It may not be your thing, but "A Meeting by the River" has to be one of the most perfectly mastered albums.  Huge dynamic range and mind-blowing realism.  Jon Hassell's Fascinoma is way up there too.

Some other classic examples outside of audio...   Riedel wine glasses (they make wine taste better, but only if the subject knows that it's a Riedel glass--people can't tell the difference in a blind taste test).     Of course, the Pepsi Challenge...When people blind tested Coke and...

Time to  upgrade my source!  They better have kept the optical 1/8" output...

  Speakers 40% (DIY - parts only) Headphones 10% (would be higher, but I have some long-term loans) Amplifiers 39% Sources 10% (I won't include my work Mac with optical out) cables / tweaks and accessories 1%

Serge Gainsbourg / Initials SG Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake - From the River to the Ocean Lang Lang - Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 Blue Rose Rosemary Clooney and Duke Ellington MFSL Rokia Traore - Bowmboi

Duggeh - did you ever get back to your DIY headphone project? 

Have you tried hdtracks.com?  A lot of albums featuring the oud are available in their world music category and you can preview them in AIFF format.  Water Lilly is a great label and they're available on hdtracks. You can download in FLAC.

Coltrane - Ballads  Miles - Kind of Blue Bjork Sufjan Stevens - Illinoise   ...worst music to nap to is too easy!  John Zorn?

I really really like the idea of trading online and downloading in FLAC.  I think everyone has a stack of CDs they never play anymore, and they're worthless on ebay or Amazon.  How does the site work?  How much do you "pay" Murfie for a trade?  How much do they give you when you "sell" an album.

  1) What are the different types of vinyl records (I heard discussions about different size/weight/pressing)? Which of these is the best?   I have hundreds of albums of all different weights and types.  Honestly, the only thing I like about the heavier vinyl is that they tend not to warp...

I don't think any phone is going to have more than a $0.50 DAC chip in it...to get good sound, you need to bypass that chip and connect to a real DAC. Even with FLAC support, you're still limited by the built-in DAC.  It would be great if the phones added a digital out to bypass the DAC with an...

Pine isn't known to be a good speaker cabinet material.  Most DIYers use MDF, but the preferred material is baltic birch.  Pine is the toughest wood to finish.  Stain will blotch unless you use a pre-conditioner and it may blotch even with a pre-conditioner.  And, no, you won't get much bass out...

Why not try a Fostex 168EZ in a ported enclosure?  You could have a local cabinet builder make one to spec.  The drivers should be easy to pick up in Japan as Fostex is a Japanese company.  The 6" drivers are full-range and reasonably sensitive at 94.5db, so almost any amp will work.  Being a...

I have an integrated Sansui AU-777 (the first solid state Sansui amp after they moved from tubes)--it definitely has that "vintage sound." While we're on vintage gear, I picked up a cheap ($35) 6v6 headphone amp on ebay a while back and it sounded great with a vintage lush sound and a huge...

This is a great-sounding jazz album with some interesting instrumentation (cello, guimbre).