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System-Buster CDs

What CDs do you use to test whether a system is accurate? I don't mean those CDs that make your system sound really good, but rather the CDs you use to test new systems/components, the ones that make all but the very best systems sound like crap.

For example: My all-time favorite system-buster is track 4 from the Sigur Ros "white" cd (sorry, there doesn't appear to be a name or any writing to help identify it; most of the packaging and the cd itself are basically a grayish-white). The bass content on this track is both very low and enormously powerful, though the recording is dense with sound from all registers. I've taken it to various high-end dealers, and either (i) the bass booms like a bad automobile sub-woofer that you can hear from blocks away, or (ii) most of the bass content is just missing. Most systems just can't sort it out.

Another favorite is track 3 of Arvo Part's Tabula Rasa, which consists of 12 cellos playing different lines. Most systems put this out as horrific screeching.

Another one I like is track 4 from John Renbourn's Sir John Alot, with three recorders (or similar instruments) playing at the same time. The amount of distortion that comes out of most systems makes this track nearly unlistenable! (One manufacturer took the cd off after five seconds, put it away, and said the recording was clearly defective.)

So: What CD's do you use to sort out the wheat from the chaff?
jimjoyce25

Showing 1 response by jimjoyce25

jimjoyce25 OP
215 posts
 
That's exactly my point. As purchasers of audio equipment, what tools do we have at our disposal to discriminate between products? Really nothing except our ears and the cds/vinyl we know that put audio gear to the test.

On the other side are manufacturers, dealers and reviewers who never seem to produce, carry or review gear that isn't top notch in one way or another, and the reputation (which from our perspective is nothing more than that) which certain gear has developed over time. Moreover, there is the clearly expressed sense that if we want an improvement, we have to spend ever larger sums.

I don't know any other way to deal with this situation except to play my system-busters during auditions, and be willing to tell the dealer that their gear doesn't perform. (This may not make us many friends among dealers, but as Bill Cosby used to say in his pitchman role: "It's my money!")
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