billpete, I choose then because they must sound as good as possible even if not recorded well.
Besides, true class of a system is defined by how well it can reproduce poor recordings.
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I generally avoid "audiophile" records for evaluation and set up. For arm/cartridge VTA, I use the time proven Dave Shreve favorite, flying fish HDS 701, Sauerkraut and Solar Energy track from this bluegrass album: https://www.discogs.com/release/8082236-Norman-Blake-2-Tut-Taylor-Sam-Bush-Butch-Robins-Vassar-Clements-David-Holland-Jethro-Burns-Norman-Bl It can sound thin and you’ll know pretty quickly if the high frequencies get dull, there’s an article here about how to do it: https://www.tnt-audio.com/sorgenti/vta_method_e.html That track is also fun to listen to. One of my go-to records for getting an overall sense of a system is a bone stock original issue of Janis Ian’s Between the Lines. It has real strings, some tympani, natural sounding vocals and is generally a very well recorded album without sounding "juiced" (Breaking Silence, to me, while a great sounding album with profound bass, can mislead you). I have an "approval" pressing (not exactly a "test pressing" and not a promo of Between the Lines that was released), and the original pressings that were commercially released sound the same as this early pressing. Although it is good to use records you are familiar with as a reference, I also find that using a wide variety of different material helps to reveal shortcomings. My general preference is for acoustic instruments, recorded simply, without a lot of multi-tracking or post-production. That may not be what one normally listens to, so I guess using a range of material is useful for that as well. |
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