Anything by Allison Krause and Union Station. The first CD she did with "Two Highways" on it is supurb! The "Oh Brother" CD too! Those are some of my current bluegrass faves. Also anything by Tom Petty on the pop side. He makes the best records around IMO. BTW congratulations on getting a super set of speakers. I am sure you will love them. Dynaudio is great stuff ! Fats

Beatles - Sgt Peppers ...
Jim Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
not acoustic, but nonetheless well mixed

you should also listen to stuff that's not so great so you know how that sounds on your system too. There are many great albums that are on the dark side and many that are on the bright side and you should see how they sit in your speakers too. This will give you a range of how dark and bright you can go and still be in a good range.

Thanks guys. Great suggestions. I love this forum, and even though I am pretty much a novice at this point, I know that I can learn a great deal from the top notch folks on this site. Speaking of Allison Krause - Any ideas how she gets that great "airy" vocal sound on all her vocals? Aside from the fact that she is an excellent singer! I have watched Nickle Creek from their early days, and have watched them go from virtual unknowns to being world famous in a short time following the point where Allison Krause joined as their producer. Their vocals went from being pretty mediocre to having that Alison "airy" sheen to them. I know a lot goes into getting that sound, but if there are any suggestions for basic ways to achieve that sound I would love to know what they are. Thanks again.

Rob Chittum

Rob,

Ah-Ha!! I might suggest you consult the topic just below this one on this very forum! It's a listing of favorite reordings / performances by a good number of our membership.

From my listening, many recordings on Acoustic Disc label sound very real (try the 2 "Duets" discs where the artists list the specific guitars & mandolins used on each track & you can clearly hear the tonal differences and "
Bluegrass Mandolin Extraviganza") . Mark O'Conner's "Appalacian Waltz " on Sony Classical is another good one. Also you might try some of the Sam Bush studio (not live) releases. Bela Fleck's most recent acoustic disc's very nice. There's a DVD-Audio of that one out also (I think its called "Tales From The Acoustic Planet II").
Also check out "Everybody Slides", Vols 1 & 2 on Takoma (dobro).
And last but not least, although it's not strictly blugrass & might be out of print, it would be worth looking for Seatrain's first 2 albums on CD. I got them years ago. They feature Peter Rowan on vocals & fiddler extraordinare Richard Greene and are produced by George Martin (who you might have heard of from the Beatles). They came out in the early 1970's. Titles are "Seatrain" & "Marblehead Messenger".
Good Luck & happy listening!!
Don

Dave Matthews Band- Under the Table and Dreaming

Rob,

I am a big Krauss fan and asked about her vocals over at Massenburg's Forum. He is friends with Gary Paczosa (engineer for US, Nickel Creek and the the last acoustic Dixie Chicks album). I asked about her vocal and reverb chains over there and got some good answers. If the links don't work do a search over there for "Krauss"

Check these out:

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As far as more reference discs, James Taylors "Hourglass." Any of Sting's new stuff sounds incredible to my ears.

Hope this helps,
Mike

Thanks MChimes. Very helpful.