What is YOUR Reference CD or SACD?? - Page 6

sticky

Great sticky.

Thank you.

Also easy to cross check vs Amazon reviews. And by the way, NOT a put down of AVS reviews; just that it's been hard to figure out (from AVS comments), whether a CD/SACD is worth buying.

Again, thank you!

Rosanne Cash's "Rules of Travel". A great sounding disc full of music for adults. Her duet with her father Johnny Cash, September When It Comes, is heartbreaking in its message and its sound.

I recently purchased the Clair Marlo CD - Let it go... great CD! (even better record if you can find one)

Or SACD....

I have about 4 CDs of hers in HDCD format. I play them through my Oppo BDP-83. The reason they are a good reference is they span the gamut from bass heavy jazzy tunes to bright acoustical ensembles to the occasional tune that rocks. It gives a good perspective of the entire range.

Hi i am a big Steve Roach fan this album i take along for demos everything that i look for is in this album highs lows mids speed sound quality and all this from newage music, another winner is Al Gromer Khan i own many of his albums.

Byron Metcalf Wachuma's Wave



Al Gromer Khan Tantra Drums

I have to add one of my favorite albums.

Ten Years After: A Space In Time

A good reference song is "I'd Love To Change The World"
But I really like every song on the album.

This will show off you system if it's good and find faults.

One of the stores I like to shop at uses Eagles "Hell Freezes OVer" as their demo DVD. I would like to find this in BR disk as I would expect lossless, it would really shine.

To demo equipment, I am a Diana Krall fan. Great vocals. I also like the Cowboy Junkies as the reverberations in the church it was recorded in have very definite sound that is easy to differentiate from speaker to speaker.

In future, when I shop for those last few pieces of equipment to finish my system, I am thinking I will be taking, in addition to a few CD's, my Squeezebox Touch with some hi-res FLAC files on a SD card. Plug it in, have the shop use their DAC via RCA digital out and have at it. Chesky's Audiophile Reference Disk 2 hi-res FLAC is an awesome test. It contains jazz, accapella vocals, drums, some classical, low frequency organ. It is also a nice listen as well.

MArk Knopfler's "Local Hero" soundtrack is wonderful elegant guitar and celtic sounds.

Beatles "Love" has some great stuff to test a system. I also like the music to listen to for general purposes. I listened to the Beatles Mono remastered CD's and they blew me away.

The Vaughan Brothers: Family Style. Tick Tock is my favorite song, and has great sound.

Robert Cray: Strong Persuader

David and David: Boomtown. Maybe not the greatest sound, but very good, excelent dynamics and I now it like the back of my hand.

Bob Dylan: Time Out of Mind.

Wow this is a great thread. I'm going to check out some of the suggestions. I have just recently gotten into jazz after getting some Paradigm studio 20s. The instruments sound so real and lifelike. Here are my favorite tracks to show off my system.
Sade - Greatest Hits Number 4 "Jezebel" is my personal favorite. If I ever want to demo a system or mess around with speaker placement I go to this CD.
Phil Collins - Face Value. Track 5 "droned" is all instrumental and I love cranking it up for guest. Always gets a wow from friends.

When I went hunting for speakers, The CD's i braught were Godsmacks accoustic album

"The Other Side",

Floyds "Brick in the wall"

Best of Led Zeppelin Doubl cd set.

Lastly I used a digital remastering of 1812 overture conducted by Eugene Ormandy with the Philedelphia philharmonic that features the Temple University Choirs. Good digital redo of an old recording that features the chior a capella in the opening of 1812 and then jumps into large orchestral movements. I figured this one would put any speaker I could afford through its paces.


At home : Layla(unplugged and Running on faith (unplugged) on The Complete Clapton double cd.

Alice in Chains unplugged

Nirvana unplugged

B.B. King & Eric Clapton - Riding with the King.

Santana: Supernatural

The 9 Symphonies(Bruno Walter) out of production box set, re mastered from vinyl to cd in 1989.

The Classical Jazz channel on Dish network............ No albums in my collection yet.

When calibrating speakers and subs for BASS I always use Talking Heads/Speaking In Tongues (dualdisc). An excellent choice for clean, tight bass and a solid surround album overall.

I picked this one up at ces a few years ago, this is one great sounding cd.

Most any of Eva Cassidy's cd's are great, Song bird is great as is live at blues ally. The sound is excellant (reference quality) and she did have a great voice.

A few random comments about discs I like.

An excellent track for solid imaging is Harry Connick - A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square, from We Are In Love (I have the CD). If you don't like this music, your wife probably will if you want to make her a romantic dinner.

Roxy Music - Avalon in SACD surround - they said this remix was the mix they actually had in mind when they conceived the album, had the technology been available. If you want a break from audiophile imaging of a front row concert seat, just enjoy being in the middle of this sound.

Pink Floyd - Dark Side in SACD surround is kind of similar in that sense.

Rob Wasserman - Duets is a good CD. The tracks are hit and miss, but I really like the simplicity (lack of overengineering and just voice, guitar and bass) of his tune with Lou Reed.

Cowboy Junkies - Classic records vinyl, the 45 rpm is even better. Always a mellow sonic pleasure.

Osmo Vanska - the SACD Beethoven Symphony set. I listen in 2-channel, because in surround there is no bass channel, which means my front speakers are playing full range and I lose out on my subwoofer without reconfiguring my receiver settings.

Neil Young - Massey Hall on vinyl - possibly the best live concert sound I've heard (solo, acoustic)

Queen - Night at the Opera - if you can find a copy of the DCC vinyl, the sound has never been better (even if the original recording isn't comparable to modern state of the art). The Prophet's Song is very cool.

Rolling Stones - Beggar's Banquet SACD - I didn't know the Stones could sound this good (even if the original recording isn't comparable to modern state of the art).

Ella Fitzgerald - on Classic Records - Let No Man Write My Epitath and Clap Hands Here Comes Charlie. I have the original test pressings, but I assume the regular copies are about the same. Super smooth, intimate sound.

Reference Recordings - First Sampler, there is a track from Star of Wonder - Nativity Carol, which has outstanding vocal choir sound, as well as some deep organ accompaniment. There is some other good stuff on this sampler as well, such as Berlioz, Symphony Fantastique (Dream...). I have those 2 full albums on vinyl as well, but I prefer the sound on this sampler, so I will probably buy those CDs and sell the vinyl copies.

The DCC vinyl reissue is excellent.

Agreed. Now, this is a slightly gimmicky recording. It's not a "natural" sounding "live" studio recording. But for what it is, it sounds fantastic.

I love linkin parks reanimation DVD-a

I put this on when my friends come over or for anyone who doesn't know what surround music should sound like. The DVD-a is hands down ten times better the the red book version.

I find it hard to believe that all music Isnt recorded 5.1. It is truly amazing how good music can sound this way.

Just to name a few:

Lindsay Buckingham - Out of the Cradle
Jennifer Warnes - Famous Blue Raincoat
Dire Straits - Love Over Gold (West German, Vertigo)
Living Stereo SACD's

So Far Away (Dire Straits : Brothers in Arms)...amazing sounding...I think I have the 're-master' version.

SACD always!

Wow, first that dac thread, now this. Your reading comprehension skills have really crashed 'n burned since you've been away. (HINT: you're not being asked which format you prefer, but which titles from either format sound the best to you, qualifying as your own personal musical reference material).

Stanley Turrentine - Don't Mess with Mr. T - incredible jazz saxophone HDCD
title track is just so clean

Stanley Turrentine & Milt Jackson - Cherry - japanese pressing, saxophone and vibes what could be better

Papa Mali - Do your Thing - blues, great album overall, but Sugarland is exceptional, the short dead quiet passages, into vocals, into the full band

for bass set up (and it annoys the people in the store a lot) Voivod - Nothingface in particular Astronomy Domine, the pink floyd cover

Pink Floyd Dark Side and Steely Dan Aja everyone seems to use, me too

thanks for some new leads!

i dont think anyone has mentioned this yet...

Melody Gardot - get her 2 albums..they are really good!

i was never much of a jazz person..but shes really good. Check her out on youtube or something before u buy..but her albums are really recorded well.

Too many good ones to list - but some favorites are

Janis Ian - Breaking Silence
Lyle Lovett - Joshua Judges Ruth - Also Flying Shoes from Step inside this house
Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms SACD
Roxy Music - Avalon SACD
Jennifer Warnes - Famous Blue Raincoat

SACD: James Taylor "Hourglass", Diana Krall "The Look Of Love"
DVD-Audio: Diana Krall "When I Look In Your Eyes"
CD: Patricia Barber "Cafe Blue", Dire Straits "Brothers In Arms"

Mine is actually vinyl. I just discovered mofi.com and bought "Special Beat Service" by The English Beat. The album sounds incredible with the horns and instrument separation.

System Demo-Sheffield Track Record/Drum Record
(the crystal clear clarity and impact brought upon by the utmost attention to signal path purity holds up to anything even three decades later, also the musicianship is beyond reproach. .... ie Jim Keltner's drumming, Nathan East's bass playing, the premise was total attention to detail wrt the signal path, no compression, op amps etc, stunning result. As with any recording made w/o compression, it really comes to life played at live levels)
Listen to track 2, Higher You Rise

Bass articulation demo-Black Uhuru's Slippin' Into Darkness
If you combined Donald Fagan's tight, studio sound, and combined it with a killer reggae band and they cover the War classic, track 14,
Slippin' Into Darkness, the results are fantastic. Some reggae material has a "low-fi" feel, not this track. The vocals are tremendous, and the production technique is superb.

Chesky's Bizarre SACD offers better, lower demo material for sub-woofer demonstration, than any other material I own. It opens with a shuttle launch superbly captured, then proceeds with an all out surround, and LFE assault.

Tom Jung's recording of Flim and the BBs-Tricycle

Steely Dan's Gaucho-SACD, likely the finest recording I own

Bob Dylan (yep, hard to believe, I know) Gotta Serve Somebody SACD, simply superb production. No other recording he ever made has the style that the Slow Train Coming release had. I'd guess an entire direction change was made wrt engineering/recording. The entire release is smooth as silk and some splendidly catchy songs.

These are a handful of my demos, there's more. Like the classic Telarc canon fire on the original Soundstream recorded 1812,... the new release in multi channel I don't care for. The Gaucho SACD above is prolly the best go to disc, it has a broad appeal. My kids turn me on to all kinds of new stuff, however when played at live levels, a significant amount of it sounds nasty, with harsh artifacts. I don't know if it's mastering compression or what. That said, some of it is very well done, and I'm always listening to current music.



Thanks for the contributions and good luck

Sitting here listening to a Polydor CD of Cream, "The Very Best of Cream". Not an especially good sounding recording. Anyone have a suggestion of a quality recording of Cream? On CD that is.

Thanks

The SACD title "The Nordic Sound" on the 2L label.

Attachment 208874

This is one of the highest quality recordings I've heard.