SteveMKentucky 70 Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 I'm interesting in hearing what others think are the best vinyl or CD recordings from a recording quality perspective. In another thread, Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms CD (1985 recording) is cited as having been recorded with exceptional clarity. The 2000 remastered CD is cited as being of lesser sound quality. The best recording in my collection is a 1957 recording of Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section. To my ear the recording is exceptional. Does anyone have a particular recording to recommend? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BillWojo 542 Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 This should be a good thread. Where's the popcorn icon? BillWojo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RodH 4,820 Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 Or we could get him a copy of the CS! Reference discs....... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddyjt 8,620 Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 Or we could get him a copy of the CS! Reference discs....... I have a few copies left, sans cover art - just pm me your address:-) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loner_t 2,568 Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 DaddyJT was kind and gracious to send me the CD set. I have an iTunes library version of the two disks in Apple Loseless, if you need soft copies with cover art. Supertramp, Chris Rea, Flecktones (Flight of the Cosmic Hippo), Allison Krauss are wonderfully done. Patricia Barber for Jazz aficionados is also a good one. Ellington at Newport is also a good one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiroacademy 828 Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 I'm interesting in hearing what others think are the best vinyl or CD recordings from a recording quality perspective. In another thread, Dire Straits' Brothers in Arms CD (1985 recording) is cited as having been recorded with exceptional clarity. The 2000 remastered CD is cited as being of lesser sound quality. The best recording in my collection is a 1957 recording of Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section. To my ear the recording is exceptional. Does anyone have a particular recording to recommend? That's interesting. My Dire Straights CD from the 80s is one of the very few CDs I listen to. I didn't know it is know for its clarity but it's one of the few CDs I think sound as good as my vinyl. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BarryG 2,846 Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 I have Brothers in Arms in Vinyl, and I think its outstanding! I will be looking for an original cd when I go to the local shows! BarryG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loner_t 2,568 Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 I bought the 1985 CD for $6+ (Free shipping) on eBay yesterday. Looking forward to it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiroacademy 828 Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 I have the 1985 cd, original vinyl and a 180 gram vinyl. They all sound great lol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
martin1970 361 Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 Additional Dire Straits honorable mention... At Carverfest 2011? TNRabbit brought his actively biamped ALIIIs, a massive bank of modded Minimus speakers as surrounds, and an over-the-top Klipsch? subwoofer, all driven by a Sunfire 400 seven. I will never forget hearing the SACD of Brothers in Arms through that setup in Cabin 5. It was a top-ten lifetime audio experience & I wasn't even in the sweet spot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xavionics 1,402 Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 Some of my go-to recordings and why. Some are well recognized, some aren't Dire Straits - On Every Street (CD or streamed) Fade to Black: For detail and male vocal Queen - Queen II Deluxe Edition (streamed from Beats) What A Fool I've Been (BBC Session July 1973, Remix 2011) Just to see what this system can do. This is one of those songs that begs for the volume to be turned to eleven. Leon Russell - Leon Russell (streamed) Most any song, just because they seem raw with little production. Junior Mance - Junior Mance Special (streamed) Whisper Not - Grand piano dynamics, attack, and detail This had got to be the best sounding grand piano I've ever heard in my living room. So many others, it just depends on the mood at the time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiroacademy 828 Posted August 24, 2015 Share Posted August 24, 2015 Some of my go-to recordings and why. Some are well recognized, some aren't Dire Straits - On Every Street (CD or streamed) Fade to Black: For detail and male vocal Queen - Queen II Deluxe Edition (streamed from Beats) What A Fool I've Been (BBC Session July 1973, Remix 2011) Just to see what this system can do. This is one of those songs that begs for the volume to be turned to eleven. Leon Russell - Leon Russell (streamed) Most any song, just because they seem raw with little production. Junior Mance - Junior Mance Special (streamed) Whisper Not - Grand piano dynamics, attack, and detail This had got to be the best sounding grand piano I've ever heard in my living room. So many others, it just depends on the mood at the time I immediately played my 1974 Queen II (original vinyl). Great imaging but lacking overall. Maybe there is a better pressing out there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LVMAN777 322 Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 TELARC CD's Appalachian Spring Star Tracks 1812 Time Warp The Planets "...the Telarc team produced the best sounding recordings from a major label since the Golden Age of Mercury and RCA some 40 years ago..." http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/the-last-days-of-telarc/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveMKentucky 70 Posted August 25, 2015 Author Share Posted August 25, 2015 I have Brothers in Arms in Vinyl, and I think its outstanding! I will be looking for an original cd when I go to the local shows! BarryG I just ordered the CD. Will have to look for an original vinyl now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daddyjt 8,620 Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 Steve, I took a screen shot of your email, and deleted your post, to keep your email address confidential. I will shoot you a message when I return home tomorrow. Mark. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SteveMKentucky 70 Posted August 25, 2015 Author Share Posted August 25, 2015 TELARC CD's Appalachian Spring Star Tracks 1812 Time Warp The Planets "...the Telarc team produced the best sounding recordings from a major label since the Golden Age of Mercury and RCA some 40 years ago..." http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/the-last-days-of-telarc/ Great link! So Telarc recordings prior to 2008 are the ones to buy. I've always thought that well recorded classical performances are the hardest to find. Rock recordings tend to have a microphone for each performer, sometimes more than one. Classical tend to have two microphones for an entire orchestra. Of course, they are attempting to re-create the sound from the seat of a listener in the audience, but classical recordings tend to sound muffled and jumbled to me. I used to search for Deutsche Grammaphon recordings as they seemed better than others to me. I'll have to go check out my Telarc's and see how they sound now with my system. I have to believe that there are some good rock albums and CD's that are better than most from a recording perspective though. Keep em coming folks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LVMAN777 322 Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 Recordings of June 1989: Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra STRAUSS: Also Sprach Zarathustra, Tod und VerklärungAndré Previn, Vienna PhilharmonicTelarc CD-80167 (CD only). Jack Renner, eng.; James Mallinson, prod. DDD. TT: 61:35 "...convey to perfection the full weight of Richard Strauss's opulent orchestration for Zarathustra without the slightest hint of distortion, despite the huge dynamic range both employ. Both have the measure of the venues they are recorded in... ...overall the depth of Previn's vision wins through. ....Previn's Tod und Verklärung has a nobility and breadth, soloists from every section of the orchestra offering up their technical and emotional best in celebration of this wonderful score.—Barbara Jahn" http://www.stereophile.com/content/recordings-june-1989-strauss-ialso-sprach-zarathustrai#vciV9zmepSdsopLs.97 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LVMAN777 322 Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 Telarc International Corporation is an independent record label, based in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, and founded in 1977 by two classically trained musicians and former teachers, Jack Renner and Robert Woods. Originally a classical music-only label, the label has had a long association with Ohio's two most famous orchestras: the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra, as well as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Telarc has since released music from other styles of music including jazz, blues and country music. In 1996, Telarc merged with another independent label, Heads Up, now a Telarc subsidiary. In late 2005 both Telarc and Heads Up were bought by Concord Records... The Telarc Sound Telarc is noted for the high quality of its recordings, encapsulated in the slogan "The Telarc Sound". Its engineers are highly regarded within the recording business, and have led Telarc to 40 Grammy Awards. In 2004 it received the "Label Of The Year" Award from Gramophone Magazine. Telarc was one of the first labels to begin recording music with a 20-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) in the late 1980s and has used 24-bit formats since 1996..." From Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telarc_International_Corporation Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LVMAN777 322 Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 Thomas Stockham (1933-2004) and Digital Audio Recording "Thomas Greenway Stockham, Jr.... earned the Sc.D. degree from MIT in 1959 and was appointed Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering. At MIT in 1962 he began creating digital audio tape recordings... In 1968 he left MIT for the University of Utah... ...in 1975 founded Soundstream with Malcolm Low (the L in KLH) and developed a 16-bit digital audio recorder... ....Soundstream, Inc. was the first commercial digital recording company in the United States, located in downtown Salt Lake City.... Stockham was the first to make a commercial digital recording, using his own Soundstream recorder in 1976 at the Santa Fe Opera, and demonstrating the recordings at the fall 1976 AES convention. The first commercial digital recording to be released for sale was by Telarc .recorded in spring, 1978. Jack Renner of Telarc released the first CD of a digital recording in the U.S. in 1982.... ..After he left the Soudstream company, he was chairman of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Utah. He was named a Fellow of the IEEE and served as president of the Audio Engineering Society in 1982-1983. He has received numerous awards for his contributions to audio technology, including the Poniatoff Gold Medal from SMPTE, the Gold Medal from the AES, an Emmy in 1988 for the development of tapeless audio recording and editing technology used in television studios. The NARAS awarded him a Grammy in 1994 for his "visionary role in pioneering and advancing the era of digital recording; using his Soundstream system, he was the first to digitally record music for commercial release; his numerous innovations have profoundly impacted recording and preservation technology, establishing him as the father of digital recording." The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Feb. 1999 awarded Stockham and Robert B. Ingebretsen a 1998 Scientific and Engineering Award "for their pioneering work in the areas of waveform editing, crossfades and cut-and-paste techniques for digital audio editing." http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/recording.technology.history/stockham.html . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evilmainer 137 Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 Recordings of June 1989: Strauss: Also Sprach Zarathustra STRAUSS: Also Sprach Zarathustra, Tod und VerklärungAndré Previn, Vienna PhilharmonicTelarc CD-80167 (CD only). Jack Renner, eng.; James Mallinson, prod. DDD. TT: 61:35 "...convey to perfection the full weight of Richard Strauss's opulent orchestration for Zarathustra without the slightest hint of distortion, despite the huge dynamic range both employ. Both have the measure of the venues they are recorded in... ...overall the depth of Previn's vision wins through..... Previn's Tod und Verklärung has a nobility and breadth, soloists from every section of the orchestra offering up their technical and emotional best in celebration of this wonderful score.—Barbara Jahn" http://www.stereophile.com/content/recordings-june-1989-strauss-ialso-sprach-zarathustrai#vciV9zmepSdsopLs.97 Picked up this disc 2nd hand and was blown away. It is a challenging piece with the dynamic shifts, etc. But this particular recording is very lively.Holst, The Planets/Mehta is a treat Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleMeat 1,173 Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 For some strange reason almost every vinyl recording on a Columbia Records label I have is outstanding. Even lightly scratched records sound good with very few flaws in playback. Santana, Billy Joel, Johnny Cash, etc. Santana is particularly good with lots of dynamic soundstage (drums, congas, vocals) and of course the guitar solos. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
compwaco 1,129 Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 The best recordings I have heard are from Sheffield Labs. Harry James, Amanda McBroom, & The Drum Record are all exceptional. (DMP recordings are also very good) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dr_gallup 42 Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 TELARC CD's Appalachian Spring Star Tracks 1812 Time Warp The Planets "...the Telarc team produced the best sounding recordings from a major label since the Golden Age of Mercury and RCA some 40 years ago..." http://www.theabsolutesound.com/articles/the-last-days-of-telarc/ I have the original 1978 pressing of Telarc's 1812 Overture by the Cincinnati Pops which has the most enormous excursion I've ever seen on vinyl. You can easily see the cannon blasts with the naked eye. I've used this as a demo disk for decades, very carefully preserved and cleaned. Many boutique "transcription" tt can not even play it, the tone arm gets thrown right off the disc. Later on they repressed it with the amplitude of the cannon shots reduced so you have to look carefully to determine which pressing you have. You can get it on SACD from Amazon. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
loner_t 2,568 Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 On 1812, the cannons really test the speakers. If anyone has Telarc's Gustav Holt's Planets, it is also an exquisite recording. Some of the Concertgebouw Telarc recordings are gems, for example Grieg's Piano Concerto in A (Horowitz, if I recall). PS: Just saw LVMan had already mentioned The Planets. Apologies, LVMan, if you also meant Gustav Holst's composition. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chiroacademy 828 Posted August 25, 2015 Share Posted August 25, 2015 The Dire Straights "Brothers in Arms" on 180 gram pressing is pretty damn good. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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