So (@roxy54) I do like to keep a short playlist called Demo, where I listen to the 'sound first' on music I enjoy and know well. I think it is very useful when evaluating a new piece of equipment. Here are a few from memory:
Anette Askvik 'Liberty'....subtle sounds, breathy sax
Tool "Chocolate Chip Trip"...soundstage way beyond speakers
Buckethead 'Wishing Well'...not the best recording but I like it
Mary Chapin Carpenter "hand on my back'...Beautiful
Led Zeppelin 'Going to California'
Stevie Ray Vaughan ' Tin Pan Alley'
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Dwcda, check out "The Ragpicker's Dream", an excellent solo album by Mark K.
You might especially enjoy the song "Coyote" if you were a fan of Roadrunner! Great, fun, song!!
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Marks’s Our Shangra La. Very nice recording and song.
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I haven’t listened to Mark’s solo albums but I have all of Dire Straits studio albums plus Alchemy. Which solos do you like the best? I just added a few to Qobuz and will start playing them.
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@katzenjammer27
I haven't tried that SRV. I'll check it out tonight.
I just got a new piece of gear (Gustard U18), so I've been going back through songs that I know well to see if the sound quality has improved. It does seem to add a bit of clarity/realism to well recorded music.
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@sls883
How about Stevie Ray Vaughn, Riviera Paradise. Sounds amazing on my rig.
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me too, Ride Across the River, Deep and Wide...
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@katzenjammer27
I bought the Dire Straits albums as they came out (I'm old). It was odd that I liked them because I was really into harder rock at the time. When Brothers in Arms came out, I would crank Money for Nothing and didn't care as much for the other songs. Now, it's just the opposite. I skip over Money for Nothing. lol.
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thecarpathian Lots of 'no longer middle age' readers on this site! Myself included.
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Couple of additions to the test tracks:
Rush - The Camera Eye - Moving Pictures
King Crimson - The Lizard Suite - Live in Chicago
The Stone Roses - Fool's Gold - The Stone Roses
David Grisman Quintet - Acoustisity - Jazz Alley
and many more.
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Brother's In Arms was the first CD I ever bought back in the 80's. It's funny, the album won some award for recording, the second CD I bought was Momentary Lapse of Reason, also won some award. I was listening to it last night and comparing the 2019 remix version with the original 1987 recording. I think the original sounds better, at least on my system - possibly because it's what I expect to hear. The re-mix seems a little more saturated in the upper midrange, which my B&W's are super efficient in reproducing. It was pretty cool listening session. I closed out the session with Dire Straits Private Investigation, love the dynamics and crisp recording.
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@rcm1203,
Why do you feel it necessary to write all your posts in bold script??
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Dire Straits does sound great. I also like Natalie Merchant's Tigerlily and Tracy Chapman when I'm testing different components, etc.
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Although not everyone's cup of tea, I've always thought Wang Chung's albums had consistently good mastering. Their album "To Live And Die In LA" is one of my bench mark players when testing new gear.
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Six Blade Knife is great too. Great tune but really good for testing or showing off your systems lower end capabilities.
The self titled album is their best IMO and what a way to come out.
Wild West End is great too. When I moved back to England one of the first things on my list was to buy coffee at Angelucci’s. His grandson served me and I asked about the song. Mark asked permission to use it, but sadly they were not credited in anyway, but I’m guessing they still get traffic from it even today.
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Back in the 60-70s. Most recordings were done with vacuum tube equipment
some still do that has a big influence ,also who is doing the mixing
that’s why theBeatles sounded so good on most albums, they tried solid state mixers on 1-2 albums then went back to tubes ,Allen Parsons was excellent
on the mixing board . 80-90s much music was recorded a bit tipped up a bit during the era of disco and boom boxes ..
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If you like Mark Knopfler he kills it on Southern Politician with Willy DeVille
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"Love Over Gold" is an exquisitely written, performed, and recorded tune. Layers and layers
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That batch of Dire Straits SACDs that MFSL put out do sound pretty good; and although Love Over Gold had pretty much blown me away for quite a while, I am now back to thinking that Dire Straits (the self titled) has the better sound; but with all that typed, I have other SACDs that perform equally or out perform those.
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@fastfreight,
Listen to, You and Your Friend from On Every Street Album.
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Well, at least it wasn't Hotel California or a Diana Krall tune...
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NO not true. I am music first and listen to what I LIKE. But I like much of Dire and much of Mark. And it sounds great. I LOVE and listen to old Genesis, Yes, Tull Moody Blues, Pink Floyd, Dead, Jackie Greene, Cheeze, Buckethead ect. as well as new amazingly recorded music. Thanks.
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It sounds like you're from the sound first/music second camp. Their music was well produced, but not everyone is a fan of Dire Straits.
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True, very well recorded. Many on my "reference Playlist" and just all time favorites. I am currently searching out well recorded ROCK music from the 1970, 1980, 1990 and 2000. For example I listened to MJ's Dirty Diana today, WOW! Some Pink Floyd is also really well done too.
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