Steely Dan Aja as reference for testing speakers

I never heard a Rock and Roll recording that sounds better than “Travellin’ Man” by Ricky Nelson. Some as good, such as 96 Tears and Nobody but Me, but nothing better.
In many instances the first years of stereo recording produced some enduring sonic masterpieces. There are many contributing factors for this. Simply miked arrangements, simple mixing boards, no compression, no effects, single takes with no overdubs, simple circuits in the recording components, high quality microphones of the day which are still held in high regard.

Knowledgeable, capable engineers and studio owners today strive to emulate the pared-down recording minimalism which was the norm at that time. The lack of over-intervention in the recording process and the simplicity of the equipment imbued one-take recordings with an exceptional vitality which diminishes with too much manipulation of the signal and repeated overdub taxing the tape(talking analogue here).

Happy New Year to you Tom
 
The reason I would choose an Allan Parsons LP for system evaluation is that he had much more true stereo content on his recordings. 98.5(repeater) % of Aja and Crime Of The Century(as wonderful as they are musically for pure enjoyment) is pan-potted mono.

Aja and COTC are useful up to a certain level of equipment then they are left behind by 'less tinkered with' recordings.

The music however and the very artful recording and stereo manipulation of Aja and COTC makes for a very entertaining listen at any stage or level of system.

theophile, I agree with you on this...I have found some of the older 50's recording incredible, were mikes ran right into McIntosh recorders..like RCA Living Stereo classical records, some are breathtaking. Bill Evans live recording on Waltz for Debbie come to mind too.
 
I never heard a Rock and Roll recording that sounds better than “Travellin’ Man” by Ricky Nelson. Some as good, such as 96 Tears and Nobody but Me, but nothing better.
Boy I'm with ya there. Find a good clean copy of Rick Nelson on Imperial Records, great stuff and sounds real.
 
Aja is OK, but kind of old. Donald Fagen's Night Fly is pretty good demo record. Here is a short list of mine:

Thomas Dolby - Aliens Ate My Buick
Depeche Mode - Violator
Fleetfoxes - any of them
FM - City of Fear
Camel - Nude, Stationary Traveler
Tears for Fears - Seeds of Love
Moody Blues - Days of Future Passed
Pink Floyd - The Division Bell
Andreas Vollenweider - Dancing with the Lion
Beck - Colors
Supertramp - Crime of the Century, Even in the Quietest Moments
 
I have the US and Japanese releases of Aja and have heard the OMR and I have it heard it so many times.

Yes it’s great and a timeless classic but I wouldn’t call it the holy grail of sound by any means.

I’m to the point of when I go to Axpona and hear this playing in a room I’m going to just keep walking and not enter I’m so tired of it.

I just bought the Japanese pressing and I don’t really enjoy it very much.

Sorry and no disrespect, I just think that there are many other records that are also worthy of so much respect.

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Knowledgeable, capable engineers and studio owners today strive to emulate the pared-down recording minimalism which was the norm at that time.
If you like the clarity and simplicity of recordings I'd recommend Chris Whitley's Dirt Floor or Soft Dangerous Shores on either LP or CD. For that matter, nearly all of Chris's work is recorded in carefully chosen locations with a few vintage microphones. I think Joe Jackson does a great job on this front as well.
Dirt Floor is the fourth studio album by singer-songwriter and guitarist, Chris Whitley.

It was produced by Craig Street and recorded live direct to a two-track analog recorder using a single stereo ribbon microphone by Danny Kadar at Blue Moon Racing Shop (Whitley's father's barn) in Bellows Falls, Vermont.

This recording was also released by Classic Records in two audiophile formats. It was released in digital audio disk (DAD) 24-bit/96 kHz digital audio format playable with DVD hardware. Classic Records also released it in 180 gram vinyl audio format.

"...a beautiful album of one-microphone simplicity"

This is how I found out about it years ago with Greg Calbi leading the discussion:
 
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My system is it sits now Reveals All the beauty of the music of properly recorded music albums however it also shows all the ugly that exists in poor recordings this is the only way I know of satisfying both needs anybody else have this issue and how are you dealing with it.

I too have been down this path--I built up my main system to as close to "perfection" that I could or was willing to afford. Great recordings could bring tears to your eyes, but poor recordings could also bring tears to your eyes (and not in the good way). My solution is multiple systems--yes, entire systems. From the strictly vinyl perspective, I have several tables with removeable headshells, so I keep spare headshells with different carts mounted for easy swapping.
 

I've been fortunate to find some Sheffield lab vinyl from time to time and I buy it every single time I see it regardless of the music or artist the recording qualities are just unsurpassed well worth adding to your collection just to listen to see what your system is truly capable of reproducing. They also do some great CDs if you can find them as well grab them.
 
I bought them back in the day when they came out, and heard them over and
over in show room demos.
 
I bought them back in the day when they came out, and heard them over and
over in show room demos.

My self as well. Used them for demoing equipment in our showroom. Nautilus half-speed Masters, quitex ll, mofl, American gramaphone and a few others that escape me at the moment. Excellent source material for evaluating your system
 
I have the US and Japanese releases of Aja and have heard the OMR and I have it heard it so many times.

Yes it’s great and a timeless classic but I wouldn’t call it the holy grail of sound by any means.

I’m to the point of when I go to Axpona and hear this playing in a room I’m going to just keep walking and not enter I’m so tired of it.

I just bought the Japanese pressing and I don’t really enjoy it very much.

Sorry and no disrespect, I just think that there are many other records that are also worthy of so much respect.

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I agree with you. Most all of the posters idea of reference material for demoing speakers is far different than my idea of reference stuff.
 
I listened to the YouTube video of Ballpien Hammer. It had me tapping my fingers to the beat happily. Nice and simple. There are decades worth of smaller labels who majored in simple excellence at the cutting edge of the recording art. They can be found in Jazz, Classical (and other genres to lesser degrees). It is worth searching out the internet archives of these often exceptional smaller labels.
 
Not reading all 5 pages, but what about the notion of using music you are only "lukewarm" to?

My fear is that I am always listening more to the songs themselves, vs. how the speaker presents the song. Yes, I know it is about hearing the music and not the speaker, but if you like the song itself, you tend to ignore all but the worst of the actual presentation.

Well, JMHO.
 
Fred Norris the sound drop guy on the Howard Stern show mentioned that when this album was released it was so well engineered most HiFi stores used it to demonstrate their equipment. The topic came up as Howard was stating his disdain for the song No Static and the movie it was written for.
 
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