Your Top 5 Demo / Test Tracks

[watchnerd]

You have to evaluate a set of speakers in an unfamiliar environment (dealer, RMAF, whatever) for consideration of purchase.

But you can only use 5 tracks.

What 5 tracks do you pick?

 

[Thomas savage]

In no particular order..

1. Dr John ' creole moon' track 1 you swore
2. Infected mushroom 'army of mushrooms ' track 1 never mind track 4. U r so fucked ( just to make their bums twitch)
3. Ane brun ' it all starts with one' track 10 undertow
4. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis ' the unruly mess I've made' track 2. Downtown
5. Jonny cash cover of soundgardens rusty cage.

And il be turning it up looking at peaks of 100db or more..

After that you will know if any of their system is any good, has been setup properly and if the speakers meet my requirements.

 

[fas42]

A couple of items I used most recently were

to check out small active monitors - I managed to cripple a quite pricey Mackie monitor in the demo room, the overload circuitry gave up the ghost . This track was excellent for picking control of the mid/bass unit, and surprisingly expensive units went into meltdown when the heat was on ...

, and almost any track from this album,

to assess ability to handle, and reproduce driving sound at any volume, on a couple of occasions.

Another track from that album, I'm on a roll now ...

 

[watchnerd]

1. Dvorak, Symphony No. 9, "New World", movement 4, Kubelik, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Mercury Living Presence

Doing orchestral works at scale and power is hard, and this track in particular tests the "power band".

2. Tuesday Night Jazz at the Swinging Door, jazz septet field recordings made by me, 2010 - present

I made / make these live field recordings myself, as well as mixing and mastering them. I know them inside and out.

3. Metallica, "Enter the Sandman"

It's got walloping bass drums and power chords. Sounds awesome on frat rock Cerwin Vegas, crappy on most panel speakers, and a toss up for other dynamic speakers.

4. "Nojima Plays Liszt", Reference Recordings

Solo piano, lots of hall ambience, recorded by Prof. Johnson. While Nojima is a bit restrained as a pianist, the recording itself is one of the best classical piano recordings ever made.

5. "Be Good", Gregory Porter

Most often I hear people recommending a female vocalist as a must have, but this seems to be so common a test that most systems do it reasonably well (why else do you think there is so much Diana Krall at audio shows?). But Gregory Porter has a creamy baritone and a upper range, too. The low notes can sound chesty on systems with bad bass control and his highs can get shouty if the mids are peaky.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Any 5 songs from:

Eagles Hotel California
Pink Floyd (no not Dark Side of the Moon......) A Momentary Lapse of Reason
Rolling Stones Sticky Fingers

Now actually, I don't make such lists as much as I once did. Don't know if it is hearing more music over more systems over the years or what. There are truly at minimum hundreds of 5 song combinations I could do okay with for these purposes. Which is right for any given day is up to whim and attitude at the time. With music being readily available streaming why wouldn't you start with whatever cranks your handle that particular day and see what occurs to you after you hear song number one?

Might start with Enter Sandman followed by War pigs one day. Chamber music of Liszt and Chopin on another. With yet another being only blues guitar greats. Or some mix of them.

Of course rap, hard core country and opera would never be on my list. Probably no big band music either though I don't hate it.

 

[RayDunzl]

Probably no big band music either

The pictures seem to have nothing to do with the music...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Band_Theory

"On the Stage in Cages" playing above.

 

[watchnerd]

With music being readily available streaming why wouldn't you start with whatever cranks your handle that particular day and see what occurs to you after you hear song number one?

Because I can only assess systems accurately with tracks I'm very very familiar with, have heard scores of times before, in different environments.

If I've never heard the song before, I have no reference point.

 

[Blumlein 88]

The pictures seem to have nothing to do with the music...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Band_Theory

"On the Stage in Cages" playing above.

Big bandish sounding Jazz. YUCK. It sounds good in the jazzy parts for a minute and then well no it won't do.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Because I can only assess systems accurately with tracks I'm very very familiar with, have heard scores of times before, in different environments.

If I've never heard the song before, I have no reference point.

Yes, I only listed songs I have heard at least 1000 times. And all will be available to stream. Just from posting earlier I decided I needed to hear Enter Sandman, which lead to some God Smack, and then more GodSmack, which lead to Tool, which lead to some Five Finger Death Punch. I stopped, looking back here and briefly skipped thru Ray's offering.

I have begun making use of Google Music's option to upload your own songs to stream anywhere. So I would still have a good chunk of my library that I know anywhere I go if they have an internet connection. So I don't have to pick five.

So you'll have to excuse me, but it is time for some more late night metal music as I had a busy metal kind of a day.

 

[Blumlein 88]

Oh btw, something different an on again off again fetish of mine is Spanish guitar.

A friend recently turned me on to Augustin Barrios. Like this: Really is there anything that shows off the advantage of electrostats better than Spanish guitar music.

Or maybe this John Williams playing Barrios:

 

[Blumlein 88]

Try listening to this one from Johnny Cash. One of his last.

 

[fas42]

Big bandish sounding Jazz. YUCK. It sounds good in the jazzy parts for a minute and then well no it won't do.

This sort of thing is probably near ideal ... most systems curl up into a fetal position, and hope it goes away soon if asked to play this - because they make a hopeless mess of it! Well done, this is amazing to listen to - but it would be extremely rare to have this occur - through a typical PA, this would be hell on earth ...

 

[amirm]

Lots of good suggestions which I have to try later (am out most of today). For now, here is a reference list that Harman has found to be revealing: http://www.audiosciencereview.com/f...sic-tracks-for-speaker-and-room-eq-testing.6/

 

[RayDunzl]

For now, here is a reference list that Harman has found to be revealing

#1. Pink Noise

 

[Sal1950]

Some picked for SQ, others because I know the music so well, also to avoid "me too".

Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here - Shine On You, CBS Mastersound 1993 Gold CD
Doc Powell - The Doctor first cut All Right Now is great, any will do. VTL 1992 CD
Jazz At The Pawnshop - V1 Limehouse Blues ambiance-detail. Original US CD master
Jethro Tull - Thick As A Brick - Poet and the Painter, Steve Wilson 24/96 HiRez master
Jethro Tull - Aqualung - Locomotive Breath, Steve Wilson 24/96 HiRez master
Richard Thompson - Rumor and Sigh - I Feel So Good

That's 6 so pick one of the Tull's

"Remember when you were young, you shone like the sun.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
Now there's a look in your eyes, like black holes in the sky.
Shine on you crazy diamond.
You were caught in the crossfire of childhood and stardom, blown on the steel breeze.
Come on you target for faraway laughter, come on you stranger, you legend, you martyr, and shine!"

 

[Sal1950]

1. Dr John ' creole moon' track 1 you swore

Thanks for that Thomas, great pick. Sounds good even on Spotify 320. Gonna grab a CD off ebay. Any special choice on a mastering?

 

[Thomas savage]

Thanks for that Thomas, great pick. Sounds good even on Spotify 320. Gonna grab a CD off ebay. Any special choice on a mastering?

It's a fantastic recording as well as great music , my CD was mastered by Greg calbi at sterling sound, NYC . Issued in 2001

Serial no. 7243 5 34591 2 3

 

[Sal1950]

It's a fantastic recording as well as great music , my CD was mastered by Greg calbi at sterling sound, NYC . Issued in 2001

Serial no. 7243 5 34591 2 3

Tanks, Just grabbed the same UPC off ebay for $5.90 shipped.

 

[Thomas savage]

Tanks, Just grabbed the same UPC off ebay for $5.90 shipped.

You will love it sal, it's one of my best recordings.

Of course my copy has been bathed in exotic Japanese lasers and treated with the breath of fall angles but I'm sure your standard version will still sound great

 

[Thomas savage]

It's all very well testing for soundstage and where things should be but there is no telling whether the system has been setup properly..

There are so many mitigating factors to auditioning kit in unfamiliar environments it's just as likely to lead you to false conclusions than anything universally definite.