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Music for testing equipment speakers, headphones..

There is a very interesting discussion going on at the CA forum about real music suited for tuning or testing speakers and headphones; here is the Link;
http://www.computeraudiophile.com/f8-general-forum/music-testing-audio-equipment-24230/
and a quote from the big introduction article naming a number of recordings best suited for various tasks;
1. Carmen Gomes inc; '' I'm on fire'' from Thousand Shades of Blue
SoundLiaison

Placement is perfect on this young audiophile classic as well as the near perfect natural recording of the voice, but the real test for audio equipment when listening to this recording is it's ability to separate the kickdrum from the upright bass.
The two instruments are playing the same pattern. On less than optimum equipment it might be difficult to separate the two, but with good setup you clearly hear the upright at 10.00 and the kick dead center with a nice decay that one generally do not hear on commercial recordings.
There are lots of speakers and headphones with ''extended lows'' but low with definition is a whole different ballgame.
2 Alban berg Quartet; Bartok String Quartet no.1 in a minor 1th movement. (LP,EMI)
in the beginning of this movement the 4 instruments all play mainly in the same middle and upper register. Despite all that mid and high information the music should not sound harsh.
This recording has the same perfect sound stage as the Carmen Gomes recording.
We believe that this kind of sound stage with such a sense of depth and realistic placement is only attainable when you are recording the musicians in one room at the same time.
[img]http://www.soundliaison.com/images/TSOB200v4-130-10-10-75.png[/img]
kefas
zd542
5,339 posts
 
This is not the best method to select components. You need to judge an audio component based on the type of music you actually listen to, and not a bunch of test CD's. If you don't, you'll never get if right.
jdoris
852 posts
 
I think one might well learn from a detailed list like the above, with notes as to what other are hearing for comparison.

But what Zd said deserves emphasis: at moderate (and even not so moderate) pricepoints, it is difficult to craft a system that does everything well, so it pays to make very sure that the equipment under consideration can shine on the material that is most important in *your* listening.

As Jim Smith says, pick demo material that moves you.

m2c,

John
phasecorrect's avatar
phasecorrect
2,013 posts
 
Test discs are are a great "shock and awe" tool used by dealers.. However...at the end of the day...one has to listen to real music...strange that a lot of test discs I have encountered don't contain vocals
onhwy61's avatar
onhwy61
4,163 posts
 
An annotated playlist such as presented in the article can be a very useful tool in optimizing a system and setup parameters. The list is not comprehensive in musical styles, but it does offer enough variety to get the job done. It's a far better method than randomly selecting music that you like, but of unknown recording quality.
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