Album of the Year

[jensgk]

How would we define one recording as objectively better than another? Dynamic range, full use of audio spectrum, no clipping, no ultra sonic garbage, some special new recording process?
My first suggestion was objectivly the most popular album. Finding the best recording seems very difficult.

Blind testing, D'oh!
Isn't that the answer on this site?

 

[pseudoid]

Blind testing, D'oh!
Isn't that the answer on this site?

There needs to be a collective jurisprudence[?] agreement on this Album of the Year awards:
'We' would have to agree to rely more (~80%?) on subjective selection and bar anyone from getting objective on us.
Else, we may end up with black-eyes and lawsuits in hand!

 

[wacomme]

How about this - each person chooses their album of the year and uploads it to a Google form. The album with the most submissions wins.

 

[Marc v E]

It does not have to be that complicated. I think we are all aware of the concepts of Dynamic Range, clipping, compression, etc.
The DR Database can help: https://dr.loudness-war.info/
Audacity or other similar software can also help if someone has them.
Discogs (https://www.discogs.com) can also help with the years of original release

But at the end of the day, the idea I suggested ultimately comes down to this:

• Recommend your favorite album(s) that YOU think the recording quality is great, or the performance is great, or (preferably) both.
• Year of album release must be between 1953 and 2023 ( to make it a nice round 70 years = 70 great albums).
• We go for the year of the original album release, even though the version we might own was released later. For example, if I want to recommend the debut album from Dire Straits, it must go in the list of albums for year = 1978, even though the version you might have and like and recommend is the 2019 SACD.

Slowly but surely, a list of recommended albums for each year is starting to form, where we can all vote for all the albums we like.
In the end, the album that gets the most votes (for each year) becomes Album of the Year, and before we know it we have something like 70 albums "to die for" as voted by the infallible and knowledgeable ASR community.

I have no idea how to do this technically, with vote buttons and the like.

If there is enough interest, we can ask a moderator for help.

Also, we can make a start with ONLY one year, e.g 1978, just to get the thread / process / voting buttons started, see how it all works, make whatever adjustments / corrections necessary, before launching the thread full blast.

Something like this:

Year	Artist	Album	Recommended Release	Votes (with buttons)
1978	Dire Straits	Dire Straits	2019 SACD	1
1978	xxxx	xxxx	xxxx	1

The thread can remain open for one year, until Nov 2023. One year is enough time for everyone to do their digging / research.

Your thoughts are welcome.

PS We often get caught up in the equipment side and forget to enjoy the music. This idea is about the music.

gsp

Great idea. How about adding a column for min/max/med dynamic range, clipping yes/no ?

 

[Beershaun]

I've posted a thread for "Your favorite releases of 2022" here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/2022-your-favorite-releases.38976/

Post your favorites for whatever reasons they are...

 

[Galliardist]

I've posted a thread for "Your favorite releases of 2022" here: https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/2022-your-favorite-releases.38976/

Post your favorites for whatever reasons they are...

I'm still catching up on 2022, but will get there.
Why not leave it at people's favourites as posted? There's no need for any awards or anything like that, we can just listen to a range of stuff from there.

The only award ASR should do annually is "smelliest snake oil"...

 

[Marc v E]

I just did a search on https://dr.loudness-war.info/ for 2022 albums with higher dynamic range than 11.

There were only a handful of new albums, at most 15 of a total of 25 pages times 25 results per page = 625 ! (I didn't count the re-releases, remasters of an earlier cd/record.)
Most with good dynamic range were jazz or classical compositions. A few noteworthy exceptions though.

If we choose to make a top list per genre with a scientific approach, this will be easy. I will post some good recordings per genre. Not all will be my taste per sé, but good recordings nonetheless.

 

[Beershaun]

I'm still catching up on 2022, but will get there.
Why not leave it at people's favourites as posted? There's no need for any awards or anything like that, we can just listen to a range of stuff from there.

The only award ASR should do annually is "smelliest snake oil"...

Exactly. Just a thread to share and discover our favorites.