I just listened to Welcome To The World by Ben Harper and there’s a couple of cuts on the album that are going on my list.
Songs you use when auditioning gear
What are some of your favorite songs to play when auditioning gear? I often listen to Dreams by Fleetwood Mac. Just about anything off of Gaucho or Aja by Steely Dan or Joni Mitchell’s Hejira or Hissing of Summer Lawns usually gets spun up too. Dreams, in particular, is such a great song and is recorded with the balance I really like as well as a full and wide soundstage. Wondering what some of yours are to see what I’m missing.
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I don't listen to songs I enjoy, I listen to what's really hard to get right. Borderline bad recordings. You would think that Jeff Lynne was a perfectionist but I find that maybe he aimed too high in the 70s and the technology just wasn't there. His catchy, rich and sweet melodies sound good on the radio but on high-level equipment, it's more like too many kids in the choir and some out of tune. Maybe I have yet to hear it on real good gear |
I make my own recordings and play them back. I record metal, water, wood, ceramic, voice, animals, guitar. These are the elements which all musical instruments are based on. Using produced music to tune a system is a recipe for disaster. It’s like trying to drive a car while looking through a kaleidoscope.
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Curious (and amusing!) take, @clustrocasual . However, the OP question was re: songs for auditioning gear, not tuning it (I’m also assuming we mean hifi kit and not pro-audio live kit). I think I get where you’re coming from, but if gear can’t get produced music to sound right to your liking, then the gear better be used specifically for playback of your elements + guitar recordings, no? If it’s any kit upstream of speakers being auditioned, and said kit’s not being auditioned through your speakers in a very similar room, I tend to think high accuracy impressions will be unlikely, due to lacking end-chain replication of moving + reflecting parts. Still chuckling over the kaleidoscope analogy 😀 And enjoying the posts that give reason(s) for their track selections. These threads always seem to me a great way to learn music by happy accident. |
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