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Something for Everyone in Super High Fidelity

Like a missionary in the jungle, I continue to practice my usual high end evangelism with non audiophile friends, rarely finding the eager disciple.

Despite warnings of this peculiar audiophile habit in many other threads, I must admit I am often tempted to play something that sounds good, only to be reminded that music which people don't like (not to mention straight percussion or steam trains) probably wont inspire them to upgrade their stereo system.

On the other hand, we all know that deferring to a friends musical taste for a demo will immediately locate the screechiest, worst sounding recording in your collection.

Bearing this in mind (and maybe some of you have already done this) 1) what COLLECTION of well recorded tracks, 2) across genres of music, would you 3) put on a compliation CD or "rip" into WAV files to accomodate the widest musical tastes of future audiophiles?

Some classical? Jazz? Rock? Soundtracks?

Each of these genres have been discussed in other threads, but what tracks would you include to capture the widest possible audience as an audio missionary?

Thanks for ideas.
cwlondon
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,662 posts
 
Chadnliz is right: I offered nothing positive except to point out, as I am wont to do, that classical recommendations require more detail than in other genres where the name of the album/disc/title is sufficient to define the choice. Just a reference to a performance or a label would help.
jbello
115 posts
 
Just don't let them read your audio magazines that's the real audio killer
cwlondon OP
1,210 posts
 


As the author of this thread, I would like to politely suggest that yes, we are also trying to identify GOOD RECORDINGS here.

The tricky part is a diversified collection of well recorded GOOD MUSIC too, content which is intelligible and more likely to be of interest and capable of moving and inspiring non audiophiles.

So Kr4 is not winning any awards for diplomacy, but I agree with the logic of his reply.

Hens, I trust your intentions were good here and thank you for participating. But well recorded examples of the music you suggest is what will really help compile this list.
kr4's avatar
kr4
3,662 posts
 
Sorry all. It is one of my pet peeves and it doesn't take much to set me off on it.

Kal
siliab
362 posts
 
My experience suggests that it is easiest to demonstrate the greater emotional pull of recorded music rendered on a superior playback system if the person already loves the music they will be hearing. To that end I always suggest that visitors bring their favorites to listening sessions. I haven't seen anyone unaffected by hearing their favorite music played back staggeringly well. The effect is automatic, like the shock of recognition. On the other hand, I've never seen a non-music lover all that impressed by great audio, regardless of what you play them.

But your point is well taken, and from years of experience I've found that most music loving audio neophytes are most impressed by relatively simple, highly melodic music with a lot of vocal content. For instance, the work of Ella Fitzgerald, Joni Mitchell, the Beatles, and, yes, Jack Johnson are all good candidates. This may have something to do with the fact that the human voice is the one that people have the most immediately available reference to.
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