Recommend me something to show off my system!

[crooner]

I scored disc one of Eric Claptons Just One Night MFSL gold on ebay for nine dollars. It's undoubtedly the best live rock recording I have, but with a going rate of $150 for both discs in mint [from Elusive Disc's recent newsletter]- I couldn't quite 'recommend' getting it ;-)

Excellent! I hope I can score one someday....

The Belafonte Returns to Carnegie Hall that I have is a silver MFSL CD. Quite rare. It was 4 bucks at the local thrift. But I am sure it's worth at least 80 on ePay!

[joncourage]

+1 Mike on Diana Krall.

I often use the song Temptation to get a sense of how a system sounds, for all the reasons you give, not to mention it's a Tom Waits song.

[crooner]

The song "When You Say Nothing At All" by Alison Krauss has killer drums, guitar and piano at the end. perfect to show off your system.

[MKS]

The Orb - Adventures Beyond the Ultraworld

A classic cut from The Orb. Lots of different styles all mashed together and the sound FX that are thrown in would provide interest for your system... ;-)

[Mike Anderson]

I often use the song Temptation to get a sense of how a system sounds, for all the reasons you give, not to mention it's a Tom Waits song.

Me too!

Clearly, great minds thing alike.

[sebage]

Crooner - "Mighty Sam McClain: Give It Up To Love" - Flippin' 'eck! You're not wrong there! I picked up a copy this weekend. It is one of the best sounding albums I have ever heard.

[crooner]

Crooner - "Mighty Sam McClain: Give It Up To Love" - Flippin' 'eck! You're not wrong there! I picked up a copy this weekend. It is one of the best sounding albums I have ever heard.

Yes! Absolutely stunning recording. The sense of "u-r-there" realism is uncanny. Check out the Piano on "I got to have your love" or the guitar and B-3 organ on "I'm Tired Of These Blues" (my favorite cut on the album). "Lonesome Road" at the end is also a showstopper.

[CardinalFang]

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik - Well recorded and great music too

David Johansen and the Harry Smiths - The New York Dolls Singer doing country blues. It's like you're there in the room with the band.

Eric Bibb - Spirit and the Blues. Country blues again, but I've heard this CD being used as a test disc many a time.

Talvin Singh - OK. Asian dub/techno/electronica. Gives the system a good bass workout and lots of Indian tablas and sitars floating accross the soundscape.

The Tubes - Young and Rich. A bit compressed, but amazing for its age. Loads of detail and amazing perfromances from a very theatrical band from the 70's. Saw them at the Odeon Hammersmith in the 70's and was blown away.

Paul

[ianjohnson_nz]

I have always loved the way these albums recorded or produced by Daniel Lanois *sound*:

Emmylou Harris -- Wrecking Ball
Bob Dylan -- Time Out of Mind
Daniel Lanois -- For The Beauty of Wynona

The Emmylou album is truly a masterpiece. The vocals put chills up my spine every time I hear it and benefit greatly from a superior audio setup.

Lanois is more well known for his production work with U2 and Peter Gabriel. However, those albums don't quite match the ethereal sonic quality of the three mentioned above.

gb

I could not agree more, I would add to the list Dylan's album "Oh Mercy"; in fact I think this is Lanois' finest work. He did a fantastic job on this recording. In particular, Dylan's harmonica seems to almost float across the sound stage, especially on tracks like "Man In The Long Black Coat", and his voice cuts through the air like a knife. Terrific stuff.

I agree with Paul too, Eric Bibb "Spirit and the Blues" is an excellent album. It is an all analogue recording, using the absolute minimum of kit in the recording studio. Another good one is a new jazz album I bought by a piano trio, called the

Tord Gustavsen Trio "Changing Places".
Oh one other thing - I do hope you are using FLAC, as it is lossless and a native format. If you're using MP3, forget it, good as the SB3 is, you won't beat a lossless rip or the original CD.

Regards, Ian

[zooropa320]

Oh one other thing - I do hope you are using FLAC, as it is lossless and a native format. If you're using MP3, forget it, good as the SB3 is, you won't beat a lossless rip or the original CD.

Ian - I don't disagree with you that FLAC is the way to go for ripping. I'm curious to know, however, if you have ever ABX'ed FLAC vs. properly ripped/encoded VBR MP3's and if you were able to reliably tell them apart. I've tried to do this in my system using different types of music and, for better or worse, I can't tell the difference. The MP3's in question were created from EAC ripped tracks and encoded with LAME using the alt-preset standard flag.

I know the standard answer among audiophiles is "I don't need to compare loseless files to lossy ones to know which is better" but I'm still curious about your experience.