Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Stereo Quality Recordings

I've had a question in the back of my mind for a while now, so I thought I would throw it out there.

What are the hallmarks of a great audio CD or DVD? It's been a long time since I've taken my music seriously and I know that I'll be doing myself (and my new speakers) a disservice if I didn't get back into it. So, I'm starting to actively seek out music to listen to on the new speakers, but just the other day I found myself standing in a music store seriously confused (or is it a serious case of analysis paralysis? )

I keep reading on this forum about good quality recordings and I keep seeing a whole bunch of recommendations for artists that I don't recognize. I'm hesitant to go solely on a forum recommendation since musical preference is such a personal thing. Do certain recording studios create better recordings than others? Are there names in the music business that I should be looking out for? Given two or three CDs from a single artist, how do you know which one is the one?

With Music cds, it's kinda hard...............there are the original "red book" AAD, ADD, (first generation cds), then some re-masters w/gold discs, then re-masters at 20bit, 25bit, and beyond. There are also, newer DDD (all digital) cds, SACD, DVD audio, etc. etc.

All these different "masterings" sound different, some better than others....but it really comes down to the original recording/production (of the original masters)...as to what recordings sound best. (IMO)
I'ts true,...some labels, studios, and artists DO sound better than others....(both new, and old)
I find myself sometimes playing music I'm not as fond of, because it is recorded/produced so well, and sounds great.

I think if you search this forum, you will find several threads about which artists,and recordings (in different styles) sound best.

Ken, first the musical composition itself has to be appealing, then the performance of it has to be good and the better the sound quality, the better that the first two characteristics can be appreciated. I've found all three factors can be frequently found in classical items, some of which I've suggested here over the years. Some idea can be gained from the brief samples often available on Tower, Amazon, etc.

I'll also add the point that Mo just made: you can borrow CDs from the library(Seattle has a nice collection in your area)before buying or just to enjoy a different performance of a work that you may already have several performances of. I frequently do this.

Krich,

If you don't want to commit to buying music, you may want to borrow it first from your library. You may want to look at this thread if you have not already done so.

My personal observation is that if more than one local station plays it,(read top 40), or did within the last 5 years, it's garbage from a SQ. standpoint. Hows that for a pissy attitude. That's a generalization of course,but not far off imho. The less popular styles of music like jazz,folk,classical,etc. seem to get much better treatment. Probably because the pinhead record executives don't pay much attention to the relativly small markets of jazz,etc. and leave the people with talent alone. Heh,sorry for the rant, that's been building for awhile,eh.
I've had good luck with the Higher octave label.
Amazon is great for sampling unfamiliar music, and in my case it's the only place I would ever get the selection they offer. The Axiom crown on here will recomend some staggeringly diverse music, on several occasions I've been turned on to an artist whose been around for 20 years and felt cheated that I was not aware of them all that time.
Having a decent system is kind of a curse in a way.
Oh, yeah- pandora is a good place to discover lesser known and more talented musicians.

I've said it in other threads, and I'll say it again (and no,I'm not on the payroll)...

If you like Classical, Jazz, or Blues, you simply must check out Chesky Records. They take sound quality very seriously. Take a listen, you won't be dissapointed. I have a few of their SACD's, and the recordings are amazing.

On the whole, I find that Telarc and Linn recordings are usually excellent too.

Ditto on Telarc, Linn, and Chesky. Quality stuff.

Found this the other day too ....just FYI. Looks promising.

AIX Records

And this one looks good but has yet to open. Could be a good find though. Especially for those of us with networked systems in our homes. Can't remember where I found the link, maybe here? Ah well, anyway....

Itrax

DVD Audio is great, as is SACD.

And BTW, I totally agree with the Top 40 radio thing. If it's on a popular station, it's probably crap

Ken, since you said "tenor", and complete operas(which are very long and sometimes turn off new listeners)of course have a mixture of voices, I'll interpret this as singing(but not complete operas)from the world of opera or operetta with emphasis on the tenor voice. Here's a nice collection of songs by the "three tenors"(Carreras, Domingo, Pavarotti); I really like Domingo's Viennese operetta collection ; the greatest American opera is Gershwin's Porgy and Bess and this is a very well-sung collection of excerpts.

I'm not sure what type of music he is interested in so i will go back to the spirit of his original question.

Along with the artistry of the musicians, producing and recording the artist is in fact, it's own art form. Different studios and engineers produce different qualities of recordings. Different producers have various ideas on how the music should sound. Artists who are popular enough to actually exert some influence also can have their own ideas on how their recordings should sound.

A common complaint, especially for rock and pop music, is that there has been a trend for a while now where the most important thing is to be as loud or louder sounding than other artists. This results in a more flat lined equalization process where it is difficult to hear the subtleties in the recording. Details tend to sound blended together and there are no subtle changes in volume for different instrument blends.

I'm no expert. I too started learning about this the hard way when I bought speakers that could demonstrate these differences. Some of my once favorite CDs now get played less because others sound so much better.

I'm often impressed by the smaller lesser known recording studios. Used to be it meant a vastly inferior sound but lately it seems they are the ones who can manage to not fall into the 'just make it loud' trap.

Case in point. Lennie Gallant's - Live CD. I searched his websight to find the recording studio but I'm positive it's a smaller Atlantic Canada studio. Yup, this is a plug for a hometown boy, practically my back yard. But he is an amazing artist who seamlessly jumps from folk to Acadian to just a few radio pops with an indie sound. This one comes to mind as the clarity is quiet good, especially for a live CD. Guitar strings, violin, deep thuds of the bodhran, it's all there to be heard without effort.