Mighty Sam McClain -- give it up to love on xrcd
Linda Eder - It's no secret anymore
anything from Reference Recordings |
Sheffield Labs Drum track on XRCD - cranked of course - jaw dropping dynamics - perfect for people who simply do not "get" or understand the audiophile hobby and never would from listening to something nice like Jennifer Warnes or Diana Krall (remember most people don't have the ears for it so they won't get it no matter what - these kind of normal folks will typically look at you and say "yeah it sounds pretty good - but so what?").
Half of track one is enough - it takes about two or three minutes and you are done and it works everytime - people generally go "OMG that was amazing! I never heard anything like that before".
Not something I would ever listen to for enjoyment but it gets the message across about what makes an audiophile system very very different from ordinary POS. |
The drum intro to "Hot For Teacher" by Van Halen is another good one for recognition factor for drums. Most people have only heard this on the radio or back on MTV in the 80's with crappy sound.
Put it in a good system and crank it to realistic SPLs + hey now! |
Re Shadorne's recommendation - Yep, that is a good one, but if your speakers are up to it, and your listeners are going to be impressed by 'big sound' get something with an organ substituting for a piano, playing the original version of Mussorgsky's Pictures on the Dorian label. That will shake the timbers! :-) |
Most of my favorite classical recordings (not necessarily performances of music) will appear on Hyperion, Dorian, Chandos, Harmonia Mundi, Reference Recordings, Mercury Living Presence, Telarc, Delos, and Dorian. Sheffield Labs Drum track on XRCD I second these comments by Newbee and Shadorne enthusiastically (I have the original Sheffield Track Record on direct-to-disk vinyl; the xrcd includes both the Drum & Track records which were originally separate). Also, quoting from myself in a recent similar thread: Most of my listening has been on vinyl, but among the hundred or so cd's in my collection I would say Dvorak's "New World Symphony," Chesky CD31, conducted by Jascha Horenstein, and recorded in 1962!
As has often been said, what counts is usually not which technology is used, but how well it is executed. Regards, -- Al |
