Best sounding recordings in your collection?

[Progger58]

When it comes to great audio quality, right now I can think of these as some standouts in my own collection:

=> STEELY DAN – Two Against Nature, Gaucho & Everything Must Go

=> DONALD FAGEN – Morph the Cat

=> TALK TALK – Spirit of Eden

=> MICKEY HART – Mystery Box

=> TERJE RYPDAL – If Mountains Could Sing & Skywards

=> ARILD ANDERSEN GROUP – Electra

=> GORDIAN KNOT – Emergent

=> BRAND X – Manifest Destiny

=> KEVIN GILBERT – Shaming of the True

=> PINK FLOYD – Dark Side of the Moon

=> ISILDURS BANE – Mind Vol. 1 & 2

=> CHRIS REA – The Road to Hell

=> ROGER WATERS – Amused to Death

=> PORCUPINE TREE – In Absentia & Signify

=> STEVEN WILSON – Insurgentes (the DVD-A disc specially)

=> OZRIC TENTACLES – Hidden Step & Waterfall Cities

=> PROEJCT LO – Black Canvas

=> YES – The Ladder

=> XTC – Apple Venus

=> MARILLION – Marbles

=> THE BLUE NILE – Hats

=> SINGULARITY – Of All the Mysteries

=> TREY GUNN – The Joy of Molybdenum

=> MIKE KENEALLY – The Universe Will Provide

=> BÉLA FLECK & THE FLECKTONES – Outbound

=> DAVID TORN/MICK KARN/TERRY BOZZIO – Polytown

=> BOZZIO LEVIN STEVENS – Black Light Syndrome

=> BRUFORD LEVIN – Upper Extremities

=> BRIAN BROMBERG – Wood & Choices

=> COCO MONTOYA – Suspicion

=> VERTÚ – Vertú

=> JEFF GOLUB – Do It Again

=> NIACIN – Niacin & Time Crunch

=> ANDY SUMMERS – Earth + Sky

=> METRO – Tree People & Grapevine

=> PEDER AF UGGLAS – Autumn Shuffle

=> JOHN McLAUGHLIN – The Heart of Things

=> MEDESKI, MARTIN & WOOD - Shack-Man


I will bring more later, after checking out some others more carefully.

And how about yours?

Cheers,

Demetrio.

[Progger58]

Some few additions to my initial list:

=> STEVE TIBBETTS – A Man About a Horse & Big Map Idea

=> CHARLIE HUNTER & LEON PARKER – Duo

=> STEVE KHAN & ROB MOUNSEY – You Are Here

=> SCOTT HENDERSON / STEVE SMITH / VICTOR WOOTEN – Vital Tech Tones

=> NILS PETTER MOLVAER – Khmer & American Compilation

=> ERIK TRUFFAZ – The Walk of the Giant Turtle

=> ST. GERMAIN – Tourist

=> MIKE KENEALLY – Dog & Wooden Smoke


Demetrio.

[Progger58]

Hey, guys, to talk monologues in a forum is somewhat embarassing...


Well, a few more rock (some prog) standouts, in addition to my previous lists:

=> DONALD FAGEN – The Nightfly & Kamakiriad

=> TALK TALK – The Colour of Spring

=> MARK HOLLIS – Mark Hollis

=> ROBBY ACETO – Code

=> DANIEL LANOIS – Shine

=> PETER GABRIEL – Passion & Up

=> NINE HORSES – Snow Borne Sorrow

=> STEVE JANSEN & RICHARD BARBIERI – Stories Across Borders

=> ROBBIE ROBERTSON – Music for the Native Americans

=> TALE MUSIC GROUP – Elysium Fields

=> PARANOISE – Private Power & ISHQ

=> THE TEA PARTY – TRIPtych

=> A PERFECT CIRCLE – Thirteenth Step


Demetrio.

[Progger58]

Ouch, how sad nobody else wants to play this game.......

Well, a few more additions to my other previous lists:

=> MICHAEL SHRIEVE & DAVID BEAL – The Big Picture (incredible details & transparency!! )

=> CHRIS REA – King of the Beach, Espresso Logic & God’s Great Banana Skin

=> JEFF BECK – Blow by Blow & Jeff Beck’s Guitar Shop

=> PETER BANKS – Instinct

=> YES – Magnification

=> PHISH – A Picture of Nectar

=> ALAN PARSONS – Try Anything Once

=> OCTOBER PROJECT – October Project

=> DEAD CAN DANCE – Into the Labyrinth & The Serpent’s Egg

Cheers,
Demetrio.

[John Watt]

Hey progger58, I know your lonely forum blues. The first thing I thought, what is the criteria? Laying down in the dark listening with headphones is my favorite. Hearing the sounds focussed in your brain is the best way to hear what is there.

There really is too many different kinds of technology to begin saying what recordings sounded best. The music should be first. A friend, I could say a fan, asked me to go with him to Toronto to buy the first Robert Johnson C.D. set. He was enthusiastic about his system with gold wires, and wanted the best version available. Over $80. When we got back to his place this recorded on wax cylinders, remastered for vinyl albums and transferred to digital package sounded thin and I couldn't make out the bass E string. My friend was flummoxed that I could play his acoustic guitar and mix in the, or a, missing bass part, proving it to him.

I like the fact you started with Steely Dan. They were session pros starting out with the most innovative studio equipment. Their first performance on t.v., Don Kirshner's late night rock show that I came home to watch, made them queasy about the variables of live onstage, and they didn't tour after that for over twenty years. Then again, with the money their recordings were making, why expose your lifestyle to public scrutiny and various locales? I see Roxy Music's album with "More Than This" as pushing that recording style envelope. Jeff Beck's "Blow by Blow" set new studio standards.

But most of all, I think of Jimi Hendrix as the Axis:Bold as Love. He created an axis of sound onstage for himself with his elaborate use of microphones, amplifiers and speakers, and created with multi-tracking a more focussed and descriptive musical atmosphere for headphone listening. His American Air Force communications and radar experience served him well. His moments of recording genius are still unrivalled in the guitar world. Before that, four tracks, not much stereo, black and white t.v. in more ways than one.

While I'm not trying to incite more discussion here, I hope this small addition to your list assuages your enthusiasm.

[Progger58]

"Lovers Rock" by SADE sounds pretty good to my ears too.

My question is: which other CDs by Sade sound also that good? Remaster or original edition?

Demetrio.

[Progger58]

Just found another great sounding CD in my collection:



THE APARTMENTS - A Life Full of Farewells

[teddy]

I have a copy of Fly Like An Eagle - Steve Miller on vinyl and it blows me away every time I play it. It is such a good clean recording

teddy

[Corno Dolce]

I always thoroughly enjoy my copy of Nicholas Kynaston playing Organ Works of Liszt at the Ingolstadt Minster.

[Progger58]

A few other greats I can recall at the moment:

10cc - How Dare You & Deceptive Bends

GRATEFUL DEAD - Terrapin Station

BRYAN FERRY - Béte Noire, Boys and Girls & Mamouna (HDCD)

Cheers,
Demetrio.

[JHC]

For me it is Schubert's great symphony in C Maj (9th) with the Orch of the age of enlightenment, Sir Charles Mackerras, with period instruments of course, you would swear you were actually there, a boomer

[Corno Dolce]

Other gems in my collection are Ian Tracey at the Liverpool Anglican Cathedral Organ - What a sonic splendour........

[Contratrombone64]

Colin - I own that recording, too, Mackerras' view of this work is beautiful and intelligent (of course, he's Australian).

[JHC]

Colin - I own that recording, too, Mackerras' view of this work is beautiful and intelligent (of course, he's Australian).

I have yet to hear a better recording he is superb (for an Aussie )

[Contratrombone64]

My other favourite high definition recording is that of the beautiful grand organ at Notre Dame cathedral (Paris) with the wonderful Latry, starts of with that amazing BWV 29 transcription by "I-can't-for-the-life-of-me-remember-his-name".