Test CD

"12-14-14: Will62
Would it make sense to buy more than one of these CD's to burn in a new pair of speakers? Will one Test CD offer some advantages over the other with the kind of noise or music it contains?"

No. Break in is break in. It doesn't matter how you do the break in, the end result is the same. The sound of your speakers won't change if you use different CD's.

"I know the kind of sound that I desire in a speaker and have narrowed my choices down to around 5 models that possess these traits based upon both professional reviews and user reviews."

I would do it that way only as a last resort. There's no substitute for demoing the speakers yourself. When you go by reviews and opinions, there's just too many variables at play to make it a reliable method of selecting the right speaker. So, even if the reviews say that the speaker has certain qualities that you want, you may not get the same results. That's one of the main reasons why some people have such a hard time putting together a good sounding system that they can live with.

Will62-

I concur, the Stereophile test CDs are more than sufficient.
I still use these discs to "touch up" my system.

Any of you guys use the DALI test cds? If so, please post your impressions!
Keep me posted & Happy Listening!

I got an Isotek CD free with some hifi mag...it's great (the "sound going
around your head" feature is cool), but I never use the "burn in"
feature because I think it's silly (maybe if I was a speaker reviewer or something
I'd use it). I also have the Stereophile test CDs and they're cool...I have a meter
thing in an iPhone to get db levels when I need to so it's nice to have a tone
generator around...like recently when a channel was losing level...bad tube...also,
why use a "burn in " CD when you can listen to a component burn in? Otherwise
you don't know from whence it burns...what the unburned sound is...when it
ripens...you know?...or you don't.

Had a thought after reading the following. Need some feedback.

A guy that also owns the Jamo C601 bookshelf speakers said he was able to measure the bass response on this speaker down to near 40hz. But it is rated by Jamo for 62hz. I've read other reviews that claim the bass is better than advertised. I tend to believe this since it creates a lot of bass in the smaller room where they presently sit.

In light of this, I am wondering if I buy another pair of C601's, use a Test CD to properly break in the speakers and then use my heavy duty speaker stands (3 large legs of steel) in the larger room where they will probably be used, if I can get just a little stronger bass? And is it possible to buy a new pair of IC's that will retain the high end and midrange of this speaker but add a little low end?

Any ideas?

Nordost website has details on a setup,and test cd
I got one free at an audio expo .... Worked better than all the others I've test driven
Highly recommended

Nordost System Set-Up & Tuning Disc:
Finally, all those invaluable test and set-up tracks on a single disc!

Nordost’s System Tuning and Set-Up disc contains everything that you need to get a system sounding its best – and keep it that way. An extensive range of proven diagnostic tracks – plus a few innovative and extremely useful ones – helps with speaker placement (and sub-woofer integration), performance checks and assessment, problem location and system conditioning.

The disc comes with its own instruction book as well as supporting PDF downloads, which clearly lay out the purpose and benefits of each track. A little practice and pretty soon you’ll wonder how you got along without it.

As well as basic channel and phase checks (boring we know, but oh so useful) there are discrete left and right channel pink and white noise tracks, as well as alternating ones, which are ideal for checking that speakers are working properly and voicing them in-room. The computer generated LEDR tests provide a repeatable method for mapping and adjusting sound-staging and toe-in while uncompressed drum tracks test dynamic range and rhythmic integration. As well as conventional sweeps, there is a timed low-frequency sweep that will allow you to identify principal room modes. Used in conjunction with the discrete low-frequency tones this is a huge help in diagnosing problem environments, placing speakers and integrating and optimizing sub-woofers. Throw in system burn-in and degauss tracks and you can see why we consider this an invaluable part of our audio armory. In fact, the only thing missing is the plinky-plonky audiophile music tracks that clutter up most test CDs!

It’s everything you need and nothing that you don’t.