What is YOUR Reference CD or SACD?? - Page 8

That is a long answer and discussion, Tweaked05. Many, if not most, of the remaining Pop and Rock SACDs are either out of print and command significant prices on the used market, or sold by specialty music labels that sell at higher list prices than the major labels. I would always check the following site first for prices, the Amazon prices it links to are a fair indicator of what a SACD currently goes for on the Internet.

http://www.sa-cd.net/home

As for where to buy them, most SACD distribution and retail has moved to Internet retailers. Amazon, eBay, audiogon, etc. are popular places to buy new and used SACDs. You also might want to move away from the digital coax connection, you are not hearing the true SACD sound through that connection. Due to copyright concerns and bandwidth limitations, coax connections do not reproduce the full SACD sound. If you have an analog connection on your BD player, I would use that connection. The only digital connection that can support the full DSD sound from a SACD is the Denonlink, or a receiver with the latest HDMI connection that also supports DSD.

Sony do not allow the output of DSD via non copy-protected connections - i.e. HDMI. If this is working for you then you are more than likely hearing the normal 16/44.1 S/PDIF bitstream. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_Audio_CD#Copy_protection

I have two main reference albums I've been using for years -

Dream Theater - Images and Words
I find the stereo separation of Mike Portnoy's dual kick drums quite nice

Dave Brubeck Quartet - Time Out
Stereo version, not SA-CD multi-channel. The multi-channel changes the imaging of the band and it just doesn't sound "right". The tracks Blue Rondo A La Turk and Take Five are my two main reference songs from this album and I've been using them for years for testing purposes.

Anything Primus. I've found that Les Claypool's unique style of playing bass is good for testing low extension and a low frequency drivers capabilities of said extension. I've heard many speakers fall on their face trying to reproduce Les' playing. Southbound Pachyderm and Tommy the Cat are probably my favorite Primus tracks.

A couple songs I used recently to audition some new towers I picked up are -
Bassnectar - Timestretch
This is of the electronica / dubstep genre. At around the 3 minute mark, there is very good LF around 43Hz and extending all the way down to 20Hz..

Alex Clare - Too Close (live acoustic version)
This version in particular -
http://youtu.be/OuvdzBt64RQ
The acoustics of the recording made me tingle when I first heard it. I would give my left arm for a lossless version of this, but the HD version does a decent job I suppose.

Now, as for "impressing" friends and neighbors. Easy answer. I get out my 5 string Washburn bass, plug it into my Fender bass amp and turn the loud knob up to 11.

**EDIT**
I was in a hurry earlier and left a couple out.
Joss Stone and Mariah Carey for a good spread of female vocal testing.
Queensryche - Silent Lucidity
Will Calhoun of Bluesiana II - Tribute to Art
Edited by zagnutty - 11/16/12 at 2:37pm

Pink Floyd - DSOTM - is my go to just because I know the album so well.

Tenacious D - Tenacious D - Actually surprised how well this album was done considering the content of the music. Certainly a fun/goofy listen, but not G-rated at all.

Any recommendations for Ben Harper albums that sound really good? I have Ben Harper and the Innocent - Live from Mars, but was curious if there was something else I should grab.

So many great recordings listed here.

The obvious choices:
Brothers In Arms
DSOM
Hell Freezes Over
Aja
Days of Future Passed


My personal go-to's
Steely Dan - Gaucho
Bruce Cockburn - Stealing Fire
Genesis - A Trick of the Tail
Loggins and Messina - Full Sail
Neville Brothers - Live from Planet Earth
George Benson - Breezin
Dan Fogelberg/Tim Weisberg - Twin Sons of Different Mothers

Jamie Cullum - Twentysomething CD or SACD has been my reference disc since 2004.

Which CD do you have? I see versions from 2005 and 2008, some as a Japan import, etc. Perhaps there are older versions as well and perhaps they all use the same mastering/mix or maybe not.

My favorite for Twin Sons will always be the CBS Mastersound vinyl, but the CD I have is very good. It's likely not as clean as some of the others listed but has an amazing flow through many styles and each is excellent on its own, but together they blend perfectly. I have seen a remaster from Japan, but have not heard it.

Thanks for the clarification.

Man, this is a good thread. As I upgrade my system in the coming month's I'll be revisiting to add to my collection. There are several albums on my "wish list" right now that are mentioned in this thread.

I'll go ahead and throw a few out there...

John Mayer - Battle Studies is a pretty fantastic album. It is well put together and offers a lot of dynamic and coherent sound fronted by Mayer's fantastic guitar playing and vocals.

Josh Groban - You Raise Me Up is a good album. Good vocals and in parts pretty dynamic.

Buble has been mentioned a couple times. His albums are very solid...

Neil Young's Live At Massey Hall is one of my reference cd's.

Michael Jackson's Thriller.

I am no MJ fan, but I do play Billy Jean from time to time to show off the dynamics of my subs.

Diana Krall "All For You" a dedication to the Nat King Cole Trio. Listening right now on cd thru my Onkyo C7030 cd player hooked to a Schiit Magni headphone amp and AKG K340 electrostatics. Very sweet.

Ether of the 1st two ramones albums, rocket to russia and/or road to ruin. preferably on a good turntable.

Now that's funny-- " preferably on a good turntable."

True story. I had my piano coach for dinner one night. After dinner I took him to my listening room and put on a recording of some solo ragtime piano music. Ragtime is my coach's specialty. I thought I would wow him with my system. I played one track and then asked him what he thought of it, thinking he would tell me how great the system sounds. He said "I like the way he plays the left hand arpeggios." He would have said the same thing if it was playing on a car radio. That man was not to be wow'ed.

As long as I attend musical events and often do live recording of these musical events, my reference sound is live music. I am fortunate in that I often have access to recordings of events that I attended (as recordist or as part of the audience).

I'm no Michael Jackson fan either but the man had some of the best engineers in the business behind him.

Car Audio Nationals II - Official Alpine Reference CD (Audio System Competition Evaluation CD)

 

Out of stock (and old), but I've been using mine for years:

http://www.amazon.com/Car-Audio-Nationals-Competition-Evaluation/dp/B001VPDFSW/ref=cm_cr_pr_pb_t

gaucho steely dan
mercury fallin sting
bali run fourplay

Metallica - Ride the lightening
MegaDeth - Rust in Pieces or That One Special Night
Pantara - The Best Of
Testament - Formation of the Damnation
Slayer - Reign in Blood
Metal Church - Metal Church
Dream Theatre - Images & Words
Iron Madien - Number of the Beast
Judas Priest - Hell Bent for Leather
Queensryche - Operation Mindcrime
Motley Crue - Shout at the Devil
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours (SACD)

Great albums listed there pal...

Thanks, I'm glad you agree...or is that a backhanded form of audiophile snobbery?

My reference is normally Pink Floyd's "The Final Cut" I've listened to it since it was released and have heard it on many a reference system.

I can't speak for the poster caper_1 above, but when I saw your list, I thought to myself, "One of these things is not like the others," from that Sesame Street song. You've got all those metal albums and then suddenly Fleetwood Mac. Kind of incongruous, if you ask me.

Of those you list, I'd use the Fleetwood Mac album Rumours any day, but that's just me and my taste, and because it is well recorded and mixed and contains several voice and acoustic passages with which to evaluate your system/speakers/whatever it is you're testing.

As for "snobbery," well taste is subjective, and you've got yours and I've got mine, and everyone else has theirs. To each his own.

Now some they do and some they don't
And some you just can't tell
And some they will and some they won't
With some it's just as well

Happy listening.......

Ha. I think it's already been mentioned in this thread (about 5 years ago), but Supertramp's Breakfast in America is an excellent reference disc and killer album, as I'm sure you'll agree.

(just don't mention it in the What are you listening to thread -- not obscure enough )

That's my policy. If too many people are already familiar with the artist/album, it immediately goes into the dump pile. Too bourgeois, I cannot associate myself with cookie-cutter musical tastes.

Actually, I don't think I've ever heard the album all the way through. The few hits were so ridiculously overplayed, I just never had much interest in exploring that album as a whole.

For me, the only person who continually throws up unknown titles or artists in that "now listening" thread is citizen arcane. Perhaps his tastes don't often intersect with mine, but even so. At least by name, I think I'm pretty well acquainted with a wide range of artists both old and new, from many different genres. But about four out of every five of his posted titles leaves me with a blank stare of unrecognition.