100 Albums You Would wish for...from a Genie

@waltersalas: Your list contains not only many of my favorite artists, but the same album from each I myself would choose. Iris DeMent's My Life, for instance. I wasn't going to contribute to this discussion, but I feel  myself weakening. 😉

I would do it by starting at "A" and moving forward through the alphabet (my Pop albums are so organized), rather than coming up with 100 albums from memory. 

One real "problem" for me is that a fair amount of my favorite music was recorded "indifferently" or worse. And if a system is a little "too good" (i.e ruthlessly revealing), those kind of recordings may become somewhat unpleasant to listen to.

In my experience, a very transparent tweeter like a planar-magnetic, electrostatic, or ribbon may not make poor recordings unlistenable, but a metal-done tweeter might. I think that is a result of the tendency for some metal domes to "ring" a little. That is of course a broad generalization, so no offense intended, metal dome tweeter owners. 😊

Do many of us work towards building a system transparent enough to serve the music well, but not so unforgiving that less-than-superb recordings lead us to not listen to them as much as we would like to?

When Audiogon member Simon (folkfreak) had me over to his Portland home to hear his outstanding system, the sound of the tweeters in his Magico Q3 loudspeakers (augmented with Townshend Audio Maximum Supertweeters) contributed to a tonal balance I am not accustomed to. I had heard Magico’s before (I don’t remember which model), but in a bigger room and at a greater listening distance (in Simon’s old room the distance was about six or so feet, maybe a little more. Is that correct Simon?). And Simon’s room was very neutral (it was fitted with ASC products, including the WallDamp used in the construction of the room’s structure), "cooler" than the somewhat warm room I listen in. I hadn’t before heard the Townshend tweeter, and of course had no knowledge of the spl/crossover frequency, etc. it was being used at.

The LP’s I brought along (Richard & Linda Thompson’s Shoot Out The Lights on UK Hannibal Records and Cat Stevens’ Tea For The Tillerman on UK Island) sounded probably the over-all best I have ever heard them (both are excellent recordings), with not a trace of hardness, glare, or other nasties (Simon’s ARC and VTL electronics share in the credit 😉). But the higher frequencies were more prominent than I am accustomed to. Interestingly, Simon---having traded his Q3’s for M3’s---no longer feels the need for the Townshend tweeters.

I have long felt that the popularity of the Vandersteen Model 2 (well earned and deserved, imo) was in part due to it’s slightly forgiving nature (in comparison to some competing loudspeakers); that is, just slightly on the warm side of neutral. Vandersteen owners may prefer them to, for instance, Wilson’s for that very reason. Vandersteen’s can be listened to for hours with no listening fatigue, even with somewhat bright recordings. I’ve never owned a pair, but have heard many hours of music through them.

@mahgister: All taken in the spirit it was offered!

Another factor that muddies the water in the matter of music lover vs. audiophile is the fact that the better the system, the deeper one is able delve into the music itself, not just enjoy the sound of it. I mean c’mon, music IS sound. The two are inextricably joined at the hip, so to speak.

That’s why being an audiophile in not antithetical to being a music lover. THAT’S what the rabidly anti-audiophile crowd (mostly Classical music purists in my experience) doesn’t seem to understand, or at least want to accept as true.

A list of 100 is much more doable than the Top 10 thread hot on YouTube in the past month, but still a challenge. Of course, the older one is and the greater the number of albums in one’s music library, the more difficult the job. I could make a list of 100, and a second list containing titles I like just as much. Decisions, decisions!

If you have one thousand albums, one hundred is 10% of them. If you have ten thousand, 10% is a thousand. A survey of how many LP’s/CD’s members have would be an interesting one, ay?

If the genie gave us the choice of a $10,000 system and 1,000 albums versus a $1,000 system and 10,000 albums, which would each of us choose? That would really separate the audiophiles from the music lovers. 😉

@mahgister: I love your line "Because doing so I will die with more in me than my limited tastes."

After watching my mother die a slow and painful death from brain cancer when I was 14-15 years old, I thought "So that’s it? She’s just gone? Does the soul live on?" Yeah, I know.....questions as old as man.

I decided then and there to assume that what we take with us into the great beyond is that which we absorb into our beings as we live this short life. To me that meant the arts, first and foremost music, which, I believe, reaches deepest into our soul.

Albert Einstein: "Life without playing music is inconceivable for me. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music. I get most joy in life out of music."

Amen, brother.