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Eagles, "Hell Freezes Over"; James Taylor, "Hour Glass"; Burmester reference disc; Dixie Chicks, "Wide Open Spaces"; Beatles, "Yellow Submarine"; and Celine Dion, "Let's Talk About Love."
When your pals come over to hear your audio system, what do you pull out to impress them?
Youssou Ndour's "Eyes Open" and Baaba Maal's "Lam Toro". Talk about percussion,bass, and miscellaneous instruments that exploit the audio bandwidth. These CDs will rock "bassheads". For those who enjoy the classics, Mahler's 3rd by Salonen or Mahler's 6th by Boulez will expose brawn and delicacy(the titilating stuff).
Nick Lowe's "The Impossible Bird." First and most important, I love this album. It ranges from simple vocals and guitar to nice rock mixes, and really sounds great on my system. Living in an apartment and using a relatively low-powered tube system means I really cannot put on sonic blockbusters, so I am reveling in the purity of vocals I now hear.
If you want to spook out a jaded audiophile, pull out Paul McCartney's "Flaming Pie" CD and play "Little Willow." The sweet sound of acoustic picking followed by a haunting, closely miked vocal by Paul is simply unnerving. It truly feels like the ex-Beatle is performing just for you in your listening room. A very effective demo that is not only sonically impressive, but of great artistic merit as well. (The entire album is strong from top to bottom. One of Paul's bluesier efforts in the 1990s.) It sure beats zooming jet planes!!!