Mozart horn concertos (Dennis Brain as soloist)

Tchaikovsky's first piano concerto, and Rachmaninov's third. (Haven't found the perfect recording yet, but there are many of acceptable quality.)

Mahler's first symphony (probably with Karajan conducting)

Beethoven's first symphony

Any good organist playing Vidor's toccata, that thing by Vierne, JS Bach's toccata and fugue in D minor, and the passacaglia and fugue in C minor

Chopin preludes, waltzes and the 3rd ballade played by Ashkenazy

Vivaldi's "Dixit Dominus", ideally my bootleg recording of Mike Brewer with the National Youth Orchestra and Choir

Paganini's violin concerto

Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue

Bruch's violin concerto (with Yehudi Menuhin as soloist)

Clues for listening: if you want background music stick on anything by Mozart. If you want to listen to something, put on the headphones and turn up the volume. There isn't much of a halfway house here.

HTH,

Hugo

JonnyT listens to a lot more stuff like that, although it tends to be classical guitar and things like Jacques Loussier (Cousteau, as I call him) and Paco de Lucia's Concerto De Aranthuez (Lunch Concerto, or is that Almuerzo).

Re. listening clues, at the moment me and JonnyT are in development of a ludicrously high quality amplifier and DAC which we hope to take to market in the spring. It's ridiculously good (although not because of anything much we've done -- we're basically putting it in a box), and whilst you're right about headphones being excellent, with this amp and in fact probably any system over about a couple of grand I suppose, you can crank it up through the speakers and it's audio heaven. Not as pure as headphones in some ways but better in others... less restricted, more natural perhaps. I'd be interested to hear (ha) what you thought of it. And through decent speakers (never before have I had a genuine justification for spending stupid amounts on hi-fi).

We're doing prototype 2 at the moment, but have had a number of setbacks involving sparks and small explosions. Today, in fact, should be the official launch of prototype 2, DHL permitting.

AAMOI what sort of quality level is your hi-fi system? And what are your phones?

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I have no hifi at the moment, I may be in the market for some. My headphones are great big heavy brown things hacked by my brother about 25 years ago, no idea what make - very good at cutting out external noise, but with a tendency to hurt the top of my head after an hour or two.

Hugo

If you are serious about possibly being in the market for a nupgrade then I think a world of ecstasy could await you. The difference between your 25 year old sibling-hacked 'phones and a pair of modern Sennheisers like Jon's or my lesser ones (his were >200 quid I think, mine were a "mere" 120 or so) will be absolutely stunning. At which point you might well decide to go for a better amp as well. Jon and I have (re-)discovered that even the differences between two supposedly top-end systems can be blindingly obvious, and more to the point one is usually easily identifiable as "better". Which means you tend to be loath to go back to the less good one.

If you would like to hear this amp/DAC combination once we've fired prototype II up without the use of a fire extinguisher, you'd be more than welcome. It is like lying on a lilo on a gently undulating azure sea with your eyes closed, whilst being drizzled from above in warm honey.

Although I suppose that might be slightly subjective.

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California Dreaming - The Mamas and the Papas

Back in Black, For Those About to Rock, Whole Lotta Rosie, Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap - AC/DC

Meet on the Ledge, Red and Gold, Matty Groves - Fairport Convention

The Immigrant Song, In Through the Out Door - Led Zeppelin

Needle Gun, Magnu, Motorway City, Psi Powers, Spirit of the Age - Hawkwind

Run for Home, Lady Eleanor - Lindesfarne

Fantasy Shift, Been and Gone - Here and Now

Blowin' Free - Wishbone Ash

Highway Star, Strange Kind of Woman, When a Blind Man Cries, Fireball - Deep Purple

Bad Moon Rising - Credence Clearwater Revival

Galway Farmer, Cutthroats Crooks and Conmen - Show of Hands

Clear Air Turbulence, Scarabus - Ian Gillan Band

Cheyenne, Time for a Toke - Solstice

XII, Berlin - Barclay James Harvest

Ace of Spades, Bomber, St Valentine's Day Massacre - Motorhead

The Weapon, Xanadu, Cygnus X-1, 2112, Jacob's Ladder, Red Barchetta - Rush

Tush, Race with the Devil - Girlschool

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simon

I was going to say I have a healthy prejudice against heavy rock music but I've been pretty open minded over the years, so I reckon it's 'postjudice'.

I'm listening to Can at the moment -- bloody hell, their drummer's a bit good, innit.

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Not big on "rock"

Ah, ya big girl's blouse!
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simon

Jaki is a drumming GOD.

Get your ears around Porcupine Tree (its like Floyd got modern and lost their baggage at Heathrow) LCD Soundsystem (its like The Fall meets electro and has trendy children) and Do Make Say Think (its meandering, ambient, post-rock, psychadelic, jamming, jazzy, and yet none of those things in the form you might expect).

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DrGoon

Nice to hear from you again. Glad things are going ok. How's Signe?

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Kind of on the Jazzy side of stuff -

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, especially Little Worlds and Live at the Quick (here's his bass player Victor Wooten).

...which logically leads to 'jam band' extraordinaire The Dave Matthews Band, of which DMBLive Vol 1 is essential and features both Bela Fleck and Jeff Coffin of the Flecktones.

Garage rock rebirth band The White Stripes are of course fantastic, but should be known by everybody, suffering as they do from media over-exposure.

On the reggae front, theres the Hassidic reggae singer Matisyahu and yet more eclectic, there's The Dresden Dolls. If you don't know either, there's a surprise in store for you.

There's the commercially successful psych/space rock Mars Volta, the astonishing symphonic Glass Hammer and the more harmonic prog of Echolyn.

So there you go, modern American music that amuses me.

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DrGoon

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bombholio

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bombholio

Talking of which, I wonder whether if you played the brown note to a deaf person, would it still cause that person to evacuate their bowels?

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stevepa