What are your go to LP's for evaluating new gear or new tubes?


I have several that I use but Mannheim Steamroller is nearly always in the mix. Does anyone else still listen to them or is it just me?

billpete

@flash56 

I just checked and my digital remaster is 180G, not 200 and on the Universal label. I bought it a long time ago from Music Direct, $30 or $40 even then. I didn't bother to open it for a couple of years, just put it in the collection. When I finally did and tried to play it, I discovered that the hole is drilled off-center, rendering it unplayable unless you're into really odd sounding music. :) What I was able to discern was that it didn't particularly seem to capture the essence of the original anyway. It just sits in the collection. I have plenty that don't get played for various reasons. 

Most of my copies of Tea For The Tillerman are A&M, not Atlantic. I just mixed that up and thought after I said it that I was probably wrong. I bought my Island copy as used but excellent. It does have a touch of surface noise but still better than the A&M's without noise. The differences aren't huge but they are there. I just wish I'd have had the instincts to buy the "import copies" back in the day. They could all be had for $1 to $2 more but back in those days, it was a quarter tank of gas or whatever. Had I known they were indeed far better, I'd have bought them every time. I used to buy most of my records at head shops. Most of the employees were not usually audiophiles, they were mostly young hippie stoner kids who worked in a cool shop. My main record rack (for storage) came from one of those old head shops. It was the record rack for a store called The Grass Menagerie.  A piece of history. :) We didn't really have record stores until years later. 

Cat Stevens was a pretty fair artist himself. He even did an animated film around 1969 or 1970. I remember watching it at a buddy's house. Interesting film and showed the introspective nature of Mr Stevens, obviously a very kind and gentle soul. I can't think of the name of the film but it has something to do with points. Either you have a point or you don't. Try to find the film and you will understand.

I just recently watched an interview with Joni Mitchell and she did speak of her art. Joni is/was "The Classic Hippie Chick". She epitomizes it. She is like the girls I used to date and eventually chose to marry. Growing up in the 60's and 70's is something that cannot be replicated and it never will be. OK, enough of my nonsense. I listened to another Joni Mitchell named Blue on Warner label. In some ways even better than my copy of Court and Spark. Both are certainly very enjoyable and well worth a listen. Great acoustics and a lovely voice. 

@mahler123 

Still rounding up my Karajan recordings. So far, Showpieces For Orchestra Album 2 on Angel label. I have found some Angel and EMI/Angel recordings to be very good. Another is Liszt/Karajan Mezeppa Les Preludes, Hungarian Rhapsodies/Berlin Philharmonic on Deutsche Gramaphon and Swan Lake & Sleeping Beauty with Vienna Philharmonic on London ffrr. All good labels.

I know that I have quite a few E Power Biggs organ LP's. Still going through to see which ones. He was very good. My favorite organist is Virgil Fox but I have many recordings of other organists that are very good. 

@bdp24 

I'll have to check that out. I don't stream as yet so I tend to buy cheap CD's, see if I like it and then look for a vinyl copy. I keep hearing of all these "converts" to streaming. I'm shocked in some ways but I suppose at some point, it will find it's way into my system. I have never gotten rid of a vinyl record and still have no plans of doing so. I am actually very happy that I kept all of my LP's. To me, they are invaluable. 

 

@unreceivedogma 

Thanks for the suggestion. I don't think I have this one but loved his voice. CSN&Y still high on all time favorites........even though not mentioned. Some of the best harmonizing in pop/rock music. I don't think I have any of his solo work but will look for it. 

@billpete

Blue is the classic Joni album. She once said that it was her favorite because there wasn't an insincere note on it. I got a chance to see her perform. Right before an intermission, she sent the band offstage and sit with a dulcimer in her lap and sang "A Case of You". Just as it is on the album. It was a magical moment. "Miles of Aisles" her live album is also good should you run across it in your collection. Yes I also grew up in the 60s. Unfortunately through my teenage and 20s years. Many of my albums got trashed. My stoner friends would "borrow" them without asking. But fail to return them, or return them ruined. I could not convince them to put them back into the covers. During parties, people would even set their drinks on them. Spill there drinks on them. You name it.

As far as streaming goes. It is really quite impressive if you stream through Qobuz, who exclusively streams FLAC files. Just like with everything else. Apple refuses to play in the same sandbox, and has developed their own version of "lossless" compression ALAC. It is inferior. I would not recommend Apple Music. The term "lossless" is a misnomer. As impressive as FLAC is. It is not "lossless". I worked as a sound design engineer for PBS for 30 years. A friend of mine released an album and sent it to Apple Music. I ask him for the uncompressed LPCM files. The exact copies of what were delivered to Apple. Apple converted them to ALAC for streaming. I compared  the ALAC stream to the uncompressed LPCM files. It was night and day. Lossless my a##!

As far as digital is concerned. Anything LPCM with a bit depth of less than 24 bits is in no way as good and definitely not better than analog. CDs are 44.1K/16bit. It simply does not have the resolution ability. Which causes the imaging to collapse among other things. CDs are an archaic delivery method for digital. It was necessary because at that time, they did not have the bandwidth ability to stream more information than that. I am frankly surprised that CDs have not faded out of existence. As the technology advanced with the arrival of DVD the bandwidth pipeline was many times larger. DVD Audio, and SACD (which is DSD) came on the scene. DVD Audio was capable of streaming 192K/24bit uncompressed LPCM. A 16 bit word has a resolution of 65,536. A 24 bit word has a resolution of 16,777,216. That is a huge  difference. 256 times greater resolution. And then if you increase the sampling rate by a factor of 4. You have 1,024 times the resolution of a CD. I would be hard pressed to argue that uncompressed digital audio of today isn't superior in many ways to analog. And yet DVD Audio and SACD failed to take hold and fell by the wayside. But CDs are still being manufactured as the standard. Why?

When it comes to streaming via the internet, the bandwidth pipeline is smaller than even CD. And now the new buzz word "HiRez" is being haphazardly thrown around. Since there is no standard in place to define what constitutes "HiRez". And with the use of "Lossless" compression codecs capable of reducing the stream to the size that the internet is capable of delivering. We now have "HiRez streaming available. Don't get me wrong. FLAC is a truly impressive codec. ALAC not as impressive. I am a fan of streaming. It delivers amazingly quality audio. However. It does not sound as good as quality vinyl. I have did A/B tests between the two. It is getting close. You can stream 196k/24 bit from Qobuz using FLAC compression. And it can sound amazing. When the time comes that the pipeline becomes large enough to stream uncompressed files, then we will be there. Because let's face it. Even the older analog albums that are being remastered and pressed to vinyl today are being delivered to the remastering facilities as extremely high resolution digital files. The actual analog tape masters are too old, fragile, and valuable, to allow them to leave their home. Unless it says "Analog remastered from the original Analog Masters", which they are doing with some of the Jimi Hendrix collection. It More than likely has been converted to digital at some point.

But I must disagree with the premise that ALL FORMS of digital media is as good or better than analog. It simply isn't correct.

As for vinyl. It isn't just the warm sound of vinyl that intrigues me, and puts me in my happy place. It is the entire tactile experience for me. I am a certified vinyl junkie in that regard.

Sorry for the long digital tutorial.