Love your taste in music @coltrane1 and I'll check out those suggestions. I've got a bunch of Stevie Wonder and most of them sound wonderful.
Your Not-So-Obvious Best Fidelity LPs
I’ve spent over three years building up to the system I have now. I’m really happy with it and my wife and I love sitting in our listening room spinning various vinyl most evenings. Rather than researching and testing gear, I want to spend this year adding great recordings to our collection.
So what are the albums you have that every time you play it you're continually amazed at its fidelity? You might have spent $80 on it or just $1 or maybe it was a hand-me-down decades ago. Any genre really.
And if we can please avoid the most obvious choices (which are truly wonderful) such as Pink Floyd, The Eagles, Diana Krall, etc. I’m looking for albums, (vinyl only please) that probably fly under the radar for most folks.
I'll start….
James Taylor - Dad Loves His Work - this was just given to me by a friend a couple of weeks ago as he had an extra copy. I have plenty of JT albums but I didn’t have this one yet. As soon as I put it on I could tell it was special.
Edie Brickell - Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars - My wife requested this one so I found a NM copy on Discogs for a reasonable price. This kind of blew my socks off. Sounds really wonderful and present and the music still holds up.
Counting Crows - August and Everything After - I surprised my wife with this one as it’s one of her favorite albums. They really nailed the recording and pressing on this one. It’s quite impressive.
Ben Folds - What Matters Most - He’s one of our favorite songwriters but trying to find a copy of anything of his or Ben Folds Five for under $80 is nearly impossible. This album was released just last year and they obviously paid special attention to the recording quality. Sounds just phenomenal.
Steely Dan - Northeast Corridor - Obviously everyone knows how amazing their studio recordings are but this album might be unknown to some as it came out just a few years ago. I bought it on a whim knowing nothing about it. It’s amazing. As if they would release an album with less than stellar fidelity. If you’re a Dan fan, this album is a no-brainer.
REM - Automatic for the People - Completely hypnotic. Stunning recording.
OK, that’s enough from me.
Showing 24 responses by paulietunes
Thank you @simonmoon ! I'm going to order a couple of these. |
@slaw I think you mean just going after the not-so-obvious good pressings. What’s obvious or less so is certainly subjective. I know everyone here has good intentions of just passing on the news of great sounding recordings. |
@mahler123 please feel free to suggest your favorite classical LPs that have stunning fidelity. I know so little about classical but I would love to add some great recordings to my collection. Who else has some contributions? |
@dorkwad @coltrane1 This weekend I was able to listen to my new copies of Eva Cassidy Live at Blues Alley and Allison Russell The Returner as well as my new-to-me copy of 360 Degrees of Billy Paul. All fabulous albums that I'm thrilled to have now. Thank you for the recommendations! |
Thanks @mahler123 really appreciate your insights and recommendations. Time to hit Discogs to see if I can find a couple of these! looking forward to hearing from others as well…..any genre of your favorites with unbelievable fidelity. |
@dorkwad now that's a list! Totally agree on the ones I own as well. I was just listening to side B of Dreamboat Annie last night. I have a repress of Tumbleweed but it sounds fantastic. Looks like I may have some more items in the shopping cart soon. |
@czarivey hmmm….not to me. I get that this is subjective and not factual. I was just trying to stay away from the usual, Hell Freezes Over, Aja, DSOM, Live in Paris sort of albums that we usual see with these kinds of threads. Happy to see some different submissions and looking forward to some more. I’m sorry these are not novel to you but perhaps there will be in subsequent posts. |
Thank you so much @bdgregory @hertzhead Much appreciated! |
Great stories @tylermunns to go along with the great recommendations! Thanks for those. It almost seems like we're beating the system when we can find amazingly recorded LPs for $5 or less. Pretty much no money for a treasure trove of audio bliss. |
@grislybutter @bigtwin @winoguy17 thank you for your suggestions. Really appreciate it as these would otherwise not be on my radar. |
@coltrane1 thank you my friend. Much appreciated! |
@roadwhorerecords @grislybutter @czarivey thank you for those contributions! Hope to get to hear some of these on my system in the near future. Who else has some suggestions for us to hear? |
@mgattmch thank you! I’m enjoying this, too, and hopefully this post will continue to receive more recommendations. Good to spend the winter getting exposed to different music and building up the collection with great recordings. |
Thanks for that @larryi I see that in Discogs. |
@kerrybh I've hear that SRV album and it's really fabulous. Plus I need a better copy of Abrades than the one I currently own. |
I'm loving all of these suggestions! Thanks @doyle3433 I'll definitely look those up. @zimwig - love these as well. I was able to see Sarah Jarosz in concert here about a year ago when she toured with Marc Cohn and Shawn Colvin. Such an amazing show and loved hearing her play Build Me Up From Bones! |
Hey @coltrane1 on your word, I just bought a copy of 360 Degrees on Discogs! Can’t wait to give it a listen. Plus I do love soul and funk. And I’ll definitely be looking for some Eva Cassidy as you and so many others have recommended her. Thanks! I’ll let you know how it sounds in a week or so. |
@rvpiano Happy to help! One of the great things about this forum is to help each other out. Would love to keep this thread going with some other top notch fidelity albums. Please feel free to chime in with your under the radar favorites! |
@laynes and @2channel8 thank you for those thorough lists. I have some of those but I’ll check out some of the others you mentioned. My copy of Morning Phase also sounds incredible. |