Best sounding cd in your collection

1) Sarah Brightman-all; Norah Jones-all
2) Alison Krauss/Union Station - New Favorite
3) Natalie Merchant - Tigerlily

1. Heart: Dreamboat Annie (DCC)
2. Wynton Kelly: Kelly Blue (XRCD)
3. Patricia Barber: Cafe Blue (FIM)

1. Louise Taylor "Written in Red". Extremely dynamic presentation, very expressive vocals. Chris Isaak "Heart Shaped World".
2. Bill Frisell "East West". On the West disc, Bill is sitting on my sofa extreme right, way outside the speakers. Maybe some out of phase trickery from this master guitarist.
3. Paul Bley "Not Two, Not One". The lowest piano notes I have ever heard. Bley plays an eight octave Bosendorfer Imperial. Gary Peacock on double bass, and Paul Motian on drums. ECM jazz trio format with exceptional sonics.

Easy,
1) Female Vocals Tori Amos Boys for Pele
2) Soundstage/Imaging Gino D'Auri Flamenco Passion, the best guitar I've ever found
3) Bass, another simple one, The Crystal Method, Vegas bass to die for and super fast transitions as well.

These are the three disks I use to test different gear out the most.

1) Female vocal: Joni Mitchell "Court and Spark" (HDCD)
1a) Male vocal: Chris Isaak "Heart-Shaped World" (also HDCD)

2 and 3 - no contest: Pat Metheny's "Imaginary Day" - a DTS version that I found online. This CD sounds *superb*, truly reference-quality stuff.

2nd place for 2/3 would have to be Mark Knopfler's "Sailing To Philadelphia", also a DTS version snagged off the Internet. Jeff Wayne's "War of the Worlds" (DTS) also sounds terrific.

These DTS versions are simply stunning. If you really want to impress folks with how good digital media can sound, Google these. You'll have to download them as torrents, but the investment of your time in learning how to do this will pay off handsomely...

-RW-