Why do audiophile equipment reviews use such obscure music to evaluate hardware?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Brian Gupton, Apr 24, 2014.

Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.
  1. RonW

    RonW Forum Resident

    Location:
    New York
    I don't have any escoberic music anyways I can't play any of it on the mid-fi junk I bought. The Yardbirds "Smokestack Lightning" I get that.
     
    gloomrider likes this.
  2. Kal Rubinson

    Kal Rubinson Senior Member

    Location:
    NYC
    Exactly.
     
  3. ServingTheMusic

    ServingTheMusic Forum Resident

    Location:
    SoCal
    Not always, as I have been told first hand.
     
  4. ServingTheMusic

    ServingTheMusic Forum Resident

    Location:
    SoCal
    Thanks, and you are welcome. On my own site, www.avrev.com I follow the same rule..no audiophile drivel as demo material. Now that does not mean I won't use "demo" material if I REALLY like the music, like a lot of Telarc recordings.
     
    Brian Gupton likes this.
  5. JMCIII

    JMCIII Music lover first, audiophile second.



    What he said.

    Plus, I'll add that most reviews I read have heavy doses of jazz, rock, and other musical styles in them (and I've found some of my favorite music by purchasing albums used in reviews if I have gotten to know the reviewers musical tastes). I know the reviews I do contain quite a bit of jazz and some popular music as well - though I will uses acoustic music of one form or another. But as Chervokas pointed out, if a piece of gear can handle well recorded acoustic music - it'll do just fine on popular, studio manipulated music.
     
    T'mershi Duween likes this.
  6. Burt

    Burt Forum Resident

    Location:
    Kirkwood, MO
    I knew a speaker builder who was utterly opposed to using any music at all to evaluate speakers. He preferred recordings of steam locomotives, birds, and other such sources.

    I'm dead serious. His speakers were pretty good too.
     
    morinix likes this.
  7. Brian Gupton

    Brian Gupton Forum Resident Thread Starter

    See, this is what I mean by using music people know for explaining sonic characteristics of components. Just about everyone can understand what's meant here:

    The reverse tracks on the Beatles’ Magical Mystery Tour are sublime, almost dilating in the way they separate from the rest of the mix. The bell in “Penny Lane” is not only correct in terms of timbre, but the width and height information is so stunningly reproduced that it feels like there’s an actual fire truck in the room ringing its bell.
     
    EasterEverywhere likes this.
  8. Combination

    Combination Forum Resident

    Location:
    New Orleans
    Honestly, that's a pretty esoteric description. Dilating?!
     
  9. erniebert

    erniebert Shoe-string audiophile

    Location:
    Toronto area
    Pretty obscure in 3/4 of the world.
     
  10. Metralla

    Metralla Joined Jan 13, 2002

    Location:
    San Jose, CA
    I don't mind bringing in an example or two of popular music into a review, but I am not sure "Penny Lane" will tell you much about how capable the loudspeakers really are.
     
    Scott Wheeler likes this.
  11. LeeS

    LeeS Music Fan

    Location:
    Atlanta
    I heard a super system today with the ARC Ref 10 phono stage and a Brinkmann Balance table. The rep played ZZ Top's Deguello LP and it was awesome. So refreshing to hear real rock at a high end audio demo.
     
    T'mershi Duween and gloomrider like this.
  12. LeeS

    LeeS Music Fan

    Location:
    Atlanta
    P.S. The Ref 10 Phono is one of the most amazing pieces of gear I have heard.
     
  13. googlymoogly

    googlymoogly Forum Resident

    Or a drink.
     
  14. Ntotrar

    Ntotrar Forum Resident

    Location:
    Tri-Cities TN
    I borrowed this list from the OP's profile. :)
     
    Last edited: Apr 25, 2014
  15. gloomrider

    gloomrider Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Hollywood, CA, USA
    Thanks for this. It was nice to see some posts from members who don't seem to post as often now. And overall, there's lots of stuff to learn in there. An example, from our host:

    :edthumbs:
     
    morinix likes this.
  16. Mr Bass

    Mr Bass Chevelle Ma Belle

    Location:
    Mid Atlantic
    Hey don't sell classical music short like that. It is 3% and has held steady for years.:pleased:

    I also think that the right approach for auditioning systems/components is to get music with borderline or somewhat poor sonics. If you are going to change the system you want to have an idea whether and in what way your music library can be expanded or will be pruned.

    I think you are kidding yourself if you think any hifi magazine is going to expand the number of audiophiles as opposed to informing? the current audience. The only way you expand the audience is by letting more people hear outstanding systems and have them self select. However that would just kill the vendors who want to maintain an exclusive club.
     
    Last edited: Apr 25, 2014
  17. ROLO46

    ROLO46 Forum Resident

    A piano and a voice is one of the hardest tests,as is a jangling set of keys.
     
    missan likes this.
  18. Robin L

    Robin L Musical Omnivore

    Location:
    Fresno, California
    Of course it might be spitting on the pop stuff because the pop stuff was mixed, mastered and eq-ed that way, on purpose. Thus the value of say, a piccolo or recorder solo which, if overcooked in the treble will distort as described. And it's hard to beat [excuse the pun] a tam-tam if it's pure overload you're after. Anything more than that and you are dealing with untamable levels of distortion. A tam-tam in full [fffff] cry reaches the edge of distortion in a 2000 seat venue, in smaller venues, best to wear ear protection. And the sound of the tam-tam in full tilt is very close to the sound of shaped noise like "Pink Noise", save that it's Metal noise. Very hard to record, very hard to reproduce.
     
    morinix likes this.
  19. ROLO46

    ROLO46 Forum Resident

    Indeed Tam Tams are a test
    I recorded Chinese Opera in Tapei, tam tams at every entry and exit............
    Now that and a few piccolos should be a Stereophile Test!
     
    morinix and Robin L like this.
  20. chervokas

    chervokas Senior Member

    I completely disagree. This is pure description that would be equally understandable (or not, I have no idea what "almost dilating in the way they separate from the rest of the mix" means), whether the writer was talking about the bell in "Penny Land" or Tubular Bells or the carilion in the 1812 Overture or the various bells in Varese' "Ionisation." Why is this more comprehensible that any other almost identical description of any music?

    I also think it's nonsense. I bet that at no point did the writer feel like there was a fire truck in his room. That's complete hyperbole, not description, and it does no one any favors. And "correct in terms of timbre...width and height...." the writer wasn't in the studio when "Penny Lane" was cut. He or she has no idea what the correct timbre, width and height of the bell is. I know it's one of my pet peeves, but I wish writers doing subjective, observational reviews would refrain from describing things as sounding "correct," or "neutral" if they've never heard the master tape on the original monitors and the original sounds at the recording session.
     
  21. darkmatter

    darkmatter Gort Astronomer Staff

    When assessing kit I use a very wide range of material but when things get very critical use material which is well recorded, mastered and performed.
     
  22. chervokas

    chervokas Senior Member

    Why would they want to maintain a smaller market for their products? That's silly. The super high end stuff that sells for tens of thousands of dollars per component doesn't need to move a lot of units (and can't) and may benefit, in terms of sales and marketing, from a sense of exclusivity. But otherwise I think all of them would want to expand their market.

    I think audiophiles always have and always will be a small subset of the consumer electronics/music markets. Even exposure to good sounding systems isn't going to turn people into audiophiles at a much higher percentage than happens now. Almost without exception, consumers adopt new media technology when it's cheaper and more convenient, and to a lesser degree when it can do more things (it's no just a clock, it's a clock/radio!). Rarely is a mass consumer tech adopted because it does what it does better, with higher resolution. HDTV is one of the few exceptions I can think of. Mostly people are happy to junk their LPs for cassette, like they did in the '80s, for cheapness and convenience; their CDs for MP3 in the 2000s for cheapness and convenience. If the magazines want to expand the market and the readership they'd be doing what they have been doing -- reviewing portable gear, headphones, network gear, desktop systems, etc. -- and budget gear along with the cutting edge stuff.
     
    Brian Gupton and missan like this.
  23. missan

    missan Forum Resident

    Location:
    Stockholm
    Exactly, good points!
     
  24. erniebert

    erniebert Shoe-string audiophile

    Location:
    Toronto area
    Still.
     
Thread Status:
Not open for further replies.

Share This Page

molar-endocrine