What are some good audiophile recordings...

Cougar207 · #1 11-11-2005, 07:17 PM

I know I'm not the only one here who spends too much on their stereo. So, what do you all listen to when your testing out equiptment?

I recently picked up Roger Waters' "Amused to Death." It's great for setting up a room. It has some great effects that project overhead, some that get very distant, and well they basically surround you. Good atmosphere too. Some tracks have John Patitucci on bass and Jeff Beck on guitar. Unfortunatly, there's not too much music on the CD, mostly lyrics...that don't exactly reflect my views.

'Falling into Infinity' by Dream Theater and Tool's 'Lateralus' are great soundinig discs too.

Lokire · #2 11-12-2005, 10:12 AM

Anything by Steely Dan. Particularly the "Two Against Nature" album. One of the best sounding albums of all time (imo)

zesi · #3 11-12-2005, 11:19 AM

check out 'Spanish Harlem' by Rebecca Pidgeon. It's on her album 'The Raven'.

Folmeister · #4 11-12-2005, 08:00 PM

Thomas Dolby, Aliens Ate My Buick . A great recording and great material!

Papersen · #5 11-13-2005, 03:14 PM

I used to be an audiophile geek some years ago, fortunately I´m Ok now

I took several records to test equipment for different reasons:
dynamics, clarity, fidelity, etc. Look for "Chesky Records" label. They spend hours (even days !!) micing different rooms to obtain a tone before recording.

I also like Paul Mccandless "Premonition". Transparent, detailed and well recorded.
OTOH, "Themes" by Vangelis was so poorly recorded that you could hear the tape sound in a good system.

Jason Carota · #6 11-13-2005, 04:12 PM

Hiromi's latest album, Brain, sounds great.

**baba** · #7 11-14-2005, 11:53 AM

Ruben did an incredible job on Blood Sugar Sex Magik

nemo · #8 11-14-2005, 12:44 PM

Yes, anything from Chesky records. http://www.chesky.com/

Alvaro Martín Gómez A. · #9 11-14-2005, 12:58 PM

Some years ago one friend gave me a copy of a CD he got which only has a Marlboro ad called "Welcome To Marlboro Country". It's an eight minute recording which, aside from the expected "Magnificent Seven" theme, has horses, fire, lighting matches, burning wood, crickets, voices, rain... lots of very well recorded effects that sound excellent in a good stereo. I can send you a lossless quality mp3 for you to burn onto a CD if you want. Let me know.

Christopher · #10 11-15-2005, 03:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Papersen

I took several records to test equipment for different reasons:
dynamics, clarity, fidelity, etc. Look for "Chesky Records" label. They spend hours (even days !!) micing different rooms to obtain a tone before recording.

Badi Assad's Chesky records ("Solo," "Rhythms" etc.) are great for this. They were recorded at very low levels; if there's any extraneous noise in the playback equipment, it's going to be exposed by these recordings for sure.

RAM · #11 11-22-2005, 06:40 PM

I'm not a huge fan of Queensryche, but their Empire CD is one of the most amazing CDs I've heard, in terms of sound quality. Because of that, it's so easy on the ears I have to give it a whirl every once in a while.

peteroberts · #12 11-22-2005, 08:27 PM

Owsley's 1st album from 1999 is the one I always use for a reference. It was nominated for a Grammy for best engineered, but lost to Diana Krall I think.

Anyways, this record found its way into some studios that I used to work in and after a week or so they were using it for a reference.

http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p...0:j77zeflkogf6

the guitar and drum sounds are incredible, plus it's a really good record! You should check it out.