Worthy audiophile rock albums.

dwc · « **Reply #40 on:** 19 Jan 2006, 07:28 pm »

The last two Tool records are very HiFi. (Lateralus ansd Aenima)
Also I use Isis - Panopticon for reference listening. It's a beautiful mix of heavy and light.

-Dan

JoshK · « **Reply #41 on:** 20 Jan 2006, 05:54 pm »

Can't believe I didn't say tool...I must have been sleepy. Love em both!

gitarretyp · « **Reply #42 on:** 20 Jan 2006, 06:40 pm »

I think some of these have been mentioned, but here would be my list of some of the best recorded rock albums i own:

Tool: Aenima and Lateralus
Perfect Circle: All of them that i've listed to
Metallica: Justice and Black Album
Tori Amos: Tales of a Librarian and Boys for Pele
Pink Floyd: DSotM (MoFi) and Pulse
Rush: 2112 (MoFi)
Aimee Mann: Lost in Space
REM: Best of on DVDA
Radiohead: OK Computer
Sigur Ros: ()
Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms
Death Cab for Cutie: Transatlantacism and Plans
Nine Inch Nails: With Teeth and The Fragile
AC/DC: Live

Greg Marberry · « **Reply #43 on:** 20 Jan 2006, 07:22 pm »

Quote from: gitarretyp

I think some of these have been mentioned, but here would be my list of some of the best recorded rock albums i own:

Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms

It's hard to believe when listening to that album that it was recorded all digitally back in the mid 80s.

To add to this thread, Mark Knopflers latest solo albums (starting with Sailing to Philadelphia) are also very well mixed and sound good despite the use of compressors to smash the dynamics down.

SWG255 · « **Reply #44 on:** 20 Jan 2006, 08:37 pm »

THE BEST "OF DIRE STRAITS AND MARK KNOPFLER - PRIVATE INVESTIGATIONS" sounds great on vinyl, and I'd wager the CD is good too. To me it sounds like there's been further work done to improve the sound, especially in regard to spaciousness. Comparing the actual "Brothers in Arms" track on the new release with the older LP, there's more air around the instruments and the voices on the "Private Investigations" release. I highly recommend this to any Knopfler or Dire Straits fan.

You can find the 180 gram LP at:

http://www.amusicdirect.com/products/detail.asp?sku=LID14767

Or the CD at:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000BI0WOA/sr=1-1/qid=1137789264/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-6658266-0120727?%5Fencoding=UTF8

Note that i don't have vinyl anymore, so thanks to my good buddy Scott for providing the listening experience.

PhilNYC · « **Reply #45 on:** 20 Jan 2006, 08:53 pm »

I think every Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler album is pretty much great, so I'd recommend getting all of them instead of settling for just the greatest hits...

SWG255 · « **Reply #46 on:** 20 Jan 2006, 09:10 pm »

Quote from: PhilNYC

I think every Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler album is pretty much great, so I'd recommend getting all of them instead of settling for just the greatest hits...

Did I say I was settling for just this album?

I think it's worthwhile to get just to compare the different mastering approaches on the different discs, plus it's sometimes nice to have favorite songs on one (or two) discs.

Folsom · « **Reply #47 on:** 21 Jan 2006, 05:08 am »

Sevendust - Southside Double-Wide, an acoustic live album that was some how recorded really well. They should always play like this, I do not even care for their studio work.

JoshK · « **Reply #48 on:** 23 Jan 2006, 04:17 am »

Porcupine Tree - Stupid Dream
Dream Theater - Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence
Built to Spill - Ancient Melodies of the Future
The Flaming Lips - Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots
Ryan Adams - Heartbreaker

gstraley · « **Reply #49 on:** 23 Jan 2006, 03:55 pm »

One of my favorite audiophile rock recordings that I use a lot for a/b/a listening is: Alice in Chains, "MTV unplugged" You can really hear a lot of things going on in this recording. The bass is a little pumped up. The music is a little dark but well recorded for rock. This recording is a must for all Alice in Chains fans or people that like that kind of music.

Another good recording is: Heart's "The Road Home". It is mostly an acoustic live recording of some of their popular songs.

Gregg

Folsom · « **Reply #50 on:** 23 Jan 2006, 04:30 pm »

Yeah I like Alice In Chains and Nirvana's unplugged albums. I am not sure how good the Nirvana one is as I have only heard it once or twice though.

I have been listening a little to my Primus albums and they are indeed recorded pretty well. No comment on lyrics and sound, they are different and not for every one.

Dave Mathews - Everday is not to bad. I like that Dave's voice is the main presence when he sings. They sound very... electrical at times which is not all that dynamic, but the drums are nice because they are traditional, not because they have the next Max Weinberg.

dwc · « **Reply #51 on:** 23 Jan 2006, 06:43 pm »

Greg,
I've heard other folks mention they use the AiC unplugged for reference listening. It must be a nice recording.

JoshK · « **Reply #52 on:** 23 Jan 2006, 07:44 pm »

This brings up an interesting point. When I was at Dr. Geddes's place we briefly spoke about audition material and he mentioned that he found that there are some tracks that participants consistently can hear small differences in distortion (due to system change, etc) with and others that they can't hear hardly anything at all.

There are profiles of the spectrum that lend themselves well to distinguishing differences and others that don't. He found that when the the music comprises lot of positive only swings in the spectrum, as opposed to positive and negative like a sign wave, then the participants were much more able to hear minute differences. A good example of such music (and this kind of music is slightly rare) is Tracy Chapman. Her voice exhibits such a spectrum.

My guess is that Layne Staley's voice (AiC) is similar in spectral composition. Plus you have a lot of acoustic strings which are hard to produce correctly.

Thump553 · « **Reply #53 on:** 23 Jan 2006, 09:46 pm »

That Dire Straits/Mark Knopfler compilation looks like a fine album from the track listing, and I usually don't like compilations.

Folsom · « **Reply #54 on:** 23 Jan 2006, 09:47 pm »

Devils and Dust when I first got it had a few parts that where actually distorted sounding... The distortion is gone now that I Frankenstein my old Rotel.

Who likes Modest Mouse? Good New For The People Who Love Bad News (DUALDISC) is good, as well as The Moon & Antarctica (remastered). My friend at college got these for Christmas so I had to rip them.

ctviggen · « **Reply #55 on:** 23 Jan 2006, 11:16 pm »

I like both of those Modest Mouse CDs. Some of their lyrics are weird, though:

A wild pack of family dogs came runnin through the yard one day
My father got his gun shot it up, they ran away ok,
A wild pack of family dogs came runnin through the yard
And as my own dog ran away with them
I didn't say much of anything at all
A wild pack of family dogs came runnin through the yard
as my little sister played
The dogs took her away and I guess she was eaten up ok
Yeah she was eaten up ok
My mothers cryin blood dust now
My dad he quit his job today
Well I guess he was fired but that's ok
And I'm sittin outside my my mudlake waiting for the pack to take me away
And right after I die the dogs start floating up towards the glowing sky
Now they'll receive their rewards
Now they will receive their rewards

What the heck does this mean?

lonewolfny42 · « **Reply #56 on:** 23 Jan 2006, 11:33 pm »

ctviggen :

Quote

What the heck does this mean?

[/list:u]

I think I've got it....wild pack of family dogs, father got his gun, sister was eaten up... this may be it.......

[/list:u]

Song Meanings.... http://www.songmeanings.net/lyric.php?lid=3458764513820562879[/list:u]

Folsom · « **Reply #57 on:** 27 Jan 2006, 10:33 pm »

AC/DC Back in Black is a good album. Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap sucks.... I have to same I am not speculating AC/DC Live to be that good. I only have and know of a handful of decent live albums

gitarretyp · « **Reply #58 on:** 27 Jan 2006, 10:41 pm »

I really like the ac/dc live album, both performance wise and acoustically (for a mainstream rock album). If you like ac/dc, you'd at least enjoy the music.

dwc · « **Reply #59 on:** 27 Jan 2006, 11:16 pm »

I just bought the Alice in Chains Unplugged. It really is a nice record. Great sound.

WRT ac/dc I like the sound on Let There be Rock. The guitar tone is brilliant.

-Dan