100 Albums You Would wish for...from a Genie

@bdp24 This is a great point you make about super-revealing gear causing less-than-stellar recordings to be more pronounced in their less-than-stellarness.  
Tough thing about such listening habits.  
I suppose if one only listens to music that was recorded immaculately, the high-end stuff pays off marvelously.  
Listening to roughly recorded music exclusively makes the money, time and effort spent on maximized fidelity with home audio a really dicey proposition. 
Really tough for folks who have a super diverse taste for music.

"Super revealing gear" is not necessaraly a true qualitative system ....

True audiophile system/room make any recording better even the bad recording...

Many confuse details and bright...

Natural timbre sound  is the mark of a great system not  "details" coming from brightness...

Acoustics basic...

I've made my "desert island list" many times. Yo Lo Tengo is a perennial pick. "We Be Sailin'" by B W Stevenson HAS to be there, and John Prine, my sing along records... it's lonely on a desert island. Today, Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" Flat Duo Jets. The Residents, Silver Apples, Red Crayolas, Stereo Lab, George Antheil, Zappa, Ornette Coleman, Sarah Vaughn, Patsy Cline, Beethoven's 3rd.... But this is a WISH list, right?

Is it about my favorite music, things I already have, or can get? Like, give me a pristine copy of something I have? I don't like to be limited, I don't want to be boxed, what a chance to explore. So, I would ask a Djinn for the obscure, the rumored, the forgotten, the runs of 100 pressings, the things a Djinn would have in their collection... not record club or played to death on FM. Not my favorites, so much, but things that could become favorites. I might say something like, "I want 100 albums I didn't know existed, so surprise me" and then add them to the shelves, after auditioning...and being surprised ;)

but that's just me. go ahead, make it 100 copies of signed "Born in the USA" and I'll sell them on Fleece bay

Without a doubt, my list would be a little different if I could use box sets (Howlin' Wolf, James Brown, Ornette, etc.) or best ofs (Creedence, George Jones, etc.) and would be subject to endless editing upon closer inspection, but this was nevertheless a fun exercise of compiling a hundred albums I will always play fondly and that have shaped me, for better or worse:

1. Big Star – “Radio City”
2. Beatles  -- “Rubber Soul”
3. Flying Burrito Brothers – “The Gilded Palace of Sin”
4. Yo La Tengo – “I Can Still Hear the Heart Beating as One”
5. Miles Davis – “In a Silent Way”
6. Miles Davis – “Kind of Blue”
7. Television – “Marquee Moon”
8. Rolling Stones—“Sticky Fingers”
9. Rolling Stones – “Exile on Main Street”
10. Thelonious Monk – “Brilliant Corners
11. James Carter – “Chasin’ the Gypsy”
12. Billie Holiday – “Lady Day”
13. Lucinda Williams – “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road”
14. Lucinda Williams – “Sweet Old World”
15. R.E.M – “Murmur
16. R.E.M – “Automatic for the People”
17. Joni Mitchell – “Blue”
18. Los Lobos – “Colossal Head”
19. Richard and Linda Thompson – “Hokey Pokey”
20. R/L Thompson – “I Want to See the Bright Lights Tonight”
21. R/L Thompson – “Shoot Out the Lights”
22. The Replacements – “Pleased to Meet Me”
23. The Feelies – “The Good Earth”
24. X – “Wild Gift”
25. New York Dolls – S/T
26. Sonic Youth – “Daydream Nation”
27. Jason and the Scorchers – “Fervor” (EP)
28. Ornette Coleman – “Of Human Feelings”
29. Ornette Coleman – “In All Languages”
30. Wussy – “Attica”
31. Massive Attack – “No Protection”
32. James McMurtry – “It’s Complicated”
33. George Jones – “Tenth Anniversary”
34. Minutemen – “Double Nickels on the Dime”
35. The Greencards – “Viridian”
36. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band – “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” Vol.1
37. Neil Young – “Decade”
38. Neil Young – “Rust Never Sleeps”
39. Neil Young – “Tonight’s the Night”
40. Sparklehorse – “It’s a Wonderful Life”
41. Bob Marley and the Wailers – “Legend”
42. Steely Dan – “Can’t Buy a Thrill”
43. Steely Dan – “Pretzel Logic”
44. Tom Waits – “SwordfishTrombones”
45. Velvet Underground – S/T (third album)
46. Velvet Underground and Nico
47. Lou Reed – “The Blue Mask”
48. Jenny Lewis and the Watson Twins – “Rabbit Fur Coat”
49. Pavement – “Brighten the Corners”
50. Sleater Kinney – “Dig Me Out”
51. Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Cosmo’s Factory”
52. Creedence Clearwater Revival – “Willy and the Poor Boys”
53. Howlin’ Wolf – “Moanin’ in the Moonlight”
54. Leonard Cohen – “Songs of Leonard Cohen”
55. Leonard Cohen – “Ten New Songs”
56. John Prine – S/T
57. Richard Hell and the Voidoids —“Blank Generation”
58. Iris Dement – “My Life”
59. Silos – “Cuba”
60. Gram Parsons – “Grievous Angel”
61. Husker Du – “New Day Rising”
62. Husker Du – “Zen Arcade”
63. Bill Evans – “Sunday at the Village Vanguard”
64. Sonny Rollins – “Silver City”
65. Charlie Parker – “The Legendary Dial Masters”
66. Professor Longhair – “Crawfish Fiesta”
67. The Ramones – “Road to Ruin”
68. Elvis Costello – “King of America”
69. Oliver Nelson – “Blues and the Abstract Truth”
70. Willie Nelson – “Spirit”
71. The Jayhawks – “Rainy Day Music”
72. Fleetwood Mac – “Rumours”
73. Dave Holland – “Conference of the Birds”
74. John Coltrane – “Live at the Village Vanguard”
75. John Coltrane – “A Love Supreme”
76. Fountains of Wayne – “Welcome Interstate Managers”
77. The Go-Betweens – “Liberty Belle and the Diamond Express”
78. The Go-Betweens – “Tallulah”
79. Grant McLennan – “Horsebreaker Star”
80. The Band – S/T
81. The Band – “Music from Big Pink”
82. Pink Floyd – “Wish You Were Here”
83. The Pixies – “Bossanova”
84. Van Morrison – “Moondance”
85. Van Morrison – “Astral Weeks”
86. Luna – “Penthouse”
87. Led Zeppelin – “III”
88. Archers of Loaf – “Vee Vee”
89. Prince – “The Gold Experience”
90. Prince – “Sign o’ the Times”
91. The Pretenders – S/T
92. Nirvana – “MTV Unplugged Live in New York”
93. Bob Dylan – “Highway 61 Revisited”
94. Bob Dylan – “Blonde on Blonde”
95. Freedy Johnston – “Can You Fly?”
96. The Stooges – “Funhouse”
97. The Modern Lovers – S/T
98. Old 97s – “Fight Songs”
99. Talking Heads – “Remain in Light”
100. The Wrens – “The Meadowlands”

@bdp24

I'm very sensitive to harsh highs and as I don't have the option of following the embedding advice of  @mahgister (my system in in our living room), I try to be very careful with gear choices. Nevertheless, I unintentionally ended up with too forward a presentation earlier in the year., after replacing my Moon transport with a Jay's.

At first, I was seduced by the significant increase in resolution. Resolution had never been a top priority for me, so this level of detail was a novelty. However, as time went on, I found myself listening less and less. I reached a point where after 30 seconds of music, I had to turn off the system.

Utilizing advice from forum members, I was able to identify and address the problemmatic parts of the signal chain. It's hard to say whether the system has any less detail, now. If it does, I don't miss it. Still, there are some particularly poor-sounding CDs I've had to get rid of. So, for those who don't have a well treated room, it would appear to be a balancing act -- having enough resolution to make for a convincing presentation, without pushing it so far that it becomes fatiguing.