Best Sounding LPs

I have a number of the CD-4 records and, while some are good, most of the SQ records beat them by comparison - at least the ones I have. The grooves on the CD-4 records were very thin and some cartridges do not do well with them.

Some stated correctly that there are too many good ones (if that is possible) and there are also so many variations, even within labels, that it is somewhat hard to generalize. I would always take the "audiophile" label on an LP with a grain of salt. Some are truly audiophile, while others, a good example of which are many MFSL's, just aren't and you are much better off with the original first pressing.

Getting away from specialist and legendary pressings, try Chris Rea's "The Road to Hell"; Jennifer Warnes' "Famous Blue Raincoat"; Tracy Chapman's first album; Robbie Robertson's "Showdown at Big Sky" solo LP; Suzanne Vega's "Solitude Standing"; Steely Dan's "Gaucho"; Dire Straits "Love Over Gold", and anything by Kraftwerk or The Art of Noise for those cool-o special bass effects!

Jean, if you like "Raincoat" try "Shot Through the Heart". IMHO, a better album if just SLIGHTLY less "audiophile" than Raincoat. Or, "The Hunter"! :-) A couple more well recorded female artist LP's are "Between the Lines" (original CBS recording) and "Breaking Silence" by Janis Ian. And, the Bernie Grunman re-mastering of Linda Ronstadt hits on "A Retrospective" - or anything mastered by Grundman, for that matter.

One that might never be mentioned - War - "The World is a Ghetto" on the original UA label. "Cisco Kid" takes on a whole new flavor if the only place you ever heard it was AM radio and "City, Country, City" is just outstanding. Someone was wondering the other day about LP's used to set VTA. There's a good one!

Thanks for that 4yanx, they're on the list. Female artists, I love the genre! One female singer whose single LP is extremely interesting and fun in a pop-jazzy kind of way, but which either sounds good (really just acceptable) or muddy depending on your system's balance is Rosie Vela, a stunning beauty from the '80s: worth the photo on the cover alone! Anyone have her? Anyone find a system in which she sounds good? And for audiophile-type sound quality (but ordinary pressings) with extremely interesting music, let's not forget Laurie Anderson, "Strange Angels" and "Mister Heartbreak", featuring the voice of William Burroughs pretending not to be Thomas Pynchon! Excellent music, excellent recording, and Burroughs tweaking the nose of those who believe that he and Pynchon are one and the same man (personally, I think so). This is fun! Any more off-beat suggestions? Are you taking notes, Bsal?

The best sounding LPs are the ones that bring you great joy when you listen to them...regardless of surface noise ;)