CD sound quality assessed by Martin Wangel
The music CDs listed below are judged by sound quality only. I have looked for lists like this one myself since I became interested in HiFi; unfortunately I have found some recommended recordings to be somewhat lacking in quality when played on very high-end rigs so I have decided to rate a few myself to help the rest of you searchers out. These are of course just my own subjective opinions and I'm not going to tell you what to like.
Best sounding CDs
- Café del Mar - Aria
- Opera aria performed on electric instruments with vocals in various languages. Sound positioning is quite good on all tracks (if you have a system good enough to play it).
- Café del Mar - Aria 2
- The story continues.
- Chris Botti - Midnight Without You
- Slow jazz very nicely captured on CD.
- Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms
- The remastered edition has a quite good sound actually and got picked for this quality group because of things like the shot-like drums in "Ride Across The River".
- Dire Straits - On Every Street
- This is really really good. Don't wait, just go and listen to it.
- Fourplay - Heartfelt
- Almost every bit as well-sounding as their "Best Of", but this is HiFi after all and I almost put this recording in the "Good sounding" group. I expected a lot from these guys so maybe they tripped themselves up when they made the "Best Of" CD.
- Fourplay - The Best Of
- Somewhat funky jazz with very good sound quality all over.
- Leonard Cohen - More Best Of
- Well, there is a low point in #10 Suzanne, but just listen to #4 Tower Of Song and you'll understand why I let this CD into the top group.
- Vibe Tribe - Foreign Affairs
- This could be the best one of the lot. Amazing quality.
Good sounding CDs
- Alphaville - First Harvest 1984-92
- Pop music? Yes, while not exactly classifiable as super HiFi because of the synthetic sounds, this recording is excellent throughout.
- Ann-Sophie Mutter - Beethoven Violin Concerto & Romances, New York Philharmonic / Kurt Masur conductor
- Live recording and pretty good, although not very very good as I was led to believe by another recommendation list.
- Peter White - Caravan of Dreams
- Acoustic guitar with trumpets and electric base backing it up.
- Vaya Con Dios - The Best Of
- Oh, this is a good one and maybe it should really be in the top group. Some great sounding guitars here. Check out the 3D in the beginning of #5 Something's Got A Hold On Me
Uneven CDs
- AC/DC - The Razor's Edge (remastered)
- A couple of good quality tracks. The rest are not bad.
- Madonna - The Immaculate Collection
- #15 Vogue is of good quality, most of the rest are not worth the space they take up.
Disappointing CDs
- Dave Stewart and the Spiritual Cowboys
- The sound quality is so bad it is unbearable. It's a shame because the songs are so good. Of course, this list does not grade music, just sound.