What CD or Vinyl will you use to impress your guest.

I hate compression and lack of DR as much as anyone.But i think we need to differentiate between bad recordings and modern recordings (that invariably have louder Replaygain levels than pre-mid 90's recordings .).Steely Dan's later albums are recorded louder than the older stuff.Because of that, DR levels will never be as high as older stuff,no matter how well recorded and mastered the album is..I'm afraid that about 10 or 11 DR figures are as good as you are going to get in the modern age for non-acoustic material.That doesn't mean it is automatically compressed or that the recording isn't superb.
Yes actual DR figures are down a few points on the older stuff,but everything else has been improved.If you take the opening tracks of TAN and Aja.. Gaslighting Abbey V Black Cow you will hear that the bass guitar and drums are much tighter and tuneful on the opening track of TAN.The sound is crank-able and distortion free even at very high levels..Black Cow sounds just as deep and crank-able but more congested and flabby.
This is more than likely down to the old analogue recording process which tended to impart a very pleasant/realistic sound signature,but also imparted some roll off in the HF and a slight bloating in the upper bass /lower mids.

 

I will try this!

Thanks for your recommendation.

 

OK

 

Nice Jacket.

I am intrigued to try it.

 

That is one of my oldest reference albums. I've used that one many times as a Demo.

 

Yep, Easy Money is a killer demo, isn't it?

 

I'll add a several of my favorite demos which are shure to know people's socks off.

Seal 4
James Newton Howard and Friends (any form is good, but the FIM CD, and the DD vinyl are the two best versions)
Ricky Lee Jones ST. (any formats)
Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms (any form works)
Cantate Domino (all format sound great)
Radiohead OK Computer & Kid A
RCA Living Stereo - Big Bang Baaroom SACD
Diana Krall - When I look in your Eyes SACD
Tomita - Bermuda Triangle (LP only, the CD is sounds 2D and is very disappointing)
Tomita - Daphnis Et Cloe SACD
Beck - Sea Change SACD
Blade Runner SACD
Pink Floyd - Wish you were here
Linda Rondstat - What's New (vinyl or SACD only, the CD is crap)
Steven Wilson - To the Bone
Gatto Barbiery - Que Pasa
Chile Minuchi - It's gonna be good
Checkfield - Wheat wind and Stone (I think that's the title, could be a little off though...)

 

If my guest were to ask me to play my best sounding record, although I own several MoFi and AP records and many of the usual suspects mentioned in this thread which are all very good indeed, the one I would select is: Bruce Cockburn - Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws

It was a recommendation in this forum by @Chemguy that turned me on to this record. I'm blown away every time I play it, it's a real masterpiece and a beautiful sounding record on the Canadian label True North, really easy and inexpensive to find. Whether it's to your tastes or not is a different matter of course but you'll get an idea from this:

 

About 10 minutes ago, I placed an order of this one through Ebay although it is not cheap at 20 bucks.

 

Its well worth the money. Frankly I'm amazed that this album isn't worth more than that today. Every format sounds great, although not quite the same. I have copies on LP, CD, XRCD and SACD. Although I think that the FIM XRCD might be my favorite overall.

 

The LP and the CD are miles apart on this release. I'm not sure if Sheffield came out with a remastered version of this CD later or not. But the original version of the CD does not compare to the Vinyl.

 

I’ve found it has a lot less to do with the music itself as long as the person clears (his) throat before (he) listens

 

How about the last minute and five seconds of Steely Dan's song 'Aja' ??? That's what I play to impress myself. I'm actually about to play it right now a time or two ;-)


... .. . Oh yeahhh, I'm very impressed. Haha.

 

Have you heard On Every Street by Dire Straits? Every song on that album is a demo. Also love Wow and Wave by Beck. Your tastes in music are great!

And it’s really fun to compare Apple Lossless, CD and Vinyl copies of The Great Gig in the Sky (Floyd, Dark Side), particularly 3:30 into the song when she says, “I never said I was afraid of dying.” It’s one constant that’s immediately differentiable, especially for people learning to “listen” for the first time. Reactions are priceless!

 

Hey, can you recommend any other SACD samplers? I just (at least I thought I did) scoured the ends of cyber space to find all the samplers with decent songs and only came up with two, both of which are not this one that you recommended! Thanks. Pic of the ones I got for anyone else looking for some samplers -

 

'This Love Is Over' by Ray LaMontagne always sounds really good, not matter what it's coming out of.

 

Jacket looks impressive. I may try this one.

 

Nice collections! I have about third of them.

 

Thank-you for the complement! I consider myself to have rather eclectic tastes (which are even wider than what is represented here).

My list is by no means comprehensive, and it evolves over time as I encounter new music, or I simply get bored with some of my old favorites.

I own ALL dire straights albums in at least two formats each. But I over-played them back in college, so I don't often listen to them these days unless a particular mood strikes me. But BIA remains one of my oldest references which still may get spun when I'm trying to evaluate some change to the system.

And I totally forgot to add these to my demo list: Mark Knoffler - Shangri-La, and the original Telarc recording of Rite of Spring.

Interesting tip on DSOTM... I overplayed that album in high school and was already beginning to get sick of it by the time I got to college, or it definitely would be on my demo list too (it once was btw). But now that you made that comment, I may just have to pull out my SACD, Mofi Redbook CD, and my record to see what it is that you are talking about.

 

Thanks for the complement! Now you need to go out and get the rest of them!

 

Nothing worse than wearing out great music, but there may be nothing better than rediscovering something new about your old favorites. Interested to see what you hear on that track. It’s subtle but very distinctive.

 

Here are some tracks from various genres that I usually play:

Michael Brook - Shona Bridge (4AD CD)
Michael Hedges - Ragamuffin (Windham Hill CD)
The Fragile Fate - Bell-Like (Carpe Sonum Novum CD)
Bohren & Der Club Of Gore - Staub (Ipecac CD)
Sonny Rollins - I'm An Old Cowhand (OJC/Contemporary CD)
Sheila Chandra - Ever So Lonely/Eyes/Ocean (Real World CD)
Supertramp - School (A&M/Audio Master Plus CD)
Rebekah Del Rio - Crying (Llorando) (Mullholland Drive Soundtrack-Milan CD)
Dead Can Dance - Yulunga (Spirit Dance) (4AD SACD)
Muddy Waters - Feel Like Going Home (MCA SACD)
Jeff Beck - Cause We've Ended As Lovers (Epic SACD)
Massive Attack - Protection (Virgin CD)
Massive Attack - Angel (Virgin CD)
Higher Intelligence Agency - Hubble (Beyond LP or CD)
Speedy J - Symmetry (Warp CD)
Willie Nelson - Unchained Melody (Columbia/Mastersound Gold CD)
Antônio Carlos Jobim - The Girl From Ipanema (Verve CD)
Rickie Lee Jones - Chuck E's In Love (WB LP or CD)
Lustmord - The Outer Shadow (Nextera CD)
David Crosby - Orleans (Atlantic DVD-A)
Jane's Addiction - Mountain Song (WB CD)
Shelby Lynne - The Look Of Love (Lost Highway CD)
The Irresistible Force - Flying High (Rising High CD)

 

Listening to beck "paper tiger" reminds me of "histoire de melody nelson" by serge gainsbourg...

 

I think the best way to impress is to say - "play any music from any genre at any level."

I would not try to impress people. The only person you need to impress is yourself since you are the one who listens daily and probably appreciate the characteristics of the system over time.

I have been very impressed with a lot of Hi-Fi speakers over 30 years - only to realize that over time what impresses can be quite a shallow experience. Most every speaker system that is sold as part of a home theater system for example - usually suck - regardless of price. They are great at home theater - when T2 is shot and explodes into a billion pieces - WOW what power and bass - music? meh - often pretty weak.