Recommendations needed for Imaging and Soundstage!

[Johnny Vinyl]

If you were to pick one or two albums from your collection that best exhibited these characteristics, what would they be?

 

[mep]

John-Did you go to Gary's website and follow his recommendations for setting up speakers? Gary has a list of CDs and what to listen for on each of them.

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

John-Did you go to Gary's website and follow his recommendations for setting up speakers? Gary has a list of CDs and what to listen for on each of them.

I did for sure and I have several of them, but not on vinyl, so I wanted to see what others thought as well. I don't have a CD/SACD player in my 2CH room.

 

[mep]

I did for sure and I have several of them, but not on vinyl, so I wanted to see what others thought as well. I don't have a CD/SACD player in my 2CH room.

If you want one I will send one to you. I have a nice Denon CD/SACD player I will send you for the price of shipping and your import duties.

 

[edorr]

If you were to pick one or two albums from your collection that best exhibited these characteristics, what would they be?

Ray Lamontage's "until the sun turns black" album has very well recorded vocals, that can be made to sound like it emanates from a non-existing center channel if your system images well. I use the track "empty" for this trick. Eva Cassidy "live at the blues alley" is also a good one for well imaged vocal.

 

[Shaffer]

If you were to pick one or two albums from your collection that best exhibited these characteristics, what would they be?

I like side 2 of Rhythm of the Saints. Don't know if I'd call it reference quality, but I love the music and have been using it for setup for ages.

FWIW, listening to some of Gary's recommendations ATM.

 

[Steve Williams]

Get the Demo disk by Chesky.

 

[Bill Hart]

John, it's funny, when i used Quads, imaging was so key to what i considered to be a critical aspect of what the system did right. Now, it's one facet of many things. Ditto with sounstage. But, if I had to pick, on both imaging and soundstage, the cut Ave Marie on the Mission soundtrack is a chorus of voices that keep getting added to as more singers join in, and you can hear front to back distance, height and width as the number of separate voices increases and the sound expands. And the better the system is, the more pinpoint the voice locations and the ability to separate them out.
On imaging, there are a couple notable ones: the Guy Van Duser record 'Sweep my Blues Away' has a track 'I'm Coming Virginia,' which features a clarinet that comes in after the first verse. The clarinet stands free of the rest of the band. As one listener said years ago, 'I forgot what the wax smelled like when I played clarinet in jr high until you played that.'
Any number of female vocal records can do the same trick- the Eva Cassidy record already mentioned is a pretty nice recording, but is not the last word in 'audiophilia' and nonetheless has a nice ability for the vocals to stand free of the rest of the mix in the center. Those Norah Jones records will do that, as will the Diana Krall records, like 'Girl in the Other Room.' For that matter, the first Rickie Lee Jones record does a pretty nice job. And Tea for the Tillerman. And Neil Young's Greatest Hits on that double album that Classic released. (or on a copy of Harvest). Etc.... Add that old Phoebe Snow record on Shelter while you are at it with Harpo's Blues.

 

[JackD201]

Alain-Poulanc on Proprius

 

[Shaffer]

John, if you have a chance to score a copy of Orb's Orblivion, brace yourself. I'm spinning the (original) '97 Brit pressing at this very moment. A soundstange miles wide, clearly delineated. Highly pronounced dynamic swings, lots of low-level info. And, it's a full-frequency response recording, if ya know what I mean. A sonic spectacular.

 

[garylkoh]

Problem with using vinyl for soundstage and imaging (and why I use CDs and digital for speaker set-up) is that the set-up of the turntable will affect the results. You can never tell if the soundstage is skewed to one side because the anti-skate is not correct, or it's the speakers. The center image can also shift if the turntable is not level. Too much variability.....

 

[garylkoh]

Felix, great recommendation!

For a huge soundstage, Orblivion is great, Amused to Death is fabulous. Fortunately, Orblivion on vinyl is still reasonably priced. Amused to Death is astronomical. I've been told red vinyl sounds best, blue the worst and black is good..... but I don't even have a copy of the LP myself. Only the long box Mastersound CD.

 

[puroagave]

Felix, great recommendation!

For a huge soundstage, Orblivion is great, Amused to Death is fabulous. Fortunately, Orblivion on vinyl is still reasonably priced. Amused to Death is astronomical. I've been told red vinyl sounds best, blue the worst and black is good..... but I don't even have a copy of the LP myself. Only the long box Mastersound CD.

Chad is reissuing Amused to Death as a double LP. it was one of his announcements at CES besides the UHQRs - yes its nice to get back into vinyl, lots of cool releases to look forward to

 

[NorthStar]

-- 'Amused to Death' from Roger Waters; is the LP recorded using the QSound technique?
...I believe so, yes it is. ...My favorite QSound recording. ... 360 stereo imaging.

 

[daytona600]

agree with the orb and waters . uk pressing mine not for sale

good cd for a big soundstage - shackleton fabric55

this very rare on vinyl

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQr6m2l2J-Y

 

[NorthStar]

__________

That's cool; reminds me of the band Yello a bit. ...I luv Yello, got all their CDs, and few LPs too.
...And great music for imaging as well.

 

[vinylphilemag]

John, I use one of our favourite LPs for this: Mike Oldfield's Tubular Bells. Another great one is Jean-Michel Jarre's Equinoxe.

 

[NorthStar]

A couple more :: Imaging & Soundstaging :: On LPs ::

* Jennifer Warnes' Famous Blue Raincoat
* Sir Paul McCartney's Flowers in the Dirt

 

[Johnny Vinyl]

Thanks guys for all of the recommendations. I have several of the ones you proposed so I'll give them a spin tomorrow.