50 of the best hi-fi albums for audiophiles


This popped up in my Facebook feed feed so I bit.  
It's not a bad list.  I have more than 20 of these titles and agree they are excellent sounding.
https://www.whathifi.com/features/50-albums-audiophiles?utm_content=bufferf2d32&utm_medium=socia...

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If it ain’t all about sonics and it seems within this list it ain’t, it must be about something else as significant.

Perhaps ‘audiophile’ means more in different cultural settings. What Hi Fi is to my understanding an ‘off shore’ magazine, isn’t it? Maybe they feel ‘eclectic’ is as congruent to audiophile as is excellence is to sonics.

Did anyone look into the actual choices as to each prominence or uniqueness or even influence, or in other words an albums entymology, its musicians recording venues, and or producers?

  Not digging at anyone, just wondering aloud.

Could be too, as with so many top 10 or top 100 lists on various tV shows, the list is aimed primarily at crating controversy. I see this occur on Nat Geo, Hist. AHC, etc., all the time.

Beats me. If only a few items on the list appear audiophile by definition which have not been known before, then you are ahead of the game for not much effort at all, right? I saw they said something about just that thing too, “finding new stuff”. Broadening your musical horizons.

Could be just that simple.

@blindjim - the very notion of a "list" of recommended albums is bound to evoke reactions from "what, that again!" to "why didn't they include X?"
Your question about researching the story behind the record is an interesting one- I discover music all kinds of ways, from reading and research, to recommendations, to record "surfing" (i.e., finding a singer or musician on one album and then researching that artist's discography). Some of the albums on that particular list are familiar to me. The one from the list I mentioned above was actually the subject of a fairly detailed article I published: [url]http://thevinylpress.com/congos-heart-congos/[/url]. It is a very worthwhile record musically. 
I'm usually put-off by "audiophile" records because the characterization, to me, usually means great sonics and less interesting music. 
I don't read any of the hi-fi mags anymore. As I recall, What Hi-Fi is a British mag that does fairly straightforward reviews of gear with "pros" and "cons"--and an emphasis on equipment available in the UK. 
Not a bad list. There seems to have been listed more modern albums (90-00's). I would have liked to see "Kind of Blue" 1959 and "Let it Bleed"
the flipside to The Beatles "Abbey Road". Happy Listening!
imo a very good, broad-minded list, with some interesting obscurities like nils frahm and mbongwana star.. we could all, of course, make our own lists, but it's always nice to get new input

I was making my maiden voyage to a just-opened Hi-Fi shop in 1972 (Audio Arts in Livermore, California, owned and operated by Walter Davies, now owner/inventor of The Last Factory of record care products renown) on the day Bill Johnson of ARC was delivering and installing his complete system---SP3 pre, Magneplanar Tympani-I speakers bi-amped with D51 and D75 amps. He also brought along a Thorens TD-125 MK.2 turntable and Decca Blue cartridge, which was mounted on a proto-type ARC pickup arm. The arm never made it into production, but it resembled the Grado arm of the 1950’s---a flat, wide chunk of dark wood, like walnut or rosewood.

Once set up and ready to go, Walter put on the "Me And Bobby McGee" track on Gordon Lightfoot’s If You Could Read My Mind LP. Bill said "That IS a great sounding record. What is it?". Walter gave him the LP. Used copies are plentiful; give it a spin on your system and see if you agree with Bill ;-).