Pick your Best Hard Rock CD - for sound quality only (1 Viewer)

[Martin Rendall]

I'm looking for a "reference" CD to flex my audio system. I want it in the hard rock/metal genre, as a basis for comparison with other CDs.

So what I want is a CD which shows me what the CD format is truly capable of. After various hardware upgrades, I've played CD after CD, and come to realise how poorly, quality-wise, they actually are, and how much variation is noticeable between them.

My system is decidedly mid-fi, so this could also help me identify any HW problems I may have.

So suggest away!

Thanks,

Martin.

 

[Evan S]

Martin, big metal fan here. Got about 40 different titles. If you want three disks that are really well recorded, check these three out. I think these stand out better than any others in my collection.

Dream Theater - Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence

Rock Star - Soundtrack

Tantric - Tantric

Yeah, not your most mainstream collection, but that's not what you asked for. For pure recording bliss, the Dream Theater is the best of the three, but the Rock Star soundtrack I must say is a very guilty pleasure that sounds great and Tantric is a obscure band (basically Days of the New with a new lead singer) and that's a really well recorded disk as well.

Good luck.

 

[Jagan Seshadri]

Well, Led Zeppelin I (the remastered version) is a pretty good test CD. Yes, it was recorded over 30 years ago and it isn't "state of the art" but it has better dynamics than most recent CDs.
The cover tells it all:

And for goodness' sake, play it LOUD
-JNS

 

[ScottH]

Spock's Beard - 'V' - Not their best CD overall, but as far as sound quality/production it's incredible, and to think it was basically mixed in Neal Morse's house.

 

[KevinJ]

try the new iron maiden rock in rio cd

 

[Ryan L B]

zeppelin 4 with an exception of minor distortion durring stairway, system of a down will test the speakers and really annoy your parents and or neibors, ( it did for mine)

 

[StevenW]

Aenima from Tool is my favorite

 

[Bobby T]

Dream Theater Images and Words

Queensryche Empire

 

[Scott Pagac]

Either "Obsolete" or "Digimortal" by Fear Factory would be my picks. Not only do they have some excelent drumming, they include many low frequency samples along with some high frequency samples as well. I live in an apartment and they always have me diving for the remote to turn it down before the cops knock on my door.

 

[John Geelan]

The one cd that always blows me away with its sound quality is Motley Crue's Dr. Feelgood album.
The opening track just explodes out of your speakers, it is a true Hard Rock gem. Argueably one of the last great Hard Rock albums from the 80's Hard Rock band era.
JohnG

 

[Wayne Bundrick]

The problem with so many newer CDs is the dynamic range has been compressed to hell. I estimate that any CD newer than Queensryche "Empire" is prone to have this problem.

 

[Robert Cranwell]

My favorite are: Zepplin,Pink floyd,Billy Squire,Motley Crue

AC/DC, and Creed.

Rob

 

[DEAN DE FURIA]

"Back In Black" - AC/DC

 

[Kelley_B]

You want loud...how about a band that did this:

When we sent the new GUITAR WOLF record to the mastering lab for inclusion in our recent in-store play sampler, the mastering engineer called back, mystified by the volume level on the CD-R. The levels exceeded the theoretical maximum possible on compact disk audio. In other words, JET GENERATION is the loudest CD in history.

The band is Guitar Wolf and Jet Generation is the album and it truely kicks way too much ass. Guitar Wolf is a japanese garage/trash rock band. I normally listen to CDs in my car at level 20 when I want to hear them loud, but with Jet Generation I have to leave it around 12 or else it starts to get to the point where my speakers can't handle it anymore. BTW rest of that article is here:
http://www.matadorrecords.com/guitar...biography.html

 

[Martin Rendall]

Great suggestions so far. Remember, I specifically want CD's with no noticeable distortion (except where there's supposed to be distortion). Wide dynamics is great. Compression is bad. Keep'em coming!
For example, the new Marilyn Manson "Holywood" is crap, from a pure quality of recording perspective. Slayer's "God Hates Us All" is riddled with crackling and other distortions. :frowning: In both cases, the music itself is great. But by no means would I call them "reference."
Martin.

 

[HankM]

Metallica (the black album) CD

 

[John Geelan]

Metallica (the black album) CD

BTW, the DVDA of The Black Album blows away the cd version by a good measure. If you haven't bought into DVDA, this is a good place to start.
The DVDA makes the band sound like their in the room especially the drums.
JohnG

 

[Brion Lydon]

Joe Satriani-Engines of Creation

Brion

 

[Mick Wright]

Kyuss - Blues For the Red Sun (recommended to me by an audiophile, if you've never heard it you're in for a treat)
also, Soundgarden - Superunknown and just about anything produced by Bob Rock.

 

[Dean DeMass]

Give Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile a listen. IMHO, this is one of the finest sounding CDs to date.

-Dean-