As some of you may recall I've been working my way through my LP collection after re-setting up my turntable about 18-24 months ago. It's a slow process to be sure and I may be pushing up daisies before I get through it all.

That being said, I have come across some real gems that are absolutely pristine and play like CD's in some cases.

I've often wondered which album I would take with me if I wanted to test drive a new stereo system.

For the longest time I figured it would be something like my Talking Heads Speaking in Tongues or maybe Thomas Dolby The Flat Earth or Peter Gabriel's So.

But tonight I think I hit the Holy Grail.

I pulled out an album I may have played maybe once, the first time I bought it back in 1982.

Brand X Is There Anything About?

Not only is it an absolutely pristine copy, but the production is outstanding. Phil's cymbal play is sublime and the sound stage is beautifully positioned. From crisp steely lead guitar to the more muted reverb lading rhythm guitar, the sound quality is impeccable.

I have UK's 1st on CD and Danger Money on LP. I'll check them out

And while I really love Aja, I just find the production a tad thin for my liking.

I also find a lot of the 70's stuff not such a good choice either. The studio production values really started hitting their peak in the early mid eighties leading into the CD revolution IMHO.

A lot of the 80's 'SYNTHPOP' music had fantastic production. It's too bad a lot of the music sucked.

Sound quality preferences are subjective, and what matters is the performance concerning the kind of music you mostly 

listen to. A system can also be experienced differently on different albums, so what I have been doing is to take with me 

several albums I knew well, and which I had found to have particularly good sound quality, and tested a system with all 

these albums.

It's many years ago, I did it the last time, but one of the albums I remember to use was Sade's Diamond Life (Epic, early 

LP reissue,  https://www.discogs.com/release/2222162" rel="nofollow - https://www.discogs.com/release/2222162 ).

I can't really think of other albums right now, but I may be back and mention others.

As timely as today's headlines...

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/these-are-the-songs-a-high-end-audio-company-uses-to-test-its-speakers?utm_source=pocket-newtab" rel="nofollow - https://getpocket.com/explore/item/these-are-the-songs-a-high-end-audio-company-uses-to-test-its-speakers?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Yea these are staple songs that you hear at audio shows, 90% is female vocals and small ensembles. These songs are very simple, very little dynamics meaning not a lot of punch and power. Your not going to hear Rush, AC/DC or Zeppelin. The songs picked usually have a ton of air, space and ambiance associated with them, they are meant to show off the systems resolution.

This is a popular song to hear, about as close Zep as ur gonna get...It sounded freaking AMAZING on these $500K systems, of course all hi-rez files like DSD256.

But if talking about CDs, I'd think, forget all about it! 

- But it's just me....and Catcher. 

And yet, it's not quite so, as I like quite a lot sound quality of this CD reissue

What's absolutely hilarious about spending nearly $300,000 for stereo equipment is that 90% or more of bands do not even have that amount of gear while they're playing live. 

I would not know for sure....Most bands used the house speakers so that is not an expense other than rent. I guess depends on the band and how many instruments they bring along. But capturing the audio and the gear to do that is expensive figuring all the mics, cables, and mixing boards plus the ADC gear to capture the recording....I think you might be surprised.

Sure there is a difference in what Rush did on stage vs say Haken. 

       Here some more releases good for reference, all LPs: