The one must have audiophile hi-res sampler.


I would suggest The Visual Sound The Sound Liaison DXD sampler.
Please feel free to post your own favorite.

Gary Galo from Audio Express gives a rave review to The Visual Sound: The SOUND LIAISON DXD Sampler. It’s available in Stereo DSD (up to DSD 512) and Stereo DXD at the NATIVE DSD Store and at Sound Liaison.com. as well as in 24/192 flac at Sound Liaison BandCamp
Galo says "Sound Liaison doesn’t sell physical media — it offers downloads. Making purist recordings depends not only on the skill and ears of the engineer, but also on the acoustics of the recording venue, and the microphone. There are some audio enthusiasts who claim that high-resolution digital recordings offer no audible improvement over conventional Red Book CDs. I could not disagree more.Sound Liason’s DXD sampler, The Visual Sound, offers some of the most realistic sounding recordings I’ve heard, in enjoyable selections performed by excellent musicians. It includes 10 small-group jazz selections from Sound Liaison’s DXD albums, all mastered at 352.8 kHz. Six of the recordings were made using multiple microphones, while the other four were made with a single Josephson Engineering C700S microphone. I felt that the DSD files had a slightly larger and more precise stereo image. That may seem strange, but I can only report what I heard. It’s possible that my reactions to the warmth and the imaging are due to the simpler analog filtering in DSD playback. Most of the music on this sampler is decidedly laid-back, and audiophiles looking for an in-your-face sonic spectacular will likely miss the point. For engineer Frans de Rond and the excellent musicians heard on these recordings, it’s all about subtlety and refinement. Musically perceptive listeners will appreciate the efforts of all involved in making these fine recordings."

"Of special interest to the audiophile community might be tracks 2, 3, 6 & 9.These tracks have been recorded using just one microphone, the Josephson C700S.The advantages of the One Microphone approach to recording are obvious: perfect imaging, great sense of depth, superior realism and phase coherence. The phase coherence makes them ideal for optimizing speaker placement and finding the optimal listening position, the sweet spot."

fyn
Thanks for the tip.  I bought the hi res FLAC download.  The recording quality is very good but the music content is just so so to me.  I like Born 2b Blue best by Steve Miller.  A few tracks are labeled Single Mic Recording but still have a stereo image.  Not sure how that works or what that means- just expected it to sound like a mono recording. It is well done but I have heard other hi res demos and albums that are much more holographic and have a larger soundstage.  Still, these hi res recordings show off just how good digital high frequencies can sound.  Downloaded hi res has just a slight edge over streaming hi res to me depending on the recording.  The cymbals on this download are liquid smooth and as good as analog.  I learned 15 years ago that in the analog world turntable platter speed control is crucial to good sounding highs.  Not just wow and flutter but micro speed changes over each revolution of the record.  Both sources, analog and hi res digital are very competitive now.
Here is yet another very good review of the https://soundliaison.bandcamp.com/album/the-visual-sound-the-sound-liaison-dxd-music-sampler-24bit-192khz-version

....have managed to strike a balance between intimacy of the performance and the soundstage in the big way, better than numerous other albums on which the sound engineers have tried the same! Really well done. This is a superb recording in every respect: tonal balance, timing, spatial delineation etc. And it’s a pleasure to listen to!

No Spotify, no Tidal

Note that the albums by the Sound Liaision are not available on streaming services such as Spotify and Tidal. Why? Here’s the explanation: “Because the audio quality on these streaming sites is simply not good enough, and the music of the Sound Liaision does not fit the spotify mould where the chorus of a song tends to start within 15-30 seconds. A slight effort in order to obtain the music, makes the searcher value more the music itself. And last but not least, we want to pay our artists their fair share of the profits being made.”

complete review here;
https://www.inner-magazines.com/music/perfect-balance/

Thanx for the link. 07 Born 2 Be Blue is nice.
With the Band’s Campout plugin it sounds sweet on my streamers.
There are NO "must haves"
Dowhatyalike.
Thank you for the recommendation 😊 I have a few from Sony, Bluecoast, Reference Recordings and 2NL.