Steve Hoffman forums have a lot of info on best recordings/versions of many CDs.
Captain Crunch decoder ring for findind audiophile quality CD recordings
I have recently added the beautiful sounding Primaluna Prologue Eight CD player to my system. I now want to add CDs to my collection that can take advantage of this new world of high quality CD playback the Primaluna provides. The Primaluna highlights any shortcomings in the CD recording process so i need to be able to identify well recorded material. So heres the question, what is the Captain Crunch Decoder Ring when reading a CD "liner material information" that will identify a high quality recording?
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Just about anything on Lyrita (but not the newer "BBC Recordings" that were from broadcasts). Most were recorded by the great audio engineer Kenneth Wilkinson. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Wilkinson |
Dldennis, thank you for the intoduction and insight into Loudness Wars, it has opened up a whole aspect of researching quality music recordings for me! Being an engineer, Loudness Wars data driven metrics is speaking my language. As Alan Mulally used to tell us when he was running Boeing's Commercial Airplane Division "the data will set you free." |
@dldennisthx for adding the link for loudness wars, I forgot to. also, I didn’t know there was a Loudness Wars rating system for Digi recordings (24/...) as well. Interesting. I have the Audio Tools App, wonder if I can determine my own distortion levels from recordings with this App. will check the Loudness Wars website since they have directions ... |
One of the most consistent labels I've found (providing you like Baroque style classical material) is just about everything on Archiv. It's all 16/44 but the engineering is, at least for my ears- superb. Reference Recordings are limited but HDCD or not, also super good. Some swear by Telarc, some hate Telarc- but I like it. Chesky's are good but not a lot of material. Captain Crunch has too much sugar content, but I once bought a big box of Kellogg corn flakes so I could get the match-book stock-car inside. It was worth it, though- fast little thing- state of the art! |
From The Polarity List, sample CDs R = Reverse Polarity From George Louis’ the Polarity List Analogue Productions R Analogue Productions – FI The Magazine of Music & Sound R Deutsche Grammophon R WARNER BROS. Records, Inc (Phonogram Ltd.) – Dire Straits – Love Over Gold R Proprius R Proprius – Jazz at the Pawnshop R Proprius – Contate Domino R Opus 3 R Opus 3 – Depth of Image Test Record 1 R Mercury Living Presence R Chesky R Clarity Recordings R |
Loudness Wars website referenced above - http://dr.loudness-war.info. Search for the recording you are interested in and make note of the UPC and date released (in general, dynamic range began to suffer after 1998). Take that info to eBay or Discogs, which are my main sources. Acoustic Sounds is a good place for 24-bit FLAC or DSD, but these also need checked out before purchase. You can obtain your own dynamic range meter to test your own recordings, the DR website provides instructions. |
Although the prima Luna CD player is high razz, it is also tubed and should offer some forgiveness of bad recordings. The trouble with finding good clean recordings… Is trouble finding good clean recordings. The CDs offer a scarcity of information in terms of the resolution offered, whether it was transferred from tape, the original tapes, or digital remaster’s. The frustration you describe is shared by many of us. It takes more work in time to search on the Internet to find reviews or ESA Tarik information that will give us the answer we are looking for. Unfortunately many times I can’t even find this information. But what you can do, is go to the loudness wars website. It is a consumer driven website where people analyze CD recordings and rate the recordings and post them on the website for every album. |
