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Dealer's demo recordings

I always suggest bringing your own familiar recordings when going to a dealer to audition equipment. On the other hand, while going to dealers and just lending an ear to what is playing in their demo rooms, I sometimes hear recordings that, obviously, favour the system at hand. While often enough unimpressed by the music itself, I become quite intrigued by the sound of its reproduction. Sometimes both the performance and recording quality coexist in the demo record. This sort of thing occurred while visiting the Montreal show. I heard in the JM Labs' room a song titled "Stimela" by Hugh Masekela that was wonderful to appreciate the dynamics of the system. I have had one hell of a time trying to find that particular version from all the ones recorded by this artist. I wonder what are the recordings playing as demoes in high-end rooms of the dealers you pop into and have you ever gone out to purchase one of these recordings. It would also be interesting to know what you think the dealer was specifically trying to show off by playing such recordings and whether it was successful. Thanks.
pbb
abex
322 posts
 
I find that making a cd with specific sounds that are really hard to get right is invaluable when testing systems.

A few I use are the Geni voice off "Amused to Death".The crcking of the whi and the slayride off the same CD track 7 to test soundstaging.

Male Vocals of Stan Ridgway on 16Tons ,Karen Carpenter,Tracey Chapman and a few others.

I listen to see weather the cracking of the whip and the door slamming back and forth on amused to death or Marv Alberts voice sound right and how dispersed they are.SOme recordings that are out of Phase I put on the same disc to see what they sound like also.

I only take 20-30seconds of the specified cut off so as not to take to long in hearing what I need to know.

If after all the short cuts sound right I listen to
"Feel The Benefit" in it entirety from 10CC because there are alot of instuments that are on it and alot can be gatherd as to how much detail and how3 invlveing the setup is.

The best you can do is use things that you are familar with which drives alot of salesman crazy because they are trying to sell while you are trying to test.

JMO and way of doing things.For Classical I use cuts from Bartok,Wagner and Beethoven.

If after all that I cannot tell weather I like the pice of gear there is something wrong.

JMO
ehart
215 posts
 
Albert, nice mention of Allison Kraus' album. This has been my favorite lately. I had it for a few years, but never thought much of her voice (sort of wished she had stuck with fiddling, I thought her voice sounded thin). Then spun the CD again after a recent system upgrade, and it just sucked me in. Gorgeous sound and musicianship, and incredible choice of (mostly sad!) material. Really a haunting album.
thegeneral
16 posts
 
Abex, I love that track on Amused To Death. I've been listening to that CD for years, but it wasn't until my recent stereo system completion that I've recognized its potential. The whole CD is just recorded extremely well it seems. But "Too Much Rope" is so good it's scary.

And regarding dealers demo material, I ABSOLUTELY LOVE some of the stuff on demo discs. I have bought quite a few of the original cds that were highlighted on compilations. What can I say, I'm a sucker for impressive new demo material.
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