@acresverde I heard one track from Enamoured by chance that caught my attention and immediately flagged the entire LP as an exemplary reference recording.
Additional tracks that highlight system strengths and expose weaknesses:
"St. Thomas" - Peter Bernstein & Guido Di Leone Quartet (Tribute to Jim Hall)
Nicely recorded instrumental jazz piece with ample percussive elements and well-delineated layers of depth that challenge imaging ability.
"Celestial Echo" - Malia (Convergence)
Expansive electronic work with female vocals, delicate transients, and strong, meandering spatial cues that challenge soundstage depth rendering. In a good system, the soundscape should expand beyond the walls of the room without sounding diffuse.
"Dirty Little Secret" - Sarah McLachlan (Bloom - Remix Album)
Sounds almost broken in the beginning, but be patient, and distinct layers at various depths emerge as the track progresses.
"Istanbul" - Various Artists (Divan)
Ambient instrumental electronic track of Middle Eastern flavor with wall-to-wall percussive elements that pop out nicely.
"Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" - Muddy Waters (Folk Singer)
An exemplary stereo recording in this genre from 1964, and far superior to that of notable big acts from the same period.
"Perimeter" - Gidge (New Light)
Powerful, immersive, a showcase track for a large, high-end system and room.
"Fireland" - Andrea Schroeder (Where the Wild Oceans End)
For anyone who doesn't know this one, a live performance brought into one's listening space.
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@simonmoon "...
It’s quite strange to me that classical music has fallen so far out of favor with audiophiles as music to evaluate a system, or a new piece of gear. "
Excellent point. In general classical is the hardest to reproduce... and I would say and interpret what is good and bad about a component if you are thinking analytically. Because of its complexity.
If you have a track that has a single voice and maybe a piano in back left and maracas in the back right. Your minds eye (ear) can examine the sound stage and each instrument individually. If you want to check out bass then you can do some simple rock tune.
The problem is that none of these are testing what happens when your 1 - 4 speakers are all doing a dozen instruments at a time. And under these circumstances your minds eye flits from thing to thing not really able to figure much out since the note you flit to is gone by the time you zero in on it... then you must find something else.
This is what is wrong with listening to components. You really need to listen to the music that comes out... the gestalt and evaluate that. So, listen to lots of genre. and don’t listen to the individual instruments, unless it is a solo instrument. Let your subconscious eveluate to music... as opposed the you conscious analytical mind. After all you are not (or should not?) be purchasing it for your analytical mind, you should be purchasing it for your subconscious mind... that is what craves and appreciates music. Your analytical side appreciates the gauges on the outside.
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Hi,
These are my go-tos. They each bring out different aspects of the system.
- Time’s a Revelator – Gillian Welch (there are TWO guitars playing!)
- The Saga of Harrison Crabfeathers – Brian Bromberg (the sound of real wood!)
- Way Down We Go – KALEO (play the whole thing…it will reveal details in the piano toward the end)
- Walking on the Moon – Yuri Honing Trio (turn it up, it needs the volume, and will reveal spatial relationships)
- Opening of Mahler’s 5th Symphony (or the entire 1st movement)– Simon Rattle, Conductor (a good system will be able to convey the power of this piece)
- Mountain of Things – Tracy Chapman (really deep bass!)
- Birds – Dominque Fils-Aimé (spatial cues and the human voice)
- Art of Almost – Wilco (this will sound like noise on a lesser system, and brilliant on a resolving one)
- No Moon At All – Diana Krall (a bit of sibilance, but generally fantastic – voice, bass, piano)
- Since I Fell For You – Brad Mehldau (real piano)
Enjoy,
Joe
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Great thread. In case this is useful, here’s most of what’s been suggested so far.
JAZZ — Acoustic / Small Ensemble
- Patricia Barber, "Nardis" (Cafe Blue) — bass articulation, room ambience, micro-dynamics, drum presentation
- Oscar Peterson Trio, "You Look Good to Me" — bowed vs. plucked bass, rhythmic push/pull, piano amid rhythm section
- Ray Brown Trio, "Take the A Train" (Soular Energy, AP 45rpm) — overall resolution, pace
- Diana Krall, "No Moon at All" — voice, bass, piano integration; mild sibilance test
- Diana Krall, "The Look of Love" (Live in Paris, ORG 45rpm) — vocal presence, soundstage
- Peter Bernstein & Guido Di Leone, "St. Thomas" — imaging depth, percussive layering
- Art Pepper, "Nature Boy" — timbral accuracy, organic soundstage layering
- Brad Mehldau, "Since I Fell For You" — real piano timbre and texture
- "High Life" (Jazz at the Pawnshop) — live acoustic space, sax/drums/vibraphone separation
- "Limehouse Blues" (Jazz at the Pawnshop) — overall live jazz reproduction
JAZZ — Electric / Fusion
- Weather Report, "Birdland" (Heavy Weather, ORG 45rpm) — soundstage size
- Yuri Honing Trio, "Walking on the Moon" — spatial relationships at volume
VOCAL / SINGER-SONGWRITER
- Gillian Welch, "Time’s a Revelator" — separation of two guitars, acoustic texture
- Tracy Chapman, "Mountain of Things" — deep bass extension
- Dominique Fils-Aimé, "Birds" — spatial cues, human voice reproduction
- Lady Blackbird, "Fix It" (Black Acid Soul) — vocal evaluation
- Chrissie Hynde, "Try to Sleep" (Duets Special) — vocal evaluation
- Keb’ Mo’, "Muddy Water" (Slow Down) — cymbal tone/hash, bass control, 3D staging, sibilance, snare crack
- Neil Young, "Such a Woman" (Harvest Moon) — piano, bass, voice, delicate cymbal decay
ROCK / PROGRESSIVE ROCK
- Tom Petty, "Shadow People" — rock mix definition, faint percussion in sparse sections
- Wilco, "Art of Almost" — system resolution test (sounds like noise on poor systems)
- Nine Inch Nails, "Ruiner" (The Downward Spiral) — complex layering, phasing, soundstage width/depth
- Radiohead, "Weird Fishes/Arpeggi" — textural resolution
- Kansas, "The Pinnacle" (Masque) — dynamics, speed, energy
- Pink Floyd, "Another Brick in the Wall Pt. 1" — ambience, spatial effects, soundstage
- Beck, "Golden Age" + "Paper Tiger" (Sea Change) — center image, bass performance and clarity
- It’s a Beautiful Day, "White Bird" — rock with strings, tonal contrast
ACOUSTIC GUITAR / FINGERSTYLE
- Michael Hedges, "Aerial Boundaries" — harmonic detail, bass depth, neck resonance, soundstage
- Nils Lofgren, "Keith Don’t Go" (Acoustic Live) — guitar in acoustic space, natural reverb
BLUES
- Muddy Waters, "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" (Folk Singer, 1964) — exemplary vintage stereo recording, timbre and space
- John Lee Hooker, "The Healer" (The Healer) — drums sweeping across soundstage
CLASSICAL — Orchestra
- Mahler, Symphony No. 5 (opening / 1st mvt.), Simon Rattle — dynamic power and control
- Mahler, Symphony No. 2, Zubin Mehta / Vienna Philharmonic — silence-to-climax dynamics, choral rendering
- Shostakovich, Symphony No. 10, 2nd mvt., Nelsons / Boston Symphony (DG, hi-res live) — wide soundstage, depth, dynamic swings, string extension, instrument separation
- Prokofiev, Romeo and Juliet excerpts, Leinsdorf / LA Symphony — whisper-to-full-assault dynamics
- Stravinsky, Petrushka and The Firebird — overall orchestral reproduction
- Haydn, Symphony No. 94 ("Surprise"), Audiophile Reference 1 Track 13 — low-level detail, noise floor, the crescendo as stress test
CLASSICAL — Chamber / Early Music
- Bach Orchestral Suites, Jordi Savall — timbral variety, instrumental accuracy
OPERA / VOICE
- Catalani, "La Wally" aria, Wilhelmina Fernandez (Diva soundtrack) — operatic voice, emotional rendering
- Kurt Weill, Threepenny Opera, Lotte Lenya — spatial cues, singers moving in the soundstage, immersive depth
ELECTRONIC / AMBIENT
- KALEO, "Way Down We Go" — piano detail that emerges late in the track
- Malia, "Celestial Echo" (Convergence) — soundstage depth beyond the walls, female voice, delicate transients
- Gidge, "Perimeter" (New Light) — power and immersion for large systems
- Various Artists, "Istanbul" (Divan) — wall-to-wall percussion, spatial pop
- Goose, "Slow Ready" — bass, midrange, horns
- Yello, "Kiss in Blue" (Touch) — full-range: bass, male/female vocals, dynamics, detail
- Brian Bromberg, "The Saga of Harrison Crabfeathers" — acoustic wood resonance, real instrument texture
ACOUSTIC SPECIAL-PURPOSE
- Yarlung Records, circling tones — speaker placement and room acoustics (tones should appear above and behind the head)
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