Wide ranging audiophile playlist - Recommendations

[Ed Zeppeli]

I'm trying to put together a hifi enthusiast club on my humble island in the Pacific. Part of the reason for this initiative is my realization that I just don't have enough exposure to good hi fi systems. I have a good idea of what i consider to be quality sound but maybe I don't know what I'm missing. Perspective is what I'm after.

It would be nice to have a playlist that covers a broad range of musical styles that are all readily available and are regarded as well-recorded and/or produced.

I'd like to have a fixed playlist that we could compare between systems that includes about 45 minutes of music.

Here are some that I like. Please add to the list, especially where you see question marks.


Dance/Electronic

Zedd - Addicted To A Memory
Daft Punk - Get Lucky

Classical

Hans Zimmer - Time (soundtrack) I know, electronically produced but great build.
?
?

Live
Eagles - Hotel California (Hell Freezes Over) Well recorded but wearing thin for me.
?
?

Jazz

TokTokTok - Eleanor Rigby. (great sax, stand-up bass)
?
?

Rock

Audioslave - Gasoline
Avenged Sevenfold - Buried Alive
?
?

Female Vox (Diana Krall, Nora Jones?)
?
?
?

I have a fairly thorough streaming (flac) service so I'm open to any/all suggestions, even if you specialize in one genre. I may have missed it!


Thanks,

Warren

[Chevelle]

Dance/Electronic

Zedd - Addicted To A Memory
Daft Punk - Get Lucky
Culture Beat - Mr.Vain

Classical

Hans Zimmer - Time (soundtrack) I know, electronically produced but great build.
?
?

Live
Eagles - Hotel California (Hell Freezes Over) Well recorded but wearing thin for me.
UFO - Strangers In The Night Well balanced sound band-ambience
?

Jazz

TokTokTok - Eleanor Rigby. (great sax, stand-up bass)
?
?

Rock

Audioslave - Gasoline
Avenged Sevenfold - Buried Alive
Jackson Browne - World in Motion
Dire Straits - Dire Straits

Female Vox (Diana Krall, Nora Jones?)
?
?
?

Hjalmar

[Ed Zeppeli]

Nice. There are a few more for me to check out now.

Cheers,

Warren

[hsosdrum]

Classical: Requiem (John Rutter), Turtle Creek Chorale, Women's Chorus of Dallas — Reference Recordings. If the sorely over-used word "awesome" ever accurately applied to any recording, it is "Agnus Dei" from this CD, which reveals the full emotive power of massed human voices (200 of them, accompanied by a few winds, harp and pipe organ). Keith Johnson's magical recording places you within the first few rows, and is absolutely dazzling on a well set-up surround system. And of course, the organ pedals will test your system's ability below 30Hz. Not to be missed.

[Pragmat]

Dance/Electronic

Laurent Garnier - unreasonable behaviour
Alex Trilb - Americans in war
Lamb - Fear of fours
Goldie - Timeless


Classical

Bach - Fugen
Schumann - Kinderszenen
?

Live
Frank Zappa - Yello shark
Phil Collins - a hot night in Paris
Jazz at the Pawnshop

Jazz

Avishai Cohen - Gently disturbed
Arkady Shilkloper - Hornology
Eric Truffaz - The walk of the gigant turtle

Rock

Nine Inch Nails - Downward Spiral
Pixies - Dolittle
Bodycount - Bodycount


Female Vox
Tuck and Patty - Tears of joy
Marianne Faithful

[Ed Zeppeli]

Excellent. Thanks for adding to the list!

[Ducatista47]

There is another way to find what you are looking for. Particular record labels and particular producers made high quality recordings in particular time frames. An example or two follow. It is also a fact that since the sound is what you are after, the modern and contemporary era(s) will present a higher sonic standard. The equipment is simply more accurate, so given the same level of recording skill (major caveat) the newer stuff will have more detailed sound. A great classic Blue Note recording like Miles Davis's Kind Of Blue will simply not have the detail and low distortion to present a stereo rig at its most revealing. This is important because almost all of the distortion in a playback system is from the speakers. Speaker manufactures don't publish distortion figures, because they are not great. Other than the more expensive of Jerry Moro's JBL designs, transducers just do not have distortion levels within two orders of magnitude of what electronics have. To tell the difference, you need recordings with very low distortion.

Jim Anderson has a track record of superb recordings of female vocals and Jazz. He captures acoustic bass with unmatched realism. His work with Patricia Barber and her bands are the most widely known examples. Cafe Blue is the best known. "Nardis" is an instrumental workout that will challenge a system to match its quality. She is a superb pianist, and well recorded piano is quite a challenge to reproduce well, a minefield of dynamics, complex harmonics, attack and subtle decay. Most Patricia Barber tracks feature her often acrobatic vocals, offering another fine system test. On Jim's recordings you can hear in unusual detail what is going on in her throat, quite an experience.

The Telarc label always stressed good sound, but from about 2001(?) to 2008 they were recording live and in their studio with possibly the World's best DSD rig, the Sonoma. After 2008 the operation was gutted and the recording outsourced. Telarc was best known for Classical recordings, and you can't go wrong with their in house productions there. A particular CD I can recommend is Tierney Sutton's 2005 live I'm With The Band. Her 2001 Blue In Green is well known. I don't know if it is DSD but it sparkles with life and clarity. Any selection from these CDs will be a great demo. Being female vocal Jazz recordings with acoustic instruments, several of your categories will be fulfilled.

This last label is the best of all, but you have to order the product or catch Todd Garfinke at a show. These are not in stores. MA Recordings are the highest quality recording I have ever heard. Consistently. He runs a pair of B & K's top microphones mounted in custom Rhodium housings through custom designed and built FET battery powered preamps directly to a digital recorder. That's it. No board, no console, no mixer. The sound control is from mike placement and venue selection, and Todd is probably the best there is at that. Always digital, through the years MA has progressed from 96KHz capture to their current double DSD (5.6Mhz) practice. He has recorded a wide and eclectic variety of acoustic music. He does offer a sampler that has different music on the SACD and CD layers. That's over three hours of music. It is $30 and that will certainly fulfill your needs. Another thing Todd brings to recording is that he is a superb musician and uses all those sensibilities.

[miscrms]

I don't know how they compare to some of the latest and greatest recording techniques, but I have always been impressed by recordings on the now sadly defunct Dorian label. I happened to be going to school in Troy, NY in the mid 90s when they were there doing their thing, and was even lucky enough to hear the concert versions of some of the groups they recorded. They had a very similar, simple approach. They found fantastic sounding rooms to record in, and hung a single stereo pair of mics in the middle with ADCs right at the end, recorded straight to DAT tape. Which as I understand was the highest bit rate recording device of the time, and not yet in common usage. I've heard it said that their founder, Craig Dory, a former Bell Labs mathematician, was one of the first to produce truly great sounding digital masters. Many of their recordings were made in the Troy Savings Bank Music Hall, a somewhat obscure venue that has been described as having some of the best acoustics in the world.

One of my particular favorites is their production of "The Baltimore Consort ‎– La Roque'n'Roll: Popular Music Of Renaissance France" DOR-90177
https://www.discogs.com/The-Baltimore-Consort-La-RoquenRoll-Popular-Music-Of-Renaissance-France/release/3252659
https://www.amazon.com/Rocque-Roll-Popular-Renaissance-France/dp/B000001Q9P

I'm certainly no expert on audiophile recordings, but for me this one has it all. Great musicians, amazing quality instruments, wonderful natural acoustics, and very clean, natural recording. I enjoy some of their other recordings of the baltimore consort as well, but this particular pairing with vocalist Custer LaRue and the dynamic song material just seems like something extra special. My judgment may be somewhat clouded by having gotten to hear some of these sections live, but its a favorite of mine for evaluating equipment, and just for listening.

[Lee in Montreal]

If by "audiophile" you mean tracks that sound great, then connect your laptop to your sound system. Click on this video. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K2yQQ3xwdE

And this one from the same artist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrgMBp13ijI

[Ducatista47]

If by "audiophile" you mean tracks that sound great, then connect your laptop to your sound system. Click on this video. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3K2yQQ3xwdE

And this one from the same artist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrgMBp13ijI

Youtube audio is compressed, the result being a dismal 126kbps. Not much of a system test.

"MP4
I created a 2160p test video with 320 kbps AAC music. Since it is new it doesn't have a WebM version yet. After uploading to YouTube and allowing it time to process, I analyzed the network traffic during playback and found that it was 126.886 kbps audio/mp4, which matches up very closely with what is reported by ffprobe on the downloaded file from Adaptive Formats in the info tool."

https://www.h3xed.com/web-and-internet/youtube-audio-quality-bitrate-240p-360p-480p-720p-1080p

[Lee in Montreal]

Youtube audio is compressed, the result being a dismal 126kbps. Not much of a system test.

"MP4
I created a 2160p test video with 320 kbps AAC music. Since it is new it doesn't have a WebM version yet. After uploading to YouTube and allowing it time to process, I analyzed the network traffic during playback and found that it was 126.886 kbps audio/mp4, which matches up very closely with what is reported by ffprobe on the downloaded file from Adaptive Formats in the info tool."

https://www.h3xed.com/web-and-internet/youtube-audio-quality-bitrate-240p-360p-480p-720p-1080p

May I suggest you buy the CDs ? My links were only indications of two great tracks with great mastering. :)