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Your Reference Vinyl.

R

Richo

pfm Member
Hi all, what LPs or better songs there on do you use to check that your system is up to scratch or for checking upgrades? I best start :). Sade's "Diamond Life", Micheal Jackson's "Thriller" and The Beatles "She's leaving home" from Sargent Peppers serve me well. Diamond life is a great recording, MJ is right behind it and I love The Beatles "She's leaving home" for grasping that singer in the room sensation, and the string arrangement I find revealing to the max, especially early in the song when deep notes first enter. So c'mon fellow fish, your turn!
 
Acoustic Alchemy - Natural Elements
KD Lang - Ingenue
Pink Floyd - The Wall
Paul Simon - You're the One
 
Miles Davis - So What (Kind of Blue)
Talk Talk - I Don't Believe in You (The Colour of Spring)
Bobby Womack - Fact of Life/He'll Be There When The Sun Goes Down (Facts of Life)
Chet Baker - Blue Room (The Touch of Your Lips)
Talking Heads - Pull up the Roots (Speaking in Tongues)
 
Songs:

Lou Reed - Walk on the Wild Side
The Cure - Love Cats
Van Morrison - Brown-eyed Girl
Alle Farben (feat. Graham Candy) - She Moves

Albums:

Agnes Obel - Aventine
Bebo & Cigala - Lágrimas Negras
Emi Fujita - Camomile
 
I vary it a fair bit, but usually these end up in the pile when I'm trying to work out when I've made things better or worse.

Jazz:

Dexter Gordon - One Flight Up, Blue Note (Cisco).
Mingus - Black Saint And The Sinner Lady, Impulse, (US original).
Sonny Rollins & Coleman Hawkins - Sonny Meets Hawk, RCA (Classic Records).
Art Pepper - The Legend, Contemporary (US original).

Classical:

Bach - Solo Violin, Suk, HMV.
Webern - Complete String Quartets, Imusici, Philips.
Berg - Wozzeck, Bohm, DGG (60s German 'tulip' 1st press).
Strauss - Elektra, Solti, Decca SET (wide-band deep-groove original).

Rock:

Can - Ege Bam Yasi, UA (UK 1st press).
T. Rex - Electric Warrior, Fly (UK 1st press).
Joni Mitchell - Hissing Of Summer Lawns (Hi-Fi Today Nimbus Supercut).
Steely Dan - Gaucho, MCA (UK 1st press) - my anti-skate setting LP!
Sade - Diamond Life, Epic (Holland pressing).
Firehose - Raging Full On, SST (US 1st press).
Boards Of Canada - Campfire Headphase, Warp (UK 1st press).
 
I don't really support the idea of 'reference vinyl' and using a select number of records as a reference can lead to some very skewed sounding systems.
 
Yello - Touch
Diana Krall - Girl In The Other Room
AC/DC - Black Ice
Love - Forever Changes
The Cult - Electric
 
My 'reference' albums were not chosen as such, rather just came about because I've grown/lived with those albums for so long any differences brought on by upgrades/changes are easy to spot.

These are a select few that will always be played shortly after any change:

Black Sabbath - Black Sabbath
Boards of Canada - Music has the Right to Children
Can - Future Days
Led Zeppelin - III
Lou Reed - Transformer
Martha and the Muffins - This is the Ice Age
 
I also play Landslide of the S/T Fleetwood Mac album, just because I love Stevie Nicks and her vocal on that one is sublime.
 
YNWOAN said:
I don't really support the idea of 'reference vinyl' and using a select number of records as a reference can lead to some very skewed sounding systems.
Click to expand...
+1. My 'reference' albums are whatever I happen to be enjoying at the time. A copy of "How To Give Yourself a Stereo Checkout" is used to make sure i got everything wired up correctly, but that's all.
 
Only one album, 'Gord's Gold II' by Gordon Lightfoot.
I know his music so well, and the opening track has all the elements
I require to listen for differences/changes.
 
There are records that make tuning a system easier.

boat to bolivia by martin stephenson

Diamond Life by Sade

Introducing the hardline according to terrence trent d'arby

sheffield steel by joe cocker

most of the grace jones back catalogue

solid air by john martyn

the list goes on.
 
+1 to Sheffield Steel and Solid Air

Also albums:

Nils Lofgren - Acoustic Live
Duran Duran - Rio
Free - Fire and Water
Pearl - Janis Joplin
Let It Bleed - Stones
Anything by Dire Straits
Look of Love - ABC

...and so on...
 
YNWOAN said:
I don't really support the idea of 'reference vinyl' and using a select number of records as a reference can lead to some very skewed sounding systems.
Click to expand...

Same here.

I tend to use whatever I am into at that particular time - stuff listened to often enough to know well.

If the upgrade is worthwhile it should show no matter what you listen to (within reason).
 
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