What makes an audiophile track a audiophile track? I have mine. Tracks that are really clear, that you can hear all the instruments. Where you can hear the space if it is recorded in a live space. That really speaks to resolution. But what else?
If it's production value, how do I know? There is different mic placement/methods. OK. What the heck is so special about the White Album?
My point is.... I have my favs. Tracks I know, demo tracks, really good tracks to show how good your system is. And a lot of those came from audiophile lists... But invariably there are a lot on those lists or that people will say that... Why. If it's just a favorite song, cool. It just got me thinking... What make an audiophile track an audiophile track?
OK... Go...
Its funny ending with “OK Go” when that is an example of an album that I bought due to expecting exceptional engineering +/- recording quality too ..
Yes, albums have a range of factors that goes into their ‘whole’ and the TOTAL cannot be more than the sum of its’ parts.
Each aspect contributes significantly as to how much the replay will potentially get in ‘closeness’ (the closest approximity to the source WE can muster
), and certain signs can point towards ‘potential winner’.
I started my CD journey in the ‘eighties believing that DDD discs would have to be the best (ie Eric Claptons Unplugged), but found a range of ‘reference recordings’ using a range of methods in the ‘mastering processing’, DAD discs and ADD discs also seemed to standout well as ‘better than average’ more often than not.. (artists ranging from Crowded House to Michael Jackson, Suzanne Vega but often live shows and certain classical labels.and .. many artists who seemed to be doing their darned best to push cutting edge tech or use ‘the best’…)
After awhile I realised that the trick was to look at the studio or location it was recorded at ‘in the liner notes’.,
and of course ‘who was involved with the project’;
labels… blue note and nothing records seemed to push out ‘nice stuff always’ (certainly with ‘Trent/NIN stuff where engineering excellence was par for the course)
then somewhere along the way I heard amazing stuff from nearly 100 years ago.. (eighty years ago, certainly), and realised there is so much that contributes to what are the masters from which we get our sauce.
Crazily when CDs were first released, sometimes they were on Gold media, and the better reflectivity that gave ALWAYS made those discs stand out when playing back.. (and sometimes would make an ‘broken car stereo system, that “no longer reads CDs”, magically just work.(for the Gold disc they seem to do ‘alright’)), I generally kept my gold discs together in the collection they really stood out ‘THAT MUCH’.
Fortunately with todays market, and CDs fighting to be relevant, I seem to pickup a lot of Gold discs over the last couple of years.. so that is really terrific news for anyone starting out on a CD collection (in a streaming world that must seem mad to many).
Some other physical attributes known for improving reflectivity was generally ‘painted discs’, and I always like a heavy CD, over a light weight version.. (Like Vinyl I guess)..
Midnight print runs when all the other machinery is turned off at the fabrication plant is a thing; I have a few discs that are ‘magic pressings’ and I just wish I was more into the music on them (the discs sound amazing)..
I picked up a CD burner that writes CDs at a level similar to ‘pro mastering’ and using 80-90-minute blank media might allow a copy of a 74min or 78min disc.. (but was great for Travelling Wilburys Disc 2 that was at the Southern Cross University Library and available for loan, and certainly tonnes of old school artists who are happy to give us a vinyls’ length recording..)
When I come across discs that stand out, I like to put them in the reference recording CD rack.
A few gems to share-
(I thank my child for getting me into ) Gotye. both albums- brilliant; although “State of the Art” (song) is great for system testing in very obvious ways, “Thankyou for Holding” or whatever the track is called, (approx five tracks in on Making Mirrors), BRILLIANT!!, and an ‘non audio GF’ said “Distinctive Sound” is ‘da bomb’)
T J Eckleberg - Superhydrated (studio 301 sydney, which always seemed to be great stuff)
I’m a Parsons (Alan Parsons/Alan Parsons Project) fan and I had the joyous pleasure of discovering that the latest album “the Magician”(?) is one of the best reference CDs I have ever had the pleasure to find.
floyd, famously for Dark Side of the Moon (DSOTM), but I used ‘a momentary lapse of reason’ as an early spin ‘reference disc’ whenever setting up systems.. (the opening track has an incredible soundstage for making sure speakers are doing their task convincingly)
Supertramp “Some Things Never Change” is an HDCD, and ALL HDCDs are special, but some of them you actually want to listen to, too.. (Tool - Lateralis/City of Angels soundtrack/Andrew Birds Bowl of Fire/may even be a Diana Krall disc or two too, although Neil Diamond famously pushes using bleeding edge stuff,,.. Neil,.. Neil.. hmm hope that’s right!?)
Mika - fun album, but an amazing recording..
Norah Jones - Come Away With Me (and others)
1 Giant Leap - (all works)
Janet/Madonna/Aguilera and (Paula) Abdul
Nirvana Unplugged
Steely Dan (probably famously so) as well as Eagles -Hell Freezes Over..
arrgh now I am just trying to create a ‘biggish list’ sort of like ‘something for everybody’ (another great album).
