Images and Soundstage

[Grainger49]

Please post your impressions of artists/albums/songs that have distinct images and soundstage.  I will go first...

I'm cleaning and listening to some LPs today.  The first thing I noticed was that Paul (poster, not Simon) was right, my turntable is slow.  I measured it as best I could with an incandescent light and strobe disk and it was ~1.5% slow.  With my VPI PLC I tweaked it the best my eyes could see to "right."  It sounds better.

Then just a minute ago I was playing a DCC Paul Simon There Goes Rhymin' Simon.  I used to play it on my Servo-Statik I system in the 70s.  I played it a lot!  The album has good, not great, soundstage but all the images are rock solid.

Paul's (Simon, not poster) opening acoustic guitar on St. Judy's Comet is to the right of and behind the right speaker.  It stays there all throughout the song.  It never wavers, it is always outside the speaker and about 1.5 feet back.

As many times as I have heard this song, and it is many, many times, I have never heard that.  I'm very impressed.  I am open to the possibility that this could be because DCC/Steve Hoffman mastered it differently. 

I have had the LP for a while but until my new cartridge I couldn't get past the sibilance. 

[breakfastchef]

I find that the speaker you are using can also directly affect the sound. Yes, that is a rather basic point, but one that is important as the TT, amp, and pre-amp are only part of the chain that leads to your ear. What speakers and other equipment are you using? As an example, I built a pair of Pi Two Tower speakers. These speakers are very directional. If I am not sitting in the 'sweet spot' they do not reproduce the soundstage I have come to enjoy.

[Grainger49]

My philosophy has always been that the transducers on each end of the system, speakers and cartridges, have a greater effect on the sound than any other component.  I mean after all they convert mechanical energy to electrical and electrical to mechanical.  The rest of the components are just electrical.  (Ok, reading a CD isn't just electrical.)

My system is in my signature.  It has gone through many changes since the early 60s.  The greatest soundstage and imaging were with the Servo-Statik I, Fuselier 3.8D and the Triangle speakers.

So, what artists/albums/songs that have distinct images and soundstage in your system?

[ironbut]

When I want to evaluate the more "visual" aspects of my system, I alway reach for a live recording. Not that I have anything against tubes and caps that "add" depth and/or width to the perceived soundstage but listening to an actual stage/room is my personal preference.
That said, some of the old warhorses like "Waltz for Debby" or "Jazz at the Pawnshop" are still the lp's that I use. But when it comes to digital I think the choices are less known.

If you have 24/96 playback capabilities from downloaded files, the best I've found is " 4 Generations of Miles" available from HD Tracks. The first cut "There is No Greater Love" is remarkably realistic in it's depth and player/instrument location. At the end of the first sax solo, you can easily hear it as George Colman turns away from the audience and moves from center stage. The drum kit is totally "locked in" as are the sounds of the audience. Some really great music too. I can't say that I've done much listening to it on lesser formats (16/44), but the flac file I have of this recording is excellent!

https://www.hdtracks.com/index.php

[Grainger49]

Steve,

Good suggestion.  I have a number of favorite live recordings, many have excellent acoustic spaces recorded.  Sadly, I have some live recordings that are poorly recorded, but I like the music too much to give them up.  I guess both live and studio recordings are hit and miss.  I think that many of the Rounder studio recordings have impressive soundstage, but not that wide a soundstage.  One of my favorite live recordings is the 1958 MJQ Live At Music Inn Vol. 2 (with Sonny Rollins).  It is very early stereo live recording and most of the cuts are great, a few odd.  One has that piano that goes from the left to the right speaker with the other instruments on top of it.  Odd!

Good live recordings can't be beat.  I'm still stuck with 16/44 and SACD, the few I have bought.