The NPR WNYC greene space studio sounds amazing, especially for any piano music. They do a stereo image of the drums for live recordings. Real top notch shit.

This has been going on since the 70s. There’s a British comedy sketch about it. Someone has probably already linked it in the comments.

I buy a lot of SACDs and it’s mostly to buy audiophile releases. Buy the masters not the format. Pretty much everything by MFSL is good. Buy an album from them you love. For me their nevermind is VERY good and better than the original. The guitar tone is so good. Their pixies albums and Weezer album is very good.

I have six versions of miles davis sketches of Spain. One SACD version which is more or less a straight transfers from the master tapes is the absolute worst version of the album you can buy and another SACD is the best. I also have the version from the 90s that is almost as good.

Mostly thrift store CDs and audiophile releases on SACD.

Others have had great responses. Just to add, I’m into digital media and I don’t like objectively high fidelity sound. I like tube amps and nearly hundred year old speaker making technology.

“Hifi” can either mean high fidelity to the original recording OR in the tradition of 20th century stereo equipment. I have a tube amp and vintage Klipsch heritage speakers. It’s in the style of old fashioned American “Hifi” systems but it’s not actually particularly faithful to the original recording. I will call my system a Hifi as a noun. Often when people use Hifi as an adjective it might mean an objectively accurate flat sound. But it also might mean some sort of audiophile sweetness that is not strictly an accurate reproduction of the audio signal.

People may argue which is the correct way to use the term. I can’t really weigh in. I’m just saying I’ve heard or read it all these ways. If you use the term you have to understand it’s a bit ambiguous.

That’s a great one. I love listening to 10,000 maniacs unplugged in cars or even just on my cellphone.

Phil spector’s wall of sound was engineered to sound loud on AM radio and jukeboxes.

Not what you asked for but traditional Jazz LPs are really about “sides” of a record. Listening on CD or streaming just isn’t the same if you don’t have to physically flip the record. This is nothing about the audio quality and more about how the work was organized and packaged. To me Art always comes before audio quality. Audio quality should be to make the art more emotionally impactful. I don’t want to feel like I’m in the room with the musicians. I want to feel moved by the music and not even think about the performance. What I’m trying to say is for a lot of albums from the era of LPs as the dominant format should be listened to on an album so you can flip the album. Part of what’s cool about the resurgence of vinyl in the age of streaming is now most of the money is made in. Into NOT streaming. Streaming helps build fans and put asses in seats. The vinyl release pays to produce the album so my artists friends build the album around the vinyl release. We are in this silver age of classic LPs.