What are your "best" and "worst" albums on your Axioms? I've only had my M3Tis a couple days, but these are my suggestions :

Best : Moody Blues - Legend of a Band
Worst : Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

These little M3s sound great, but, DSOTM just eats 'em up. The sax and some of the keyboard work just is too much for them. The vocals seem a bit washed out too.

Moody Blues almost sound like the speakers were designed around them. Not one song on the album has a hiccup on them.

Do you have the SACD version of DSotM? It's a must-have! It's a hybrid disc, so even if you don't have an SACD player, you'll still get the benefit of better mastering.

Best album: Vivaldi -Four Seasons- (Penguin Classics)
Worst album: U2 -Joshua Tree-
m60ti's.

Best - Pillar (Fireproof) Great sounding CD!

Worst - Ratt (Ratt & Roll)

Best - Bootsauce "Bull" - even recorded AAD in 91-92, it's an incredible piece of acrylic. I use the track "Whatcha Need" for subjective equipment testing (along with NIN - "Dead Souls" and CCIR Grade 5/ITU-R 500 samples).

Worst - Levellers "Levelling the Land", they mixed this album too "live" and while the delay adds some presence to bad speakers, it's just annoying on good ones. Like listening in the bathroom.

Bren R.

KT, I have about a thousand classical CDs and can't possibly pick one as best. None deserves a "worst". So, I'll just name the terrific Holst Planets that I often recommend to beginning classical listeners as a nearly surefire CD.

I have DSOTM remastered version and it sounds great on the M60s

Best : Dire Straits - Best of (HDCD)

Worst: Metallica - St Anger

I also have some M3Ti's. Here's some that sound great:

Diana Krall - Live In Paris
Steely Dan - Two Against Nature
Lindsey Buckingham - Out of the Cradle
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones - Flight of the Cosmic Hippo

Have you all listened to much Beatles on your Axioms? To my ears, their albums sound incredible. Wonder how something recorded 30-40 years ago can sound so good.

Don't tell me BrenR listens to vinyl on a spinning platter! Next thing you know, he'll try a tube amp and take his music to the next and better level.

Steely Dan
Diana Krall
Getz/Jobim
Loreena McKennett 'Elemental'
Ed Gerhard's 'Live Album'
Norah Jones
Eric Clapton (last 3 albums)
George Winston (almost all of them)
Jane Monheit
Simon & Garfunkle (all of it)
Moody Blues (all of it)
Suzanne Vega

M3s get a bit congested when pressed with symphonic music.

In reply to:

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Don't tell me BrenR listens to vinyl on a spinning platter! Next thing you know, he'll try a tube amp and take his music to the next and better level.

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Only long enough to transfer deleted wax to CD.

And I've had a tube amp - back when they were still current technology. It's now in the same place as my polyester pants and butterfly collars. Hopefully buried so deep even future cultures won't find them.

I keep getting this mental image of Kahn Nahasapeemapelilahn - Hank Hill's Laoian neighbour refering to propane as "dinosaur gas."

Bren R.

Transferring music from vinyl to CDs must really improve the sound quality. Keep up the good work.

I guess it couldn't have anything to do with the longevity of the medium, could it?

What's your prefered method of vinyl storage: on end so they develop ripples, or flat so the grooves slowly pour themselves flat?

Bren R.

What kind of turntable/cartridge do you use?

Now you can get Vinyl CDs!



Actually, they only look like vinyl. They're standard CDs (made by Verbatim).

Aw shucks, Peter, probably many "audiophiles" who saw that were already looking forward to "warmer", more "natural" sound.

In reply to:

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What kind of turntable/cartridge do you use?

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Why?

Bren R.

Well, Bren, aside from the joy of shmoozing about audio equipment, it seems to me that if you simultaneously mock turntables spinning vinyl as a source and tell us you are transferring music recorded on vinyl to the superior digital CD format, it seems to me that your choice of turntable and cartridge is relevant.

Anyone who has spent time listening to music from vinyl knows that there is an enormous difference in sound quality depending on equipment. I'm not talking about really high buck systems, although, as you know they are out there. There are some terrific sounding relatively modestly priced turntable/cartridge setups available which sound better than many CD players.

Now, personally, I gave up on vinyl because collections take up too much room and collect dust. Nevertheless, I think a good vinyl playback system can sound beautiful.

When my vinyl collection was still relatively new, I had a BSR (I believe a 710 - but I can only find woodgrain ones online, mine was silver and black, assuming I don't remember the model 15 years later)

Now at home, I have a Sony LX-250(PH?) if I find something I want to listen to or commit to CD just to listen to. If I'm archiving something and the shape of the vinyl warrants it, I take it into work where I have my choice of turntables (and 8-track players, and reel-to-reel - which is before my time), preamps and recording destinations.

Bren R.

8 track and cassettes have limited play back frequency response. A good cartridge or reel to reel can give you excellent frequency response. Anyway, there's no doubt but that a collection of CDs are much more portable and storable than LPs.

Amen to that.

Though I probably wasn't the most careful vinyl owner in the world, even looking at the collections of those who were, I'm sure no one misses the huge cabinets for storage and being that LPs are a very slow moving liquid (as is glass) - if you stand them on end, they sag and warp, if you lay them flat, the grooves get shallower over time. Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

At least 78s were mostly shellac and 33 recordables were an aluminum base, those both stood up better. I have aluminum blanks and home recordings from the early 60s - my grandparents would send a 12" to Germany with the latest news, it was cheaper than phone calls. They have to be played with a soft needle (ie: cactus), but it's a bit humourous to hear firsthand your dad passing along how his week was in the auto shop in 1960.

Bren R.

Best:

Particia Barber - Cafe Blue [SACD]
Yellow Jackets - Time Squared [SACD]

Worst:

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
it has kind of an electronic buzzing or edginess on the entire album that makes it unlistenable on my home system. I don't hear this on lower quality soundsystems.

I like rock and alternative but most of it sounds like crap on my system (M80's) so I listen to it in the car. Radiohead & Cake are pretty well recorded, Coldplay is decent.

But when I want to hear my home system at it best I listen to Jazz and limited pop/rock /alternative

If by liquid, you mean something that can flow (even over an extremely long time frame) and has propery of viscosity, then glass at room temperature is NOT a liquid. It's not really a solid, either, however.

The antique window-pane evidence often used to support the idea that glass is a liquid has been shown to be untrue.

Check out these sites:

http://math.ucr.edu/home/baez/physics/General/Glass/glass.html
http://www.spectrumglass.com/Library/ScoreArticles/BitAboutGlass.html
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/chem99/chem99017.htm

i know this thread has waivered a little, but i will respond to the original question.

BEST- the SACD of darkside of the moon. it literally almost puts me into a hallucegonic(sp) state..

WORST- any of the early KISS recordings on the casablanca label.. they all equally suck..

bigjohn