[jimdgoulding]

Cheers.  Some of mine are pretty unusual and others may be out of print and I know a lot of you guys have been collecting for as long as me.  By the way, are there any female listeners here?  You don't have to be an old fart to have some favorites and perhaps I can learn more than I know.  I ain't static, yo.  I'd be delighted if you would contribute.  It would be cool if you would note how they qualify as acid test recordings (i.e. so and so on this recording for vocal articulation*, for example).  If there is something that just purely stirs your soul, note that and feel free to include.  Please.  Here's a fairly new one from me . . Carbon Glacier- Laura Viers (nonesuch).  Sympathetic production and her CD is spellbinding.

*Man, if you say anything by Cassandra Wilson, you're in for a debate (on recording merit, anyway, too hard to exclude).

[linkweewee]

I just picked up the 2 LP set 'Paul Simon's Greatest Hits' and am knocked out with the sound quality and with how great many of his songs are. Songs like '50 Ways To Leave Your Lover' and 'Late In The Evening' take on a whole new dimension when heard on a good vinyl rig vs the 1000+ times you've heard them on the radio. Very nice.

[jimdgoulding]

Link-  This a new album?  What label?  Man, that is a stop me in my tracks avatar.

[Dan_ed]

Lately, I've been using Weather Report's Heavy Weather. I have it on ceedee and vinyl, but mostly use the vinyl. This album also a lot of fun to listen to. Want to know how fast a phono cartridge is? Put this one on and see if the cartridge can keep up.

The music on this album is fast, dynamic, and full-ranged so it works wonderfully for almost ever system parameter. Joe Zawinul's piano, on some tracks, give an excellent test for tonal quality in the midrange. There are passages where, if things are right, you can easily pick out the drummer using different locations on the cymbals to get different sounds. I listen for the body of Wayne Shorter's sax.

[jimdgoulding]

Thanks.  Good one.  I own Tale Spinnin on vinyl.  Believe I'll revisit that.  Looked at the liner notes just now and see that Bruce Botnick was the sound engineer on TS.  He has done some excellent work elsewhere.  This was a magical disc on my start up system, a B&O table and speakers, with a big Yamaha receiver.  Too cool.

[Wayner]

I think Thomas Dolby'w Wireless is one hell of a recording. I use it to evaluate every once in a while. Another recording is by Depeche Mode, Violator. It rocks. However, The best recording I have ever heard is by the Brian Setzer Orchestra on Hollywood Records HR-61565-2. It has great songs like Lady Luck, Good Rockin' Daddy, Brand New Cadillac, Route 66 and Straight UP. 12 songs in all.

When people here this CD on my MartinLogans, and serious firepower, they are left speechless.

Wayner

[S Clark]

The reference recordings for me are the Sheffield Lab Direct to Disc series.  Among the best of them are "Thelma Houston and the Pressure Cooker" and Lincoln Mayorca Vol. III.  - a bit hard to come by but worth seeking out.

[TheChairGuy]

Ditto on the Sheffields....James Newton Howard...and Friends is a knockout - as is Growing up in Hollywood Town by Amanda McBroom (sp? - not at my home computer right now).

Anything by Mannheim Steamroller (aka Chip Davis) is a sonic treat, too.....and some (okay, most) of Alan Parson's albums.

Classical is the most revealing of all - Thus Spake Zarathustra (aka, the theme from 2001 Space Odyssey) is mind-boggling in every sense.  It's an acid test for stridency, amplification or bass inadequacies, among others 

[lonewolfny42]

My acid test recording....and my favorite Lp....the Classic Records/Columbia recording of "Time Out" by Dave Brubeck Quartet... ...I love that album !!!!

[jimdgoulding]

I gotta get that, Wolfny, and find my copy of Zarathustra on Philips.  For choral staging, individual voice, and a complete lack of exaggeration to include the accompanying trio, "Listen . . The LA Jazz Choir" recorded live by Keith Johnson and released on Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab in 1983.  The surface has held up very well as I hope it continues to cause it's out of print.  A Propius and a Mark Levinson (volume one) choral recording are remarkably there, too.

Setzer sounds intriguing, also.

[S Clark]

My acid test recording....and my favorite Lp....the Classic Records/Columbia recording of "Time Out" by Dave Brubeck Quartet... ...I love that album !!!!

I love the music, but alway found the sound a bit dull.  Of course, I got my copy in 1971, have played it perhaps 1000 times with the first several hundred or so on Mom's Emerson console.   

[lonewolfny42]

My acid test recording....and my favorite Lp....the Classic Records/Columbia recording of "Time Out" by Dave Brubeck Quartet... ...I love that album !!!!

I love the music, but alway found the sound a bit dull.  Of course, I got my copy in 1971, have played it perhaps 1000 times with the first several hundred or so on Mom's Philips console.   

Sounds like it time for a new Classic Recordings copy....

[Listens2tubes]

I use Flight Path by SPHERE on Elektra Musician 60313-1 which always get a rave where ever I take it. Also Scheherazade LSC-2446 Reiner/Chicago Symphony and Getz/Gilberto on Verve V6-8545. I have an original Scheherazade as well as the 180gr and the 200gr. The original is a bit noisy and has been added to the pile I will be trying the PVA glue treatment on. I like the 180gr but have not yet opened the 200gr. The Getz/Gilberto is the 180gr since the three various other pressings I have exhibit recessed vocal syndrome.

[low.pfile]

I think Thomas Dolby'w Wireless is one hell of a recording. I use it to evaluate every once in a while. Another recording is by Depeche Mode, Violator. It rocks. However, The best recording I have ever heard is by the Brian Setzer Orchestra on Hollywood Records HR-61565-2. It has great songs like Lady Luck, Good Rockin' Daddy, Brand New Cadillac, Route 66 and Straight UP. 12 songs in all.

When people here this CD on my MartinLogans, and serious firepower, they are left speechless.

Wayner

Note to self: Pick up Violator on vinyl, one my favorite albums overall. It will be a great material when I do a digital to analog comparison now that I have my TT connected (though not properly set up fully)

thanks for the reminder wayner.