Just finished listening to Ray Charles Genius Loves Company album. Amazing soundstage!! The duets have placement and presence like the singers are in the room with you!... and some great music!
Dire Staits eponymous album(yes the one with Sultans Of Swing)great complete album with 3 guys (and some extra of Marks guitars) great intimate recording.....original record is king here though...been trying to replace it for years without success
As I stated before, modern classical recordings are very good, including sound staging. A recent Norwegian recoding of modern choral music—“So is My Love,” performed by the Ensemble 96, is a good example. I listen to it as ripped CD, but it is an SACD and comes with a Blu-ray Disc (9.0) Dolby Atmos.
This Direct To Disc recording on vinyl or CD is the most realistic 3D sound I've ever heard of a big band and sounds that way on both speakers and headphones which usually isn't the case with big room head space natural reverb where on headphones it's very 3D but on speakers requires one crank the volume to bring background instruments forward so they don't sound like they're playing in a garage. Harry James King James Version Sheffield Labs recording...
I have that Harry James recording on Sheffield and it is a terrific recording for both soundstaging and for realistic dynamics. There are quite a few other terrific examples from Sheffield. I also like the direct to disc recordings of M&K Realtime Records (e.g., check out the Bill Berry and Ellington Allstars "For Duke" record).
Just considering getting a CD transport to play my library. Haven’t had a player in years. When I do I’ll probably grab it.
I was just listening to Tom Petty's MOJO the other day and I think it has a pretty good soundstage. Recorded pretty much live in "The Clubhouse", you can hear everybody very cleanly and clearly.
Nice recommendation of Macy Gray. Interestingly uses the same 'single mic in a church' approach as the Cowboy Junkies. I would not agree that either soundstage is better than the other, each to me seems to simply present the singer and band in a 3d, 'holographic, fashion. Either way, thanks for the recommendation, that Macy Gray album had passed me by.
This is really interesting about the Macy Gray recording. Years ago I bought an album recording by her that was so totally “hot” it was excruciatingly unlistenable. Too bad as I got it cause I must have really liked the music. I’ll have to check out “Stripped” as it would be an interesting experience.
It's totally and radically different from her commercial albums in every possible way! It's a Chesky recording, her others are not.
I just seem to prefer the tonality/timbre on the Macy Gray which, to me, sounds slightly 'warmer' than the Cowboy Junkies recording.
I like Chesky stuff. Only had one strange experience that I posted about years ago. A recording with actually too much dynamic range for realistic domestic reproduction.
Listening to Emily Barker's Flight Path Rhymes, spoken word between the music, in both cases she might as well be in the room with me. Which simply reminds me that most of her output is really well recorded especially her later albums, with a wide, high and deep soundstage.
SoundStage! Access | SoundStageAccess.com (GoodSound.com) - The Music I Use to Evaluate Soundstaging and Imaging
For sheer pure voice character check out: Robbie Robertson 1987 self titled album Track: “Somewhere Down the Crazy River” I find it sort of mesmerizing.