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Patricia Barber. "Companion"
When your pals come over to hear your audio system, what do you pull out to impress them?
I rather have him bring his own to be compared.but then,I prefer to just listen to music,enjoy it,at the most say a few words about some preference or virtue of the PERFORMER or the music itself.and listen quietly . There's too much talk about music and less real love for it. music is not about impressing someone ,it's more how it relates to your brain ,emotions and mood. when listening to,say mozart, we(pals& I)may listen to Perahia,gould,brendel,tureck etc. and say very little. The most is great,the least is he(she) can play. If you can do better,go ahead and show me. just like sex,today,there's too much talking and too little doing. ultimately,you can only enjoy music if you relax and listen to it ,not to the distortions,noises mistakes and erors in the system or when its live. yes I'm one of those who's always looking for the (almost) perfect performance,system interpretation. it's futil. listen to good music and your life will be better. look for perfection,the right cap or resistance or cable and you will never stop running.(somebody should tell that to me)
LPs, usually 180gm reissues, like, DCC Compact Classics, Analogue Productions, Classic Records, among others. I often bring out indie rock releases from Drag City, Grand Royal, Matador, and others that are probably still recorded in analog. It depends on who's over whether I bring out rock, jazz, or classical from the collection. Another personal fave is Milton Nascimento's "Clube Da Esquina." I have shown off MA Recordings, Michel Godard's, "Sous les Voutes, le Serpent . . . " (that's a CD). I'm in the process of purchasing a Graham 1.5 tonearm and a Transfiguration cartridge, so I'll probably be sticking to vinyl when showing off the system.
Best of Cagnet World by Cagnet. Cagnet is a Japanese group that delves into different style of music, including New Age and jazz. I like it for its recording quality; some speakers I have auditioned cracked up after a while, others like Dynaudio held on...