At the last Capital Audiofest, I spent a lot of time hanging out with and helping Phillip O'Hanlon, who was exhibiting Graham speakers. He is known for his vast and eclectic collection of LPs. I brought for him to hear a record from my collection that he immediately went on line to purchase from Discogs. It is David Peabody's "Americana" collection of folk music (Peabody is an Englishman who is a big fan of American folk music). This record is quite cheap on Discogs, but, it is incredibly well recorded I use the track "Sewing Machine Blues" as one of my standard demonstration tracks.
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The Eva Cassidy album is one of the greatest live albums ever recorded—beautiful sound and great performance. I have the Toneff album and I agree about it being a great sounding album. The My Funny Valentine and the Moon’s a Harsh Mistress tracks are particularly nice.
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I really like "At Seventeen," and consider its good sound as a bonus. Her "Breaking Silence" album is even better in recording quality, but I still prefer "At Seventeen."
More pop/rock albums with good sound:
Warren Zevon (self titled)
Chris Isaak "Heart Shaped World"
Thomas Dolby "Aliens Ate My Buick"
Kraftwerk "Electric Cafe"
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If you want to immerse yourself in great controversy, google "hot stamper" or the company selling these records--Better Records The claim is that, even within a particular issue of an album, there are certain stampers that are better than others and the resulting pressings are the ones to covet. Some hot stampers go for thousands of dollars.
I have not bought any of these hot stampers myself. However, long before hot stampers became a thing, a friend played two very clean versions of a particular record--both original pressings, both with same covers, dead-wax markings, etc., yet one sounded much more alive and vibrant. Were the two records from different pressing plants? Was this an example of a "hot stamper" vs. an ordinary stamper? I don't know, but, sort of thing adds more complications when hunting down versions of favorite albums.
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itsjim,
We agree on Sheffield D-to-D recordings, although I find some of the music to be so-so. The same goes with other D-to-D recording companies, such as M & K Realtime. I like the other non- D-to-D records you recommend, particularly the "What's New" suggestion.
I have a few more suggestions of records with both good sound and music:
Kate and Anna McGarrigle (self titled)
Hubert Sumlin: "Blues Party"
Cowboy Junkies: "Black-Eyed Man"
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When it comes to reissues, it is sometimes quite hard to say whether the reissue is better or worse than the original--opinions may vary greatly. When Classic Records reissued some Led Zeppelin albums, I bought them and a friend and I compared them to the original albums. To me, the reissues sounded richer and nicer than the originals, but, my friend thought they were stripped of the rough, raw sound that made the albums great. i could see his point, but, I still liked the reissues. He got rid of his reissue albums. I should have bought them because some of these albums go for crazy money these days.
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For reissues, the Japanese company King Records made many terrific records and premium jackets as well. I have pop/rock, jazz and classical reissues by them that I like a lot (e.g., Steely Dan “Aja”, Beethoven “Spring” violin and piano sonata).
Even the digital CD player and DAC manufacturer Esoteric made great reissues (e.g., Dvorak Symphony No. 5, Kertesz conducting VPO).
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Sealegs,
Yes, Rounder did put out some nice sounding records with interesting music. One of my favorites is Michael Hurley's "Have Moicy" --very funny lyrics and quite interesting music This is one of my personal top record in my collection. Sugar Hill is also an amazing label. Your other listings are terrific as well. I like recordings from Athena.
Audioquest, the cable company, put out some really well recorded stuff with amazing soundstaging and "reach out and touch" realism. Check out, for example, the Tuxedo Cowboys' "Woman of the Heart" album and Robert Lucas' "Usin' Man Blues."
Clarity Records put out only a few albums, but, they were ultra high quality records, some versions had tracks only on one side of the record to maximize pressing quality. I own Mary Stallings "Fine and Mellow" and Claudio Gomez "Salamandra."
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For classical music, consistently very good sounding records were produced by the label Lyrita (exclusively British composers); I have never heard even a so-so Lyrita. For 1950-60’s, RCA and Mercury recordings are also mostly good. Some of the best chamber music recordings I’ve heard came from a very obscure East German label called NOVA.
When I want to show that stereo recordings have not really improved since the late 1950’s, and early 1960’s, I play some original “six eye” Columbia records, such as, Duke Ellington’s “Blues in Orbit” or Dave Brubeck’s “Take Five.” Both of these have been reissued a number of times but sound best in the original version.
When I want to show how good mono recordings sound, I play Sonny Rollins’ “Saxophone Colossus”.
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Two more spectacular recordings that I have heard, and own, only in reissued versions:
1) "Satchmo Plays King Oliver"--1960, Audio Fidelity (original issue), Classic Records reissue.
2) "Alternate Blues" (Gillespie, Terry, Hubbard, Peterson)-1980, Analogue Productions reissue.
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Great sound AND good music do not often go together in a single record. This is an example of one record having both:
Richard and Linda Thompson: "Shoot Out the Lights" Hannibal Records.
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Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" is commonly cited as a great sounding album. It has, to me anyway, great music and pretty good sound, but, it is not their best sounding album (there are also too many issues of the album to sort through, the one I like is a German quadriphonic version that I heard only playing in stereo, but it beat out the Mofi version and the original US release). To me, "The Wall" is their best sounding album and "Wishing You are Here" is another great sounding album.
Paul Simon's "Graceland" is another often cited great sounding album, and I agree on the assessment.
I know people have gone off the deep end criticizing MoFi One-Step records because they were made from digital masters. I don't agree with the critics; every one of the One Steps I heard were good sounding regardless of the choice of masters.
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One of my favorite records is one I found in the $1.00 section of a used record store. It is the very first recording of Ariel Ramirez's "Missa Criolla." (first Vatican approved mass in the vernacular following Vatican II). The recording is on the Phillips label (the copy I found was on Argentinian Phillips, which is particularly appropriate because Ramirez is from Argentina). The music is fantastic and the sound of the recording is quite good too. There are many copies available for as little as $2.00 or so:
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To keep this going, I would add Ry Cooder's soundtrack to the movie "Paris Texas." Beautifully atmospheric sound. His other albums are also well recorded--check out "Meeting by the River " and "Paradise and Lunch" (I have, and like, both the original issue and the MoFi reissue).
Many regard Little Feat's "Waiting for Columbus" to be one of the best live rock recordings. I do think it is great music and a great sounding album, but, the "live" label is a bit misleading because there was use of extensive studio punch-ins for that recording. I guess it doesn't matter, the album is terrific.
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I also find many direct to disc records to deliver superb sound (the master lacquer is cut live and direct from the mixing board without an intervening tape recording). Sheffield Records and M & K Realtime made many good sounding examples. I particularly like M & K’s Bill Berry Allstar “For Duke” record and their Earl Hines “Fatha.” Sheffield examples include Thelma Houston’s “I’ve Got the Music in Me” and Amanda McBroom’s “Growing Up in Hollywood Town.”
I also like jazz recordings from the Japanese label East Winds (e.g., Great Jazz Trio’s “Direct From LA”). Another spectacular Japanese company is Three Blind Mice (try the Yamamoto Trio “Midnight Sugar”).
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While folk music is far from my favorite genre and the several truly great sounding albums I am about to list are not musically my favorites, they are nonetheless enjoyable and the recordings are stunning; it must be the Carnegie Hall venue:
"Belafonte at Carnegie Hall," 1959 RCA
"Belafonte Returns to Carnegie Hall," 1960 RCA
"Weavers Reunion at Carnegie Hall 1963" Vanguard and Analogue Productions reissue (I have both, the AP version might be slightly better).
Again, these recordings prove that stereo recording techniques have not improved since those times.
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The original YHF had a beautiful, textured paper jacket. I liked the recording quality of that album too. This is good reminder for me to pull it out and give it a spin. Thanks for the reminder.
Another good sounding album issued during the age of the CD is Lou Reed's "Magic and Loss." I bought the CD when it first came out and took it with me when I went to the Consumer Electric Show in Las Vegas. When I asked one exhibitor if he could play it on his system, he pointed his nose in the air and declared that the LP version was MUCH better than the CD, but that there were only five copies of the LP in the USA and he owned two of them. When I got back from the show, I asked my local used record dealer to keep an eye out for it. Of course, in time, copies became available in this country. A few years later, my dealer found a sealed copy; because he knew I wanted it badly, he just gave it to me, free of charge.
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There are a number very good recordings by Joan Baez,such as “Diamonds and Rust.” I have a particularly good sounding reissue of her “Farewell My Angelina” put out by Cisco Records (an audiophile label that consistently delivers good records.
Another super sounding reissue that I have is Ray Browns “Soular Energy” on Pure Audiophile Records.
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