Suggestions for albums with good sound quality

When trying trying out a new sound system (or want to impress a friend with yours) and you want to pick a Prog album with exceptional sonic quality - which would you choose?

I'd assume something of a recent date (+/-15 years ago) and then the criteria would be

Level of immediate Impact (sonic wow effect), range of bass, clarity of sound.

Your choices? (Albums/tracks....)

Some good ones:

Secrets of the Beehive ~ David Sylvian... not stunningly Prog by any stretch of the imagination but beautifully recorded, especially the piano.

Supertramp's Crime of the Century sounds fantastic! You can here the space around every instrument.

I must recommend Tears For Fears' Seeds of Love. This album is a pure work of genius. From a more prog oriented choice I would recommend Anglagard for it's dynamic recording and Big Big Train for it's complex layers of sounds. Amazing !!

Two albums spring to mind:

Porcupine Tree - In Absentia
Lucio Battisti - Anima Latina

Especially if you're breaking in a new stereo, then I think it's important to have records that both test modern cutting edge productional values (In Absentia) as well as the old school sound and warmth (Anima Latina). The latter is the album I personally consider to be the best produced record ever.

Btw I took the liberty of moving this thread to prog recommendations.

Edited by Guldbamsen - August 29 2014 at 06:23

I'd like to recommend some ECM stuff because ECM albums were / are always masterfully recorded, for example Cloud About Mercury by Torn, Isham, Bruford & Levin.
There are also great ECM albums by Terje Rypdal, Ralph Towner, Pat Metheny and so on.



Edited by Svetonio - August 29 2014 at 07:39

Svetonio wrote: I'd like to recommend some ECM stuff because ECM albums were / are always masterfully recorded, for example Cloud About Mercury by Torn, Isham, Bruford & Levin. There are also great ECM albums by Terje Rypdal, Ralph Towner, Pat Metheny and so on.

Wow, I would not have expected so much diversion in all these suggestions.

Also interesting that many of you are still recommending older recordings. In my experience they can sound beautiful, some remasters with added clarity on top, but would not necessarily be able to fill out the dynamic range (especially the bottom end) of a modern HiFi system.
This is why I tried to limit the suggestions to newer recordings.

When I flip through my CDs it was Proto-Kaw's album "The Wait of Glory" of which I would play the track "Physic". It strikes me with a full bodied sound, and punchy drums.
More things along these lines is what I am looking for.

From what I am gathering here though, it seems mostly not to be the actual recording, not the mix, not even the music itself, but rather the individual ways we trained our ears to listen over all the years.

King Crimson - Earthbound