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.
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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.” |
@larryi Ditto for Three Blind MIce and Yamamoto Trio's "Midnight Sugar." |
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”. |
- 114 posts total