which is your best sounding cd or vinyl al***?.

Difficult to say but Boz Scaggs Greatest Hits live is an exceptional recording.

A few examples of great sounding CD's.

Nils Lofgren 'Live & Acoustic' is a great sounding CD. (also superb on music grounds)

Alison Krauss - 'So long, so wrong'
(also available at 4 times the price of the CD on 180gr MFSL 2LP!)

Monti Amundson - 'I see trouble' (acoustic blues)


Bad recordings: probably all U2 albums.

There's a lot more good and bad recordings ofcourse, but these are the first that came to mind

regards,
Alco

Hi Bully

Just a gentle suggestion. Why not pop this question over in the "Music Room" which is where you will probably get the best answers?

regards
Geoff

to be honest Geoff, on reflection your probably right. the trouble is that i also wanted to know if people had also experienced a sonic difference in the quality of recordings as they have upgraded their cd player,or maybe changed from another manufacturer to naim.

Hi bullytodd,

I was adding 555PS + HiLine to my CDX2 last year and what came out was that I could hear if a recording saved the music and rhythm.
If the music was there, wow. (BTW you find this often on early Jazz-recordings.)

For five days now a CDS3 replaced the CDX2. Inspite it is far from being run in, it clearly shoes me the way the recording is made.
Not only belonging to the rythm, but also colours, room (depth), clearness, size of the instruments, you can hear the different voices in a chorus much better, interact between the musicans, the ups and downs in tempo and loudness. And the seldom ability to make a pause where a pause is, means the music begins to breath.

Hardy

quote:

....also wanted to know if people had also experienced a sonic difference in the quality of recordings as they have upgraded their cd player,or maybe changed from another manufacturer to naim.

Ah I see....I certainly have. Like Hardy I found that as I moved up the Naim ladder the detail exposed was magnified. Naim certainly does not forgive bad recordings, though sometimes the fine detail exposed can save what originally seemed a dull track. The great thing is of course this also really sets great recordings alight.

Regards
Geoff

Try SF Sorrow - Gold Disc version by The Pretty Things. This was recorded at Abbey Road in 1968 and they pulled out all the stops, not only was it one of the best works ever to be committed to any recording media, but it sounds mighty fine on the CD reissue. Even the bonus tracks are incredible. Of course, the vinyl version is wonderful too.

The music is like an amalgam of all the best bits of Sgt Pepper and Piper At The Gates of Dawn - it really is that good. The Pretty Things had never approached these heights before and soon fell from them. Pete Townshend once called it the album he dreamed of making - he tried with Tommy and Who's Next, but fell slightly short (good albums though).

Some recent great CDs (music & recording) include Karine Polwart's Faultlines and Scott Walker's The Drift.

There are lots of well recorded CDs around, but I tend to stumble across them because the music always comes first - I find even some dire recordings can sound very rewarding on my CDX2, which is always good news. I bet it's the same on a CDS3.

The best sounding vinyl album I have is 5000 Spirits Or The Layers Of The Onion by The Incredible String Band - stunning recording of some amazing songs from 1967. The new Bo'Weavil pressing of Shirley Collins albums are superb too.

as a newly returned to vinyl junkie after a long absence , i was playing DSOTM by floyd a 30th anniversary remaster on the emi label, and boy its good!
regards, scotty

Mary gauthier - mercy now

Alison Krauss are recorded very well.

Live wise - The New York Rock and Soul - Live at the Beacon. featuring Boz Scaggs; Charles Brown; Phoebe Snow; Michael McDonald; Donald Fagen. -

Thought you might say that Scotty....I do have to agree though.

For a demo, it is hard to beat familiar music on 45 rpm. I like to use the Staples Singers 45 that came out last year. Has "Respect Yourself" on one side and "I'll Take You There" on the other. It just blows people away when you play it. Richard Thompson "Some Enchanted Evening" on 45 is fun. Miles Davis KOB on 45 if you can find it is off the chart. I also like "LA Woman" which came out as a German audiophile reissue LP a couple of years ago. Finally, get an original Taj Mahal "The Real Thing", a live recording that really sounds great on vinyl.

Add a vote for Alison Kraus on CD.

I think the Bruce Springsteen early music, like Born to Run and the other stuff, is the worst sounding CD or vinyl I have heard. Compressed jukebox sound. 10 for music. 5 for sound.

For every day music at low volumes, my CDS2 sounds great. But for a demo at my house, vinyl rules.

Best sounding record tends to change with time, but currently it is:

Vinyl - The Three. A direct cut from the 1970's with staggering dynamics and transients. More about it here: The three...

CD - Hmm, let me think... Ok! Eva Cassidy - Live at Blues Alley. Sounds like live recording SHOULD sound. Very good music to.

Worst sounding:

quote:

I think the Bruce Springsteen early music, like Born to Run and the other stuff, is the worst sounding CD or vinyl I have heard. Compressed jukebox sound. 10 for music. 5 for sound.

I can only agree. I have it on both 1970's vinyl and the SBM gold CD version from the 1990's and the more recent "remaster". All sound more or less awful, the more pity as the music is so good.

JohanR

Stadium Arcadium on vinyl takes some beating !

Muddy Waters "Folk Singer" on Mobile Fidelity gold cd is an incredible sounding recording. As is the same titled Howlin' Wolf release.

quote:

Originally posted by Blueknowz:
Stadium Arcadium on vinyl takes some beating !

I'm delighted to hear that, as my local record shop has got it in for me, ready for me to buy next month. (Hope it's as good as the Portishead, Live NYC Roseland on vinyl.)

However, I'm not claiming 'better than' in any sense, but I would like to say how much I'm enjoying the Japanese 'vinyl replica' series pressing of Californication.

Some of the album's tracks are on the 'Best of', and this Jap version is substantially better in resolution, detail and musicality. Made me go 'wow' anyway.

James

BB King - 'Blues on the Baioux' is excellent (unlike my spelling)..

Eric Bibb - Diamond Days on Telarc is likewise and Ry Cooder is mostly always top notch esp. Boomers Story and Paradise and Lunch.


Dire Straits at the BBC is good...also most of Rudy van Gelders engineered work in 50's-60's...Led Zeppelin 2 sounds fantastic on my CDX/XPS etc etc etc...

JWM,

where are you picking up these japanese vinyl replica's from. TO be honest my last couple of LP's have been a painful wait and then they have been warped... Just bought 5 cd's instead!!!

Keeping it contemporary: Best sounding, Jack Johnson - In Between Dreams (or any of his albums, they're all good, Curious George is particularly good). Worst sounding:- Snow Patrol - Eyes open, a truly awful recording

Gary

CD..Lindsey Buckingham's "In The Cradle" sounds awesome ..seriously it's an obvious DEMO must-have

..Vinyl wise ...the 12" single of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's "Welcome to the Pleasure Dome" is peerless

DVD-A would have to be Donald Fagen's "The Nightfly"

SACD ...Pink Floyd's "DSOTM"

Live Music DVD (5.1 DTS) Talking Heads "Stop Making Sense"

quote:

Originally posted by KeanoKing:
where are you picking up these japanese vinyl replica's from.

My local independent record shop in an ordinary market town which - knowing it has at least some audiophile market (not just me!) - stocks an amount of vinyl and Japanese pressing CDs, and, as requested, will get more in if not stocked. (This ought to go on the 'local record shop' thread too!!)

James

quote:

Originally posted by Blueknowz:
Stadium Arcadium on vinyl takes some beating !

Just picked this up today (the 'cheaper' set) - don't yet know if it's my best LP, but it's bloody amazing! The lack of distortion in complex passages is particularly noticeable!

Even No.1 daughter came down from bedroom to comment ... 'It's not fairrr... it sounds so much better than CD...'

James