The best sounding albums - The Bear and Badger

g.man

I'm going to suggest The Trinity Session by Cowboy Junkies.
Seminal recording made at The church Of The Holy Trinity in Toronto in '87.
No mixing. No overdubs. No edits. Recorded with the group playing round one Ambisonic microphone.

superb

g.man

Skerret

Sounds good, probably.

g.man

Put your cans on. Close your eyes. You're there.

cockbeard

It was FM radio that kicked it off I think, because it had less room for volume range due to the way it was broadcast so singles got compressed more then it simply became de riguer, and cheaper to use that version on albums

There's an eye opening image that's done the rounds for years showing the wav of Thriller (or maybe Bad) and is obvious even to the naked eye how it's been compressed in different masters down the years

g.man

List of some to avoid.

g.man

cockbeard wrote:

There's an eye opening image that's done the rounds for years showing the wav of Thriller (or maybe Bad) and is obvious even to the naked eye how it's been compressed in different masters down the years

Probably Black or White...

Skerret

Mm that's the one I've seen.

Skerret

g.man wrote:

Put your cans on. Close your eyes. You're there.

I'll acquire it.

Tempy

g.man wrote:

List of some to avoid.

That list confirms my suspicions about In Rainbows. Still, some tracks are well done - particularly the ones where they use biaural mics or whatever they're called. I also have the vinyl which is gud.

Also of note for thred: this MQA thing might be some cop?

g.man

Very much of it's time but 1993's Tripomatic Fairytales 2001 by Jam & Spoon scores very high, and still sounds positively three dimensional. One of the few dance albums from that era that features bass notes that are a genuine force of nature rather than just low sounds.

g.man

...and while we're at it Flag by Yello, should be in every audiolover's collection. A high scoring sonic masterclass that's probably never been bettered. You're buying hi-fi equipment? You take this one along.

Moot_Geeza

YES, Trinity Sessions is the best Cowboy Junkies album. Pale Sun Crescent Moon also sound great.

g.man

I've just re-ripped Flag at a much higher bit-rate and am currently having a re-listen.

OH MY!

g.man

cockbeard

Cheers g, that's the one

Brooks

Everyone should have a couple Yello LPs on the principle that they fucking owned.

Brooks

TT Meter is my friend though. Ian Shepherd's trying to sell a posher one these days but you can trust the original.

Moot_Geeza

OP updated with a big list. It's a bit of a mess, but it's my thread.

Moot_Geeza

A few albums that haven't been mentioned, that in my experience have benefitted hugely from a good FLACing/headphones set-up, compared to MP3 (or WMA):

The Chronic/2001 - Dr. Dre
Homework - Daft Punk
Ride the Lightning - Metallica (the first drum fill on Fade to Black now officially owns)
Legend - Bob Marley & the Wailers (this was the first album that made me realise the lossless types were onto something, it sounds incredible)
God Shuffled His Feet - Crash Test Dummies (an odd choice perhaps, but those MMMMs have never sounded so good)
So Tonight That I Might See - Mazzy Star
Paid in Full - Erik B & Rakim
The Hazards of Love - The Decemberists
Braveheart OST
Central Reservation - Beth Orton
Ten (Redux) - Pear Jam (love 'em or loathe 'em, the classic rock side of grunge never sounded this good)
Endtroducing... - DJ Shadow
Transatlanticism - Death Cab for Cutie
The Grifter's Hymnal - Ray Wylie Hubbard
Darkness on the Edge of Town - Bruce Springsteen
Marcus Garvey - Burning Spear
Circuital - My Morning Jacket
Common Sense - John Prine
Sweet Soul Music - The Best of Stax
The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan
The Sun Rises in the East - Jeru the Damaja

Skerret

Beth Orton a good shout.

Skerret

Right, that settles it, everyone in here needs either a serious pair o cans or a decent speaker setup. Moot, break out the preposterously expensive cables!

Skerret

Tempy wrote:

g.man wrote:

List of some to avoid.

That list confirms my suspicions about In Rainbows. Still, some tracks are well done - particularly the ones where they use biaural mics or whatever they're called. I also have the vinyl which is gud. Also of note for thred: this MQA thing might be some cop?

For perusal - http://dr.loudness-war.info/album/list/album?artist=Radiohead

Skerret

That MQA thing might indeed be some cop.

Tempy

I have no idea what those numbers mean

Skerret

Difference between peak decibel level and average loudness. The higher the number, the greater the dynamic range. Lower the number, lower dynamic range and greater compression. Sometimes this is obviously an intended characteristic of the recording (EDM will typically be more compressed) but if your Johnny Swampslinger's Unplugged Piany Concerto recording is scoring low then maybe find a different JSUPC recording.

G's image up there illustrates it; top one would score higher than the bottom one.

Skerret

g.man wrote:

...and while we're at it Flag by Yello, should be in every audiolover's collection. A high scoring sonic masterclass that's probably never been bettered. You're buying hi-fi equipment? You take this one along.

Check that 2005 entry. If nothing else DRDB is useful for picking the right release. There's a marked difference between media for Interpol on the same albums, vinyl outdoing CD releases and re-releases. You'd usually think the remaster would be the way to go but not always so. Same for Slowdive, a later release of Souvlaki is notably more compressed than an earlier release.

Skerret

I have also just remembered there was some issues with the DR plugin where results from lossy files/mp3s were unreliable, so take them with a grain of salt. Stick to the lossless/cd/HD/vinyl.

Skerret

Defo getting on that Pipe Organ Spectacular, check out the DR on that

Escape

Childintime wrote:

Any Bjork is gonna be awesome, production wise.

Not Arnold's. He's a near-peerless talent for turning live orchestras into two-digit-bitrate plug-ins.

ShabbyMcCrabby

I'm looking forward to checking out G's albums.

Is the dynamic range referencing the spread of hertz the music can cover? Like bass to treble?
I like my nice sounding stuff but the theory still goes over my head

Skerret

It's the gap between the average loudness and peak decibel level. The greater the gap, the greater the range. This means in practice that you're listening along to your Maroon 5 and suddenly the exciting bit kicks in and it's noticeably louder and more engaging. This is killed off by the gap between the soft bits and loud bits being close together in loudness and therefore compressed, as modern recordings tend to demonstrate.

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories