I wish I could include Yes in the mix of artists associated with audio quality, they’re one of my favorite progressive rock bands, but I think they’re recording are mediocre at best. Even the remastered recording aren’t all that great IMO.
One artist that seems to have consistently good sounding recordings is Tom Waits.
“Going for the One” is an all time favorite, especially the B side. But I can only listen to it on HP. It’s terrible on the speaker system.
Hotel California off Hell Freezes Over is a top 10 favorite but I especially like the Blueray. There’s something to seeing them play that adds another dimension to the enjoyment.
I also agree with the Hell Freezes Over HC recording being really good SQ. But I just can’t anymore. I saw / heard that video at least 12 times a week for two years - in the 90’s I worked security at Planet Hollywood and they had a series of music videos that rotated / repeated every 3 hours. For some reason that 7 minute song got drilled into my head more than Girls on Film or It’s raining men (Uhg!).
Ugh! How many great tunes were ruined by being on rotation every 15 minutes. The most precious should revered and rolled out sparingly.
It’s not reserved for music. I ruined candy corn for life at 10 years old when I ate half a bag at one whack. Fifty five years later just the smell will turn my stomach.
Great lists!
I have a couple a bit more obscure but use their work as reference recordings.
CDs:
LPs:
Yeah, Tom Waits was on my first list. Even back before I got really serious about audio itself, I knew his recordings were uniquely good. For many years if you’d asked me who my favorite musical artist was, it was (and might still be) Tom Waits because he checks so many boxes - jazz, rock, songwriting, performance, recording, even some classical and country influence in there. Of course his voice takes some getting used to, but once you’re used to it, you learn how creative he is as a singer. I’m not sure which album of his I’d say is the best sound quality, but I’ve repeatedly returned to “Small Change,” Heartattack and Vine, “Rain Dogs,” and “Mule Variations” for recording innovation. I keep thinking of others.
Good suggestions, but to stay on-topic, do you feel like Angaleena Presley and Maria McKee are often associated with high-end audio, or do these CDs on their own just fall in the category of “great”? Los Lobos was mentioned earlier - I’m not real familiar. And I had to look up NRBQ. Rock is not my strongest suit, but do they regularly come up with high-end recordings?
I’d say that Los Lobos does care a great deal about audio quality on multiple albums. I only have a couple of albums for the other artists but think the same can be said.
Yeah, I just previewed some Los Lobos and we’ve got some good sounds going - they’re on the list.
I’ll also add an observation I made in another topic at one point: that recording technology has gotten affordable and widespread enough that my experience is there is a higher ratio of good vs. bad recordings these days. There are even Grammy-winning Best Engineered recordings being produced in home studios and bedrooms. There’s a part of me that still wants to hear that recording that stands out from the pack, but when more of the pack is better recorded, it’s all that much more for me to listen to, and more that takes advantage of my system. I do seek out new artists as much as I can and I have to admit that there have been very few bad recordings put out these days. I’m sure there are plenty, but not among the people who are really good at what they’re doing.
Mark O’Connor’s Hot Swing Trio released the album In Full Swing on Sony SACD in 2003. This was one of my first SACD purchases. It did an excellent job of showing off what the new medium was capable of.
Norah Jones’ first two albums, Come Away with Me and Feels Like Home, are both considered reference recordings. I have them both as 24/192 downloads. The sense of space is just stunning.
My mom and I listened to Eagles “One of these Nights” when I was little. I still love the album. Picked up the MoFi SACD version not long ago and it seems to amplify the reasons why it isn’t a great sounding album in an audiophile sense. I still love the songwriting and overall vibe. I’ll check out Hell Freezes Over.
My first brush with artists that wanted great sound was in the mid 70’s thru mid 80’s. I was the sales manager for a recording console company named Neotek in Chicago. It garnered a reputation for good sound (quiet mic pre, discrete circuits, copper rail grounding) and made its way to several notable commercial and private studios. Stevie Wonder, Jackson Browne, and Todd Rundgren come to mind as conscientious artists who had our console in their home. So cool, and so honored.
Also I consider all of Shawn Colvin’s recordings well above average. The music is very engaging as well. Try “These Four Walls”, “Whole New You”, “A Few Small Repairs”, and “Steady On”. If you can find a clean copy of Steady On on vinyl it’s especially great.
John Leventhal (Mr. Rosann Cash) composed a lot of her music and may have had input at the recording stages (seems likely).
Hey, thanks for the information. I will download a thing or two and report back.
Hey, I listened last night to Maria McKee’s album Peddlin’ Dreams. Very creative song-writer and a wonderful singer. In another Music area topic, there’s a discussion of great high-end female vocals and I think McKee’s recording belongs in there. The presence of her voice and a wonderful soundstage add a lot to the creativity of this album. But, as I often do, I looked her up and chose to view a lot of her images in Google - does she ever smile?
Wow, you reminded me: Stevie Wonder. I think he is definitely a candidate for “associated with audio quality.” Songs in the Key of Life!
Had to do a bit of searching - I thought for sure I still had the original CD of Flim and the BBs 1983 album Tricycle. Couldn’t find it, so looked on Qobuz and Apple Music - nope. I found a source where I could download it. Apparently it was remastered around 2000. I really wanted the original 1s and 0s to go back in time, but if the original was anywhere near the data I heard, it is still a great recording. Around here I frequently hear people complaining about the early days of digital. I was there - working in classical music radio - and I was not at all displeased with the sound of digital. I wasn’t so big into audio fidelity at that point - wasn’t comparing it to some high-end phono cartridge - but I don’t remember any of the harshness people say prevented them from going CD. In radio I was just thrilled not to have to clean records and deal with surface noise. And to get Flim & BBs quality at the same time was heaven for me.
I read a little about F&BBs, that apparently they were studio players who happened to be near where 3M was working on digital audio. They banded together to help test the systems. Their eponymous first album was simultaneously recorded direct-to-laquer as well as digital, but the lacquer part failed, so they transferred from the digital tape to vinyl, making it the second LP to be produced from a digital source. Tricycle was their second album and became a digital demo disk for many (including me).
I still have it.
