CDs to take to the loudspeaker store

After 30 years enjoying Vandersteen 2Cs new circumstances are sending me on a loudspeaker quest (details in another thread). In this thread I’m going to list CDs I plan to take with me when shopping for the speakers I will enjoy for the next 30 years. Chime in if you want to add your suggestions.

 

Vivaldi Flute Concertos
Janet See, flute
Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra
Nicholas McGegan
Harmonia Mundi
Peter McGrath, engineer

 

Donald Fagen "The Nightfly"

 

Nearly anything you like and know well.

 

The organ works of JS Bach
Jean Guillou, organ
Vol. 1
Dorian Recordings
Craig Dory, engineer

 

Take some classics:

Cannibal Corpse - Bloodthirst

Insane Clown Posse - Hell's Pit

Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar

 

JS Bach
Mass in B minor
Philippe Herreweghe
Harmonia Mundi
Veronique Gens, soprano

 

This.

Good recording or bad, you have a baseline understanding about how the disc sounds, so you know what to expect and look for when listening.

 

I could use “Hacksaw Decapitation” to see if the speakers will be easy to hear while I’m down in the basement revving my chainsaw.

 

Pick 5 favourite albums of yours, that you know inside out, then play them.

Pick the speakers that make those 5 albums sound awesome.

That'll work.

 

That's the answer!

 

Take your favorite music, stuff you listen to most often instead of amazing recordings of music you'll never actually listen to. You'll be happiest with new speakers if you're favorite music sounds good through them. Bring stuff that is well recorded and stuff that is not, as long as you like the music.

 

Your best AND your worst-recorded and mastered CD.

 

Things I use:

1. Goldberg Variations, P. Hantai, harpsichord (1st version), Opus 111. Most of Hantai's recordings are pretty good and will tell you a lot about HF reproduction. Lacking that, any good harpsichord recording.
   
2. Schubert Male Choruses, prefer Orphei Drangar on BIS, also good is Robert Shaw on Telarc. Just beautiful and spacious!
   
3. An aria for soprano from an opera you like. I use the Queen of the Night's aria, "Der Hölle Rache kocht in meinem Herzen" (Hell's fury boils in my breast) from Die Zauberflöte. I like the Klemperer version on EMI. The recording is not superb, but the performance is.
4. A Mozart quartet recording by the Mosaiques Quartet. Old-style instruments, recorded well but without edges smoothed, these are close to a worst case for potential screech from decent recordings.
5. Some well-recorded organ music, perhaps Michael Murray on Telarc.
6. Something with oboe, bassoon, clarinet. Are the differences in timbre apparent?
7. A couple of more arias: one for tenor, one for bass. Maybe an operatic duet or trio. Can you separate the strands?
8. Something with piano runs. Do any notes stick out or sound overly steely?

It sounds like you have some of those covered already with your selections.

I think it's important (as @The Pinhead implied) to include recordings that you like musically but that aren't wonderful sonically. Will you enjoy them on the speakers under test?

 

A handful of Reference Recordings, Blues, Jazz and classical, that's all you need.

 

Helom, my gosh you forgot one powerful piece of music:

Walking Corpse- Diminishing Blood Flow

 

Mezzanine-Massive Attack
Time-Ella Mai

 

I agree with taking you something you know and love. If it sounds better than you recall, you're going in the right direction.

 

When I last demoed speakers, I took the widest spectrum of sounds and music I possibly could : things like Couperin's Concerts Royaux, Alexander von Slippenbach's Berlin Contemporary Jazz Orchestra, US Maple, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Miles Davis' Bitches Brew, Luc Ferrari, things like that. It worked well, and it surprised the salesman.

 

My suggestion is to ask the dealer if a usb stick would work. Better than lugging around cds.

 

Make sure the stores you plan to preview at can play CDs.

 

I’ve brought a lot of different stuff over the years but I think I’ve always included this one:

 

The swinging guitar of Tal Farlow
Verve 1956

 

Homage
Mozart string quartets dedicated to Haydn
Alexander Quartet
Foghorn Classics 2004

 

Sonny Rollins
Saxophone Colossus
Analogue Productions
Mastered by Kevin Gray