Meridian Unplugged - Powered by MrTechGuy.co.uk Forums Discussion HiFi & HT Chat Re: Recommended Music

I just had a quick look for the thread on recommended discs, but am unable to find it. Did it die with the recent loss of postings?

If it's not recoverable, would folks mind posting their recommendations again? I just picked up a used G98DH and am itching to pick up some new discs (particularly DVD-A's) based on very favourable first impressions.

Cheers, Ian

Are there any particular genres of music you enjoy more than others?

Here are some great sounding DVD-As:

AIX Records
Jonathan McCuen (et al) Brand New Opry
Zephyr Voices Unbound
Carl Verheyen Band Rumor Mill

Universal Music Group
Elton John Goodbye Yellow Brick Road or Captain Fantastic
Dire Straits Brothers in Arms
Diana Krall The Girl in the Other Room

Warner
Donald Fagen The Nightfly
Steely Dan Two Against Nature or Everything Must Go

DTS
Graham Nash Songs for Survivors
Queen Night at the Opera

That's a nice starter list for you...

I don't know if it's the thread you want, but here's the Top 5 Hifi demo discs thread.
If you're at all interested in jazz I'd recommend getting the Japan only Victor DVD-A releases (especially the Art Pepper and the Wes Montgomery releases).

If you like...

Rock
Porcupine Tree: Stupid Dream, In Absentia and Deadwing.
Yes: 'Fragile'.

Pop
Sting 'Brand new day',
Eagles 'Hotel California',
Eric Clapton 'Riding with the king'
3 doors down: 'Away from the sun'

Buea vista social club for sunny times

~M~

Njal: what's the poop on these japan-only jazz DVD-As????

where are they sold (online)?

thanks,doody.

Well, they are mostly 24/96 or 24/192, stereo and/or mono, the ones I have are:
Art Pepper Meets the Rhythm Section (mentioned here , with link to external review)
Wes Montgomery - Full House - recorded 'live' at Tsubo - Berkeley, California
Bill Evans - Portrait in Jazz
John Coltrane - Soultrane
The Miles Davis Quintet - Cookin' with ...
Sonny Rollins - Way Out West
Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus
Ella Fitzgerald and Oscar Peterson - Ella and Oscar

There are others, but I can't remember them off the top of my head.
And they are available at for instance CD Japan and Amazon Japan, for reference, the Art Pepper at CD Japan and at Amazon Japan (the Art Pepper has Cat# VIAJ-60001, to find others, change the last number(s)).
I think CD Japan only carry the Art Pepper release at the moment, while Amazon should be able to ship most within a week.

If I remember correctly, I think it started out on great re-releases of golden oldies. I believe there were a number of postings on disappointments along the way.

I have the Buena Vista Social Club and Yes - Fragile from those listed above on DVD-A, but that's about it. I have a few of the others on CD, so it will be interesting to A-B.

If you like Jazz, Bucky Pizzareli's Swing Live DVD-A on Chesky http://www.chesky.com/core/details.cfm?productcode=CHDVD222&productcategoryid=2 is a great recording. The room acoustic is very enveloping.

Although not DVD-A, if you like blues of the Stevie Ray Vaughn ilk, It's Time by Jimmy D. Lane and Double Trouble http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0006213RG/102-1856693-8228106?v=glance&n=5174 is superb.

Cheers, Ian

Ian,
see my thread on "DVD audio (again)" By coincidence it deals with some of the same issues. Perhaps I should have added it to this thread, but somehow failed to notice it was there.

Here are some more to try:
Chanticleer, Magnificat (Teldec)
Marcello, Händel & Vivaldi: Concertos & Sinfonias (Aix)
Metallica (black album)
Sibelius/Sinding: Violin Concertos (Naxos)
Handel, Messiah (Arts)
Vivaldi: L'Estro Armonico Op.3 (Arts, on two separate dics)

If you want to hear what can be put on a single DVDA, the whole of Bach's St Matthew Passion (cond harnoncourt) (162 minutes) fits on a single Teldec disc.

Harnoncourt's recording of Dvorak's New World Symphony coupled with the Water Goblin (also Teldec) is pretty good as well, but only average running time.

There is a fair bit of Beethoven on DVDA, but none I have heard so far is remarkable. Abbado's recording of Symphonies 1 and 2 is quite good (on DG)but no doubt the DVDA of kleiber's Beethoven 5 and 7 is the one to get, if it can be found... fabulous on CD anyway.

But if were planning to show of the virtues of DVDA I would probably choose either Brothers in Arms or the Pioneer classics recording of Bach's Passacaglia and Fugue in C minor (see my other post)

Oh, and on CD, Solti's 1965 Decca recording of Wagner's Die Walkure. Don't like opera? Try it. Act 1 will blow you away. No chance it will ever appear on DVDA now though.

Yes, I have got the whole of the Solti Ring from that era (Rheingold 1958!!) and you just can't believe the sound quality achieved so long ago.

Hi I dont know if you chaps are interested, but with bittorrent, one can download a MLP 24/96 version of Pink Floyd's Dark side of the moon!
Highly Reccommended!! This is by far a better version than the official SACD

Cheers
Will

The Solti- Decca Ring (Rheingold and Siegfried in particular) benefits from the 'dehissing' remix that was done a few years back. Gotterdammerung and Die Walkure would probably benefit too, but Walkure, being the most recently recorded, suffered least from hiss in the first place. I have only Siegfried in dehissed form, but the sound quality is very impressive. They say that because of the lower noise floor at one point you can now here the Sofiensaal cat, but that is probably a joke. I have never heard it anyway