Willie Nelson, Always On My Mind
Dylan, Man In The Long Black Coat
Emmylou, Black Hawk And The White Winged Dove
Many Many more for sure
Name 3 songs where audio quality and song quality completely align
Lately I’ve found myself alternating between music I love (but sounds mediocre) and music I don’t know well or only like (but sounds incredible).
Occasionally, I stumble across a track where the song could both serve as a great show off piece for my gear and I love the music.
If you can, name up to 3 songs where the audio and song quality take you over the moon with pleasure.
141 responses Add your response
Great answers. I want to add an oddity -- I love Steely Dan. But many of their albums -- including the ones which are supposed to sound amazing -- are very bright, full of glare, harsh. And no, it’s not just because they’re digital. It has to do, I suspect, with *early* digital processes. There are some points at which they got markedly better -- for example, Fagen’s Kamakiriad is much better than The Nightfly, Two Against Nature is much better than Gaucho. Aja is ok, but given that these were albums playing in nearly every hifi shop back in the day, I’m surprised at how hard (some) can be to listen to on a good system. On the PLUS side: Andrew Bird's The Mysterious Production of Eggs fires from both barrels for me. |
Depending upon my minute-by-minute attitude, mood etc., an incalculable number of the tracks on my 18TB hard drive would be applicable. It is as impossible to pick just 3-tracks, as it is meaningless to try. It would be like trying to predict what each of my listening sessions would start or end with, let alone predict what I would play in between. |
Me personally it hard to choose. I agree with @mrmb that contributes to alot of factors. Steely Dan-Hey Nineteen is a great recording if your finding overall balance sound but I find it to be bass shy. On the contrast, Dire Straits-Money For Nothing also is a good recording which has good bass response but the top end might be somewhat softer. We can get more specific but that would be mentioned for awhile. Their is a live version recording that really impressed me is a latin artist called Marco Antonio Solis-Cuando Te Acuredas De Mi live from Buenos Aires. If you want consistency, that is one of my favorites to try. |
Any track from Billie Eilish "When We All Fall....". Superb recording. But only if your system can play the bass. Which it probably can´t (!). Black Sabbath - S/T Melody Gardot - Live from Soho The Tierney Sutton Band - Desire Fink´s live version of Troubles is great. Musically and technically. Boz Scaggs "Thanks To You" from Dig is a wellknown audiophile track.
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@12many That Fink song is excellent. |
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Most any album by Eva Cassidy; Grateful Dead - Dark Star (Live at Winterland, 1973), Grateful Dead, Celebrating Jerry Garcia (engineering and song version are all exceptional on this album, including one of my all time favorites - Morning Dew (Live at Barton Hall, Cornell University - epic show!); Traffic - The Low Spark of High Healed Boys, any song off Dire Straits - Dire Straits. Mostly classic rock I listed, but I could rattle off pages of great songs with great engineering in most any genre too. |
Jonah Yano - Shoes (not all in English in case it bothers someone) Lady Blackbird - Fix It (the whole album is great) Daily Bread, Artifakts (it's under Various Artists on Roon for some reason) - Next Level Style (great for bass, really, don't play late if you have neighbors) And an extra that definitely is showoffie but I really enjoy - Aisha Duo - Despertar
I have tons of well recorded music I like listening to favorited on Roon. I'm always searching. My tastes are anything but opera, classical and most R&B with folk, hip hop/rap, funk and jazz as probably my favorites...and the Grateful Dead. |
Agapi Mou from the album Modeste Hugues - Modeste Hardly anyone has heard of this album or musician. I discovered Modeste on a blog like Awesome Tapes From Africa when I was 23... the album was unlike any thing I’d ever heard, (usually, I listen to punk and classic rock like AC/DC, Sublime, Nirvana, Alice In Chains) I still listen to this album frequently and I’m 35 now, it’s that good. Now that I have a great hifi system, it sounds ever better. Molo from the album Aubrey Qwana - Imvula Mlomo Another African musician. His mother died when he was young, but you’d never know it listening to his peaceful, almost party like music. Molo is one of my favorite songs and it’s recorded really well. Spring 1 from Max Richter - Vivaldi Recomposed by Max Ritcher One time I got to listen to a $100,000 stereo system at a store in Mount Kisco, NY. The other songs I played there, you could clearly hear the limitations of the recording, not this one. It sounds like being in a room with 50 people playing stringed instruments. The birds somehow sounded more real than actual bird sounds because of some proximity effect. The violins sound absolutely beautiful and the musicians are possibly the best classical players in the world. A couple catchy very well recorded honorable mentions Someone that Loves You from Honne - Warm on a Cold Night and (a sad one) Going Home from Sophie Zelmani - Sing and Dance.
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Just ran across that track recently and really enjoyed both the performance and the sound (thanks Tidal). I haven't had much opportunity to go deeper into their catalog but looking forward to it. Not exactly what I am used to, but compelling and interesting for sure. |
@grislybutter Fine contribution. Really educational. Made me reevaluate my whole understanding of music. |
@mrmb "It is as impossible to pick just 3-tracks, as it is meaningless to try. " I’m not asking you to rank them. Just to name 3. Others have not found it impossible. They have not found it meaningless. If I asked you to name three fruits, I bet you could do it. It’s really that easy. Perhaps have a drink first so you can relax into it. ;-) |
“Liberty” - Anette Askvik “Antiphone Blues” - Arne Domneros/Gustav Sjokvist ”We Never Win” - Nathaniel Rateliff “When You’re Here - Nathaniel Rateliff “S.O.B” - Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats And these 3 by Natalie Merchant: “The Peppery Man” “The Janitor’s Boy” “The Blind Men and the Elephant” |
