 2/Chaconne Concerto Stuttgart Chamber Karl Munchinger Decca SXL 2265 S UK 1 ffss audiophile Dvorak Cello Concerto Concerto Pierre Fournier Vienna Philharmonic Rafael Kubelik London KIJC(M) 9215 M Japan 1 Super Analogue Disc Rachmaninov Piano Concerto 3 Concerto Vladimir Ashkenazy London Symphony Andre Previn London KIJC-9204 S Japan 1 Super Analogue Disc Rossini Barber of Seville Opera Hermann Prey Berlin Philharmonic Otmar Suitner Analogue Audio Association EPH-18 S Germany Schubert String Quartet in C major Small Inst. Christian Poltera Auryn Quartet Tacet L110 S Germany 1 Strauss R Also sprach Zarathustra Symphony Chicago Fritz Reiner RCA Red Seal LSC-1806 S US 1 Living Stereo 200g Various Cantate Domino Vocal Oscars Motettkor Proprius 7762 S Sweden 1 Various Music Pickup Test Record Exerpts Various Clearaudio 43033 S Germany Verdi Aida Opera Price/Vickers/Merrill Rome Opera House Georg Solti DECCA ffss 427-9 S Holland Box Set Verdi La Traviata Opera Renato Scotti Der Mailander Scala Antonino Votto Deutche Grammaphon 2727 004 S Germany 2 For reference: Entries such as Opera, Symphony, Concerto etc. are just for sorting on the spreadsheet. M=mono, S=stereo the numbers (1, 2) refer to the number of disks in the album) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Audible Nectar Posted May 28, 2004 Share Posted May 28, 2004 No offense to the classical/jazz fans on the board, Max, but unfortunately, those genres seem to have a monopoly on quality sound. This is part of the problem with this topic - it seems the rock/pop tastes get left out. This seems born of the constant overuse of compression in rock/popular recordings. If only the rock/popular mixers cared about this. Given the state of monopolistic business practices, why doesn't some big audio company start buying up music distribution, make good recordings, then in turn force customers to buy good gear to hear that quality? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maxg Posted May 28, 2004 Share Posted May 28, 2004 Audible, I sympathise with what you are saying. The problem is that the few Audiophile Rock (or modern music lets say) recordings that I have come across are generally not as good as the original releases, sonically, for reasons that are beyond me. Examples I have direct experience of include: Pink Floyd - DSOTM - Japanese MF recording Vs plain vanilla Greek pressing - the Greek pressing wins hand down. Jennifer Warnes - Famous Blue Raincoat - pretty much same thing except not MF this time and Vs a German pressing I have. Al Green Best of recording - I paid a ludicrous amount for the audiophile 200 gramme version and the plain one Tony has stomps all over it. There are others - somehow Rock doesnt suit whatever the audiophile process seems to do to it - in my limited experience! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Strabo Posted May 28, 2004 Share Posted May 28, 2004 I found this quote on another website that I think sums up what is wrong with Rock music. There will be more of the same until they get people that love music back into running the business. "Then someone asked about future releases and everyone turned to Elliot Schiener. He reluctantly told the story of a recent Eric Clapton project he worked on. He was hired to remix Layla and 461 Ocean Boulevard. He opened the tape boxes and on the track sheets Tom Dowd had written the EQ setting for every track along with other mix notes. He set his console up so it emulated the original mix exactly and continued to do a 5.1 mix. After he finished mixing both albums he went for final approval he was told to make things more modern sounding and asked him to do such sins as tune the vocals, slide guitar parts back into time and create a more hefty mix than the original. He said that's just not something he would allow himself to do and the project was given to someone else." When will they learn not to screw with stuff?! It's depressing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lon Armstrong Posted May 28, 2004 Share Posted May 28, 2004 I personally prefer the most simple and direct recordings possible. So mono or two track stereo, live or live in the studio performances . . . . I think that these yield the possibility of the most natural playback sound. I actually use recordings I recorded in my garage apartment of the late eighties of bands I was a part of for a standard and referrence; I know the instruments' sound and the room and the material very well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jpm Posted May 28, 2004 Author Share Posted May 28, 2004 Tru dat. Unfortunately for many of us, the possibility of returning to vinyl or spending god knows how much on high end stereo gear to achieve nirvana is remote. Alas, I'm stuck with my $3000 stereo system and digital music from the cable company. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dylanregan Posted May 28, 2004 Share Posted May 28, 2004 I like the concept, but what the industry used to call "cd quality" has now degraded to "MP3 quality". the truth is, most people don't know the difference or don't care. As a DJ, I am forced to play Mp3's sometimes, but when I get home, nothing beats a good record. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben. Posted May 28, 2004 Share Posted May 28, 2004 Regarding the overuse of compression on pop music, (By "pop" I refer to anything but Jazz and Classical) I think the word "overuse" hit the nail on the head. Show me a pop recording with absolutely no compression, and I'll show you a recording that'll make you run away holding your ears in shock and horror. Judicious use of dynamic range control is essential to a quality recording these days. Heavyhandedness with program (L-R bus) limiting is the problem. These statements certainly don't hold true for a strictly representative acoustic recording. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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