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Any good "sampler" or "demo" discs ?

I just received a disc from Kelly aka "Cornfedboy" that is great in EVERY aspect. I did him a small favor and he was more than kind enough to return it by forwarding me this disc. As such, i am grateful for many reasons. Not only is it an overall excellent recording, the musical selections are all top notch and quite diverse. I'll be buying several of the discs by the original artists that the selections were originally pulled from.

As such, this disc has helped to expand my musical horizons. It contains everything from female vocals to blues to pipe organ to chamber music to ballads to classical, etc... You would think that such a "mish-mash" of diversity would make for a tough listening experience, but not at all. I actually ENJOYED the music on an "audiophile" grade recording for a change : )

For the "record", this is a "demo" disc that Burmester put together. While i would guess that it was originally used for their dealers to show off the capabilities of their gear, it appears as if it can be bought outright too. The official title is: "Burmester Vorfuhrungs CD III" and i would HIGHLY recommend it. Be careful on track 10 though, as it can definitely do damage if played at anything remotely resembling high volume. There are extremely quick and powerful low frequency drum "whacks" that will probably put most woofers ( especially small vented designs ) into a state of shock.

This made me wonder how many other great "demo" or "sampler" discs are out there ? I'm strictly speaking quality recordings with a good amount of diversity in types of music. If something is truly outstanding but stays within the same genre ( all classical, all chamber music, all jazz, all blues, all bluegrass, etc...), i guess that it would also be safe to mention so long as it was clearly stated what type of music it was.

I think that these kinds of discs can be very eye and ear opening. A thread like this can help us all to find new types of music and artists that we might not otherwise have been exposed to or able to find and enjoy and do it in small pieces. I guess that in some respects, a good movie soundtrack can do the same thing. If you REALLY feel the need, you can include those too : ) Sean
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sean
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jontiffin's avatar
jontiffin
5 posts
 
The sampler from Legacy (created for demo of Legacy loudspeakers and was a givaway on their dog & pony tour) has a nice collection of Jazz.

Also, a sampler of Celtic Music titled Celtic Wave (BMG Classics/RCA Victor) is substancial. Beautiful female voice and tympani. I use this recording as one of my reference discs due to my ears interpretation of high accuracy.

Write directly w/??'s jontiffin@hotmail.com
use subject line 'music samplers'.

Happy Listening,

Cheers!
detlof
1,899 posts
 
Well, perhaps some of you might remember: its not a Vorfuehrungs CD its a Vorfuehrungs tape:
Roumanis Recordings Demonstration Tape, a mix of Jazz and Classical used by Mark L. the man's dealers before he was eaten up by Madrigal. I spin it on my old Revox Studer now and again and it still sounds terrific.
celtic66
1,671 posts
 
I find some of the Naim samplers quite decent.
cornfedboy
1,645 posts
 
sean: i am pleased that you enjoyed my "thank you." (BTW, sean's "small favor" was, to me, much larger; he burned-in my latest 6 meter run of tara "the one" ic's for 11 days on his mobie, which i think is equivelent to about 1000 hrs. or more of "system" burn-in.) fact is, i collect the variety of discs about which you inquire. many (most) are very hard to come by, unless you schmooze with them that produce them (usually at ces or the like). here are 4 others that are well worth a search:

• Burmester, “Vorfürings-CD II (almost impossible to find “new” ; they are never “sealed”). this one has three of the most incredibly-produced pieces from “the wall” i’ve ever heard, plus stevie ray vaughn, ricky lee jones, quincy jones and more super classical pieces;

• Tannoy HiFi Series Sound Sampler. from diana krall to bonnie raitt and was, peter gabriel and the spectacular “albioni adagio in g minor” with gary carr (cello) and harmon lewis (pipe organ).

• The Fi/Analouge Productions Sampler. done by chad kassem for the late, great(?) highend rag. mostly jazz and blues, as good as they get.

• “Die Röhre” on the Tacet label. classical done with tubes only. the lp, not surprisingly, is even better.

hope you can find these and others I treasure.

-kelly
joe_b
421 posts
 
Try Pope Music "Reel 4" sampler available for $4.99 or $5.99 (gold) at amusicdirect.com.
Not spectacular, but well made.
A tragedy that Pope Music went out of business.
flex
292 posts
 
The well known Burmester III disc that Sean refers to above is available through Lyric HiFi in N.Y., and has been demo'd extensively at last year's High End show and CES. The disc is good, but with a price of $30 and shipping above that, its not cheap - what I'd like to know is where to get the (very good) Burmester discs at a more reasonable price. (Maybe you get one free if you buy a Burmester component?)
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