Music to evaluate Speakers and System

it is not possible to "know" the sound of a recording.

having listened to a recording many times does not achiev knowledge.

it is not necessary to be familiar with a recording to detect a sonic signature.

selecting a variety of recordings and genres is sufficient to evaluate speakers and stereo systems.

even if you have never listened to a cd before it does not disqualify it to be used to evaluate speakers and stereo systems.

since recordings sound different, the chances that say, 5 recordings will have the same "errors", i.e., frequency response imbalances, etc., is remote.

"Body Acoustic"
David Chesky

For imaging and soundstage.

Mrtennis-

When making evaluations with more than one unknown parameter, e.g., new speaker and new recording in a new system/room, one cannot determine what accounts for all the discovered sound differences. It is a mathematical/logical impossibility.

Even if you play 5 different (unfamiliar CDs) and they share the same characteristic, you can only ascribe that characteristic to the system if you know (and you don't, of course) that those recordings do not, in fact, share that characteristic.

Kal

Midirons,

I really enjoyed that article thanks for sharing.

This recommendation below is a real gem!

play a larger number of recordings of vastly different styles and recording technique on two different systems to hear which system reveals more differences between the recordings.

Since recordings are never totally accurate in and of themselves, it makes sense to see how a system handles a wide variety of music. Ignoring, for a moment, the way you enjoy hearing Britney Spears "Hit me one more time" bass to sound....but rather by concentrating on whether a system shows up more nuamces on each recording and between one recording and another. This means that rather than a "beautiful" or "sugar coated" sound contest (liking the way it makes Britney's bass shake the room) you are aiming for a resolving system that lets you distinctly hear more of what is or isn't on each recording. You are keeping score by how a system makes each recording more unique and distinctive relative to the next reocording and not simply how "pleasant" it is able to sound. You are also checking that nothing throws up a huge red flag that the system is overly emphazing anything too much..if it does then all recordings will have a certain slant to them.

This is a very analytical way to approach it but it avoids the pitfall that your favorite "demo" recordings are quite likely to happen to be the ones that sound best to you on your own existing system....and a better system may not always throw at you what you like or expected with your favorite tracks!

Midirons;
Thanks for article as it was a interesting read with many points of which I never thought of.
Audiofeil;
When people come to your home to audition gear; do you find many people using the same genre of music or are they mixing it up; I was just curious? I like the chesky recordings with their different types of microphone/recording techniques and will check out the one you mentioned.
Shadorne; presently hunting for the Sheffield you mentioned as well.