Establishing a common analog listening bias


Maybe it is possible to establish a widely accepted common ground in terms of listening bias by choosing and agreeing on 10-30 LPs all readily available new to all audiophiles for decent price.
If all listening tests and personal comments regarding the sound of components and systems in the various threads and posts would refer to any of these LPs mainly, everyones comments and experiences would much easier be understood by their fellow Audiogoners.

How about an "Audiogon baker's double-dozen"?

This would create a solid ground for all of us.

How do you think about this ?
dertonarm
Hi Axel, Without getting into a forensic analyst of why these modern day engineers have to do this,knowingly or unknowingly simply put this other wise very good Lp stands out a slight electronic hue that's attached to all of the vocals.
It's not overly distracting for me however too bad it's there, Alisons voice is so sweet.

If you can compare the Live Lp to this studio mix,it does present vocals far more natural, for a modern day recording that is.
Thanks Stiltskin,
>>> Alison’s voice is so sweet...<<< :-) too true! Some latter day Dolly Pardon?
But I think her is a bit 'thin' also, and what I can hear on some tracks they done a dubbed voice-over i.e. she sings it twice to make it sound less a bit fuller.
I was expecting you might have noticed some of that :-)
Axel, Noticing this electronic hue on the vocals on So Long So Wrong was a slight disappointment and a minor nit pick. I didn't listen deeper to what else could be wrong on the recording,sat back and just enjoyed the music.

With Alison Krauss and Union Station their music is new to me and the handful of times I've played the two Lp sets,
I feel their live Lp is the better of the two, recording wise.
She's so sweet.
Hi Axel,
Whilst the full set of The Royal Ballet is good, for some reason side 1 of record 1 is better than the others and as you so rightly claim, it is perhaps the most realistic, sublime and convincing recording of the full symphonic orchestra able to be reproduced in one's listening room?

Dear Daniel, all my suggestions are readily available for under $50 (allowing for double LPs). I specifically do not go for the 200gm 45RPM re-issues.

I've never been convinced by the much admired Harry Belafonte at Carnegie Hall and his Return album, nor the Weavers Reunion at Carnegie Hall (all of which I have).
Whilst not being my taste in musical genre, I find the voices and instruments (though undemanding), to be well recorded. However for me, the true worth of a 'live' recording is hearing a realistic recreation of the 'space' and the audience.
On these albums I hear little of the actual 'space' of Carnegie Hall and the audience is simply an ill defined sometimes distorted screech of nebulous applause.
Compare these to the Simon and Garfunkel Concert in Central Park where you can 'hear' into the night........where the location of a surrounding audience is palpable and individual members of that audience are able to be located.
For that matter, listen to the 'space' and the audience of the Greek Theatre on Neil Diamond's Hot August Night?
Far more difficult instruments to combine and record well than those at the Carnegie Hall concerts.
Even Eric Clapton Unplugged manages a realistic capturing of space and audience.
Hi Halcro, side one on the Royal Ballet set is dead on perfect phase - the other 3 sides are not. A common problem with many major classical recordings in the period from 1958 to 1963 - the first movement of Reiner's Scheherazade (well - not Reiner's but Rimsky-Korsakoff's....) and the "Heldenleben" by Thomas beecham are other good examples.

Agree on most everything you wrote, but the Weavers as well as Belafonte's first Carnegie album do indeed live up to their reputation with correct applied groove-compliant VTA. Then the space opens up and the audience becomes an audience and is no longer a waterfall.

But this is not about sonic differences in pressings and VTAs - sorry for the discourse.

Keep up the good work - I think we are doing fine.
Have a great weekend,
D.