Vinyl Asylum

Welcome Licorice Pizza (LP) lovers! Setup guides and Vinyl FAQ.

Return to Vinyl Asylum

Message Sort: Post Order or Asylum Reverse Threaded

Which LP are you using for demoing your turntable?

199.10.28.20
Posted on March 16, 2017 at 14:54:16
magiccarpetride
Audiophile

Posts: 1523
Joined: March 31, 2010
 Every now and then a friend drops by for a chat, and some of them get mighty interested in listening to my new turntable. I keep waffling between a few nice sounding LPs whenever I have to decide which one to put on to impress my friends.

Which LP in your collection is your 'go to' record when you wish to blow the socks off some unsuspecting listeners?

 

Hide full thread outline!
    ...
Depends on what they like in music..Mozart for a Heavy metal freak doesn't work out, posted on March 16, 2017 at 16:04:10
3+4=5
 Usually the best album that is THEIR favorite one. Whatever it is.
It will sound new and astonishing to them.

 

Star Wars and others, posted on March 16, 2017 at 18:04:22
Batman
Audiophile

Posts: 4194
Location: Western Pennsylvania
Joined: March 31, 2000
Contributor
  Since: June 16, 2000
 1. Star Wars sound track - Recognizable by everyone
2. Santana, The Very Best of -Also easily recognizable
3. Tony Bennett Live at Carnegie Hall - Great Vocal Recording


 

RE: Which LP are you using for demoing your turntable?, posted on March 16, 2017 at 18:49:44
Lew
Audiophile

Posts: 10911
Location: Bethesda, Maryland
Joined: December 11, 2000
 I play what the other person wants to hear, whether it's a sonic blockbuster or not. I'm not selling equipment here.

 

RE: sometimes they have to endure....., posted on March 16, 2017 at 18:55:39
user510
 ...whatever it is I have available.

One classical record which does show off system dynamics and slam would be Classic Records remaster of the Merc living Presence, Stravinsky's "The Firebird" / Dorati, LSO. cat# sr90226. This one has explosive dynamics, as well as some profound kettle drums in Scene two. Caution; it might wake the neighbors depending on your environment. I've used that. Wham! Feel those low frequency sound waves expand the walls.

I've had requests for Led Zeppelin. Classic records remasters for that, again.

Otherwise I am a classical music fan and tend to reach for that unless there are other requests. And I happily oblige requests when I can meet them. But...I'm rather dated. I keep some Elvis available (from the 1950's, not the later 70's stuff)

Jazz. the more mainstream stuff. Like Bop. I've yet to have a request for Buddy Rich, but I have a handful of those Lps. Also some Don Ellis. Nobody asks for that.

-Steve

 

Something about Tony's voice..., posted on March 16, 2017 at 23:55:52
mr.bear
Audiophile

Posts: 4167
Joined: November 13, 2001
 ... seems just right for the sweetest range in vinyl playback. I like to play the "Tony Bennett/Bill Evans" album. If someone is interested, we can compare it to lossless file playback. In a similar vein "John Coltrane and Johnny Hartman." If someone doesn't "get it" from those rekkids, they ain't gonna get it.

For my rocker friends I often pick Santana- probably "Zebop." Very lively sound from the CBS half-speed mastered LP- just jumps right into the soundstage with force. An excellent demo.

 

Road to Escondido, posted on March 17, 2017 at 01:59:42
MikeWI
Audiophile

Posts: 632
Joined: March 22, 2002
 J.J. Cale and Eric Clapton

Most people can appreciate the music and it has a wide range of musical/sound features between the different cuts.

Other than that, it's like everyone else, I play something the person is familiar with listening to on their own. My Rap selection is very thin but the other major genres have a reasonable variety of good sounding LPs.

Mike

 

RE: Road to Escondido, posted on March 17, 2017 at 04:35:56
collinslaw@fuse.net
Audiophile

Posts: 524
Location: Northern Kentucky
Joined: August 5, 2011
 The Crystal Clear DTD Charlie Byrd album. (45 rpm, White vinyl) This is usually as they are getting ready to leave so they can really hear what a difference the best software makes.
Tom Collins

 

I don't demo my system., posted on March 17, 2017 at 05:35:21
briggs
Audiophile

Posts: 1674
Location: Connecticut
Joined: April 16, 2002
 We use it for the enjoyment of music.

 

Shostakovich # 11, posted on March 17, 2017 at 06:39:39
csofan
Audiophile

Posts: 227
Location: IL
Joined: August 5, 2003
 I too am a classical fan and for that I pull out The Shostakovich #11 conducted by Berglund & the Bournmouth Symphony. The massacre section in the second movement is a knockout.
For jazz I like the Music Matters' Moanin' by Art Blakey and M & K Real Time For Duke.

 

RE: Road to Escondido, posted on March 17, 2017 at 08:48:31
Dingojazz
Audiophile

Posts: 1045
Location: Sonoran Desert
Joined: January 3, 2005
 A good one...esp. "Hard toThrill" and "Danger"..

K

 

RE: Which LP are you using for demoing your turntable?, posted on March 17, 2017 at 09:22:38
Cuernavaca
Audiophile

Posts: 878
Location: NW
Joined: December 23, 2011
 For classical I play some Decca SXL Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet, for others I play some Beefheart-Trout Mask Replica, Zappa-Weasles Ripped my Flesh or one of the Emarcy Clifford Brown LP's.

Thomas
"I've never owned a firearm, but I do have an attack parrot!"

 

Beefheart!!!!!!!!!!!!!! n/t, posted on March 17, 2017 at 10:40:31
fishy
Audiophile

Posts: 1031
Joined: April 15, 2002
 n/t

 

RE: so which would it be..., posted on March 17, 2017 at 10:50:47
user510
 ..should, at some point in the future, you decide to downsize. Would you keep the SP10 mkIII, or the DP80, or the L-07? Assuming that two of the three absolutely had to go.

Hypothetical, of course.

-Steve

 

Well harrrrrummmphhhh......, posted on March 17, 2017 at 12:07:11
Ozzy
Audiophile

Posts: 7588
Joined: September 21, 1999
 ....the lowly peasants are all aquiver....

Oz



Don't worry about avoiding temptation. As you grow older, it will avoid you.
- Winston Churchill

 

I'm real careful about what I pull out, posted on March 17, 2017 at 14:10:29
Amphissa
Audiophile

Posts: 2717
Location: Zardoz
Joined: March 9, 2004
I would never just pull out Stravinsky or Shostakovich and crank up the volume. I have never in my life had anyone ask to hear anything by a modernist -- ever. I've got it, but would never inflict it on the unwary.

But then again, I never "demo" my system. It's for playing music. That's all.


"Life without music is a mistake" (Nietzsche)

 

Hank Mobley: " Remember" Side A Track 1, posted on March 17, 2017 at 15:05:52
kuma
Audiophile

Posts: 10272
Location: IN
Joined: July 8, 2001
 in Music Matter 33 vinyl.

This is what I would put on if someone wanted to have a sound come out of my system. I love the sound quality and this tune.



 

RE: Shostakovich # 11, posted on March 17, 2017 at 16:13:22
user510
 Thanks for the recommendation.
I have Berglund / Bournemouth - Sibelius on EMT and they're very good imho.
I'll look for Burglund/Shosty #11. I'm sure it's great.

My other Shostovich Lps are Mravinsky on the Melodiya label for a few of those symphonies, but not #11.

-Steve

 

Not why you might have thought, posted on March 17, 2017 at 16:15:06
briggs
Audiophile

Posts: 1674
Location: Connecticut
Joined: April 16, 2002
 I admit to a mild troll.

The design point of my system is chamber music. Its strengths are dynamics and microdynamics, instrumental timbre, transient response, acoustics of the recording venue and other subtle parameters that are present only on recordings of serious music by small groups or individuals, using minimalist miking and mixing techniques.

This is not what most people expect in a "hi fi" demo. No thundering bass or shimmering highs -- just the music, accurately and unobtrusively presented.

I just play the music and let them conclude that there is nothing special about my system -- it does not command their attention -- but that the music is beautiful. To me, that is what it is all about.




 

RE: Which LP are you using for demoing your turntable?, posted on March 17, 2017 at 16:48:33
WntrMute2
Audiophile

Posts: 782
Location: Detroit
Joined: September 16, 2002
 Usually folks that haven't heard my system are also not familiar with Jazz in general. I like to put on something most have heard but couldn't necessarily identify. My favorites is Take Five. Everyone know the famous song but few have heard it played through a decent set-up. It only takes a few bars from one of my three or four pressings to have people really pay attention. Another is Dexter Gordon's Tanya on One Flight Up.

 

Side #4 of Second Winter (nt), posted on March 17, 2017 at 17:35:53
1973shovel
Audiophile

Posts: 10117
Location: Greenville SC
Joined: February 25, 2007

 

I always play one cut for visitors..., posted on March 17, 2017 at 18:58:08
fishy
Audiophile

Posts: 1031
Joined: April 15, 2002






..."Baron Saturday", from The Pretty Things' "S.F. Sorrow" lp.
It is a beautifully recorded performance, and I love the song. Original UK Columbia pressing in stereo. Photos are from the web...

Dan

 

You left out, posted on March 17, 2017 at 19:26:38
Lew
Audiophile

Posts: 10911
Location: Bethesda, Maryland
Joined: December 11, 2000
 the Lenco (now controlled by the Eagle and Roadrunner) and the Victor TT101, both of which are in the "basement" system. For me "down-sizing" would be to eliminate one of the two entire systems, both of which are physically huge, because the speakers are so large. That will happen when I retire, if and only if we want to move to a smaller house or an apartment. I think about this question frequently, and I honestly don't know which of the two systems I would give up, if I had to make that decision.

 

had to look, posted on March 17, 2017 at 19:42:14
valvesonly
Audiophile

Posts: 755
Location: Ontario
Joined: May 27, 2005
 at the system. I can't comment on the speakers etc but I am partial to the front end. On some albums my XA-91ED-SAS blows my other setups away.Joe Cocker on Sheffield Steel is a good example.

If the music is real nothing else matters.
.
must..NOT..resist..."upgraditis"

 

The sound of one hand clapping. nt, posted on March 17, 2017 at 20:20:17
viridian
 Nt

 

"In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning", posted on March 18, 2017 at 05:52:33
Dave Pogue
Audiophile

Posts: 11689
Location: DC Area
Joined: October 9, 2001
 Ben Webster, Oscar Peterson

Others:

"Sunny," Frank Sinatra with Edward Kennedy Ellington orchestra
"For an Unfinished Woman," Gerry Mulligan, Walk on the Water LP
"23 Red," Woody Herman, Woody's Winners LP

 

RE: Which LP are you using for demoing your turntable?, posted on March 18, 2017 at 06:34:39
samstone
Audiophile

Posts: 924
Location: midwest inner city
Joined: August 11, 2002
 Emerson Lake and Palmer S/T. A great system test record! Also Alan Parsons The Turn Of A Friendly Card is a good one. So are many others of different genres btw.

 

RE: Which LP are you using for demoing your turntable?, posted on March 18, 2017 at 07:30:58
TubeDriver
Audiophile

Posts: 794
Location: East Coast
Joined: February 16, 2007
 I'll ask them what they like and I probably have it. In general, for jazz, Sonny Rollins Sax Colossus sounds pretty spectacular. If they like rock, I will often use something by Nick Drake, Traveling Wilburys, Chicago, Fleetwood Mac or Steve Earl.

 

RE: Which LP are you using for demoing your turntable?, posted on March 18, 2017 at 09:57:16
jk
Audiophile

Posts: 366
Joined: October 4, 1999
 Reminds me of back in 1980/81. I'd always pull out Tim Weisberg "Nautilus " one of the first digital albums. Back then the dynamic range blew us away. But that was a long time before equipment and education came.

Now I play Nirvana unplugged for those who "prefer" cds. Jazz at the pawnshops vibraphone for jazz lovers, maybe a good stairway to heaven reissue for rockers. Better yet the 45rpm crosby stills nash, hard to beat that.

 

RE: Which LP are you using for demoing your turntable?, posted on March 18, 2017 at 10:32:43
magiccarpetride
Audiophile

Posts: 1523
Joined: March 31, 2010
 "Emerson Lake and Palmer S/T"

Which ELP record would that be? Their first?

 

RE: Not why you might have thought, posted on March 18, 2017 at 10:39:42
magiccarpetride
Audiophile

Posts: 1523
Joined: March 31, 2010
 "This is not what most people expect in a "hi fi" demo. No thundering bass or shimmering highs -- just the music, accurately and unobtrusively presented."

Last time I attended a live classical music performance (it was at Carnegie Hall), I heard a lot of thundering bass and shimmering highs. I'm not sure where is this myth that real music sounds somehow more tame than what we enjoy on a good hi fi system coming from? Live music is very muscular, dynamic, it's never 'prim and proper and buttoned up' the way some of the more 'esoteric' audiophile circles are trying to package it in their overpriced 'audiophile' releases.

I think there is a good reason why no one so far mentioned any Chesky Records releases in this thread -- they snobbishly underrepresent recorded music as something wimpy, timid, quiet, so that they could draw listeners' attention to some imaginary, barely noticeable micro-dynamics. That's bollocks.

 

RE: Not why you might have thought, posted on March 18, 2017 at 15:22:45
vinyl survivor
Audiophile

Posts: 1471
Location: Southeastern US
Joined: November 28, 2007
 Admittedly, I have not heard any of their lps. Have you heard any of Chesky's digital offerings? I had the opportunity to hear some their recordings played back (Hi-Rez of course) on their playback system. It was some of the most realistic sound reproduction I have heard analog or digital.

 

Simply ask what they would like to enjoy listening , posted on March 20, 2017 at 18:10:05
Mossback
Audiophile

Posts: 1871
Location: Washington, the State
Joined: November 17, 2001
 Ask what they like?

 

Chris Issak's cut of "Wicked Games" nt, posted on March 21, 2017 at 17:58:18
Jive Turkey
Audiophile

Posts: 2409
Location: far left, geographically speaking
Joined: May 5, 2010
 nt

See ya. Dave

 

What's a good Steve Earle on vinyl?, posted on March 22, 2017 at 17:32:20
MarkPR2
Audiophile

Posts: 280
Location: Central Florida
Joined: October 13, 2002
 Been wanting to get. I have Feel Alright on CD. Great.

 

Page processed in 0.060 seconds.

[ Top Top of Page ] [ Contact Us ] [ Support/Wish List ] [ Copyright © 2024, Audio Asylum, all rights reserved ]
[ General ] [ Speakers ] [ Tubes ] [ Vinyl ] [ Digital ] [ Hi-Rez ] [ Video Asylum ] [ Cables ] [ Tweaks/DIY ] [ Music ] [ Films ]