CDs to take to the loudspeaker store

Tubular Bells - Mike Oldfield

 

Ha ha ha...but actually, I really believe in taking metal to listen to speakers. Separates the men from the boys or whatever. A lot of speakers can sound lovely with solo female voice or small ensemble classical, but crank up something with a lot of complex texture and they subside into a mass of awful distortion. I like Iron Maiden's Piece Of Mind and Motorhead's No Sleep 'Til Hammersmith.
P.S. Actually the ICP title to take is
https://www.amazon.com/Wraith-Shangri-Icp/dp/B000085RTG
because in an interview they said they told the producer? engineer? to put as much bass in every channel (including LFE) as possible. Only $19! Heck, maybe I'll get one, haven't heard it in ages.

 

On less strident notes, I'd nominate
George Benson Give Me The Night
Steely Dan Aja (the title track in particular)
Handel Messiah John Eliot Gardiner/English Baroque
Lee Ritenour Festival
Handel, Water Music, Trevor Pinnock/English Concert (though perhaps a tad...not bright exactly, but...)
Miles Davis Sketches of Spain
Herb Alpert & The Tijuana Brass Whipped Cream and Other Delights (2005 Shout! Factory edition)
and for something a bit different Vivaldi Four Seasons on Japanese Koto:
Vivaldi* / Handel* - The New Koto Ensemble Of Tokyo, Yoshikazu Fukumura - The Four Seasons / Water Music • Royal Fireworks-Suites
also on quadraphonic LP!

 

If I were in that situation, I'd take these:

Aerial Boundaries-Michael Hedges (Title track)
December-George Winston (Thanksgiving)
Advent at Ephesus
Watercolors-Pat Metheny
Dream So Real-Gary Burton Quintet (Vox Humana)

Silk Degrees-Boz Scaggs (MFSL gold cd)
Freddy Jones Band s/t (Texas Skies, This Time Around)
Tour de Force: Shepherd's Bush-Joe Bonamassa (Last Kiss)
Hasten Down The Wind-Linda Ronstadt (Lose Again, Try Me Again, Give One Heart, Down So low)
Get Your Ya-Ya's Out-Rolling Stones (Sympathy, Street Fighting Man)

Communique'-Dire Straits
Golden Heart-Mark Knopfler (Darling Pretty, title track)
To Our Children's Children's Children-Moody Blues MFSL gold (Out & In)
Rickie Lee Jones s/t
Collection-Annie Lennox (Why, No More I Love You's, Waiting In Vain)

Northern Sky-Nick Drake
Fanfare for the Common Man-Aaron Copland
Vespers-Rachmaninoff
Judith-Judy Collins (The Moon's A Harsh Mistress, Send In The Clowns, Salt of the Earth)
Hejira-Joni Mitchell (Amelia)

 

When I demo my McIntosh c2500 I brought a drive with 24/96 needle drops. They were what I had been listening to and knew the best. Ultimately I brought a demo unit home and spent a weekend listening to everything I could.

Speakers may be hard to demo at home. I don't know if it is even possible. I would think for a fee they could. If I ever spend more than 5g I would want to hear them at home.

 

The trouble is that a lot of the recommendations above are so well recorded that they would sound great even on average loudspeakers..

 

Having recently been on a speaker quest of my own, I'd tend to agree with those who suggest taking CDs that offer a range of different types of music AND with a range of recording quality(ies). It's mighty tempting to take along a handful of well recorded favourites but the chances are they won't, in themselves, demonstrate all of what the speakers are or are not capable of. Metal can help in the context of showing up speakers tending towards harshness and might also help to show up speakers that can't really keep up with "fast" music. I went armed with some of the harshest (i.e. bad remasterings) recordings I have as well as some that were "middle of the road" mastered albums. I completely avoided Pink Floyd, despite much of their music being amongst my favourite listening. Why? Because, IMO, other material and recordings were a better and wider ranging test for potential speakers.

All the very best with your search and I hope you get the right set first time with zero "buyer regret".

 

Aqualung (Steven Wilson remix.)

 

So, you are buying speakers to make bad mastering sound good? I don't think that's going to happen.

 

Phoebe Snow (S/T) Fine vocals and acoustic accompaniment.

 

Speakers that can make a bad mastering sound more bearable might be an advantage.Depends what sort of speakers Kevin is looking for.There are so many analytical speakers that can make the 20% of good recordings out there sound excellent.In my view really talented speakers can make a higher percentage of your everyday recordings sound listenable and enjoyable.

 

If you play a lot of poorly mastered cds this may be a plus. I avoid poorly mastered sources, so my interest is what will do well mastered sources justice.

 

So by avoiding all poorly mastered CD's,you are ruling out ever listening to well over half of all musical content ever produced.No doubt including many of your favourite artists and albums.

I tried that once.Separating my well mastered CD's from my overall CD collection.And even though i always research and seek out the best possible master for every album i purchase.I still had only about 20% of my collection in the 'well mastered' section.

 

I will play a cd if I like the music, but prefer well mastered sources. That's why I play a lot of original vinyl pressings (all analog). As far as speakers, I look for accuracy, not utility.

 

The question I think one should ask of a speaker isn't "how will it deal with recordings I don't like" but "how does it deal with these sonic facts relevant to the music I'm interested in ? How does it render deep bass, the human voice, instrumental density, etc.". The same questions you ask of a recording, as a matter of fact.

 

As others have mentioned, start with your favorite CDs, including stuff that doesn't sound that good with your current speakers. If your taste includes solo piano, include that in your evaluation set because it is the easiest way to hear if the tonal balance is uneven (notes will pop out too prominently in certain parts of the frequency range).

There is a temptation to take mostly really high end recordings, but, the "problem" with that approach is that these recordings can make every speaker sound decent. I would take a couple great recordings and the rest being stuff closer to my every day favorites. There a a lot of good suggestions, including your own (I love the Herreweghe B minor mass both for recording quality and musical performance). The Getz-Gilberto recording mentioned above is also terrific sounding, but with overly prominent upper bass (that boomy quality is actually helpful because speakers that are themselves boomy will sound quite bad). The Saxophone Colossus suggestion is very good because it has great instrumental timbre and fast, but natural instrumental attack (as a mono recording, it will not help with stereo imaging, but, I think it is one of the finest mono recordings out there).

If you can, you should transfer to a flash drive a selection of favorite cuts from many of your favorite albums; do the transfer in lossless FLAC or WAV files. Most dealers will find it easier to do an audition this way rather than spinning any kind of disc.

 

All suggestions are appreciated. Thanks for the input.

I think I’m leaning toward accuracy and transparency (I know, that’s redundant) rather than something that smooths over harshness in bad recordings. Anything that smoothes over a bad recording is also going to render a good recording less lifelike.

 

I would choose a recording such as Counting Crows -August And Everything After

A dense but decent recording.A lot going on in the mix.

With good equipment it will sound fairly smooth,and detailed with good bass definition.With a less than great equipment it can sound a bit congested and harsh.

 

You make a very good point about bringing your "worst" CD. This is so true, I would have to bring an old ZZ Top CD as well as a couple of terrible Jethro Tull CD's. both should be thrown away.

 

So, what have you, at least tentatively, decided on as your audition albums?

 

You don't seem like a reggae guy, but my own personal choices would include those Diament-mastered Marley CDs. There's a lot of percussive elements that add texture and a fair amount of instrumentation included all together. Seems like these would give a good idea on clarity/accuracy.

 

Lou Reed's 80ies output

 

I have already posted a few on this thread. A few more to follow. Stand by.

 

¡Tiempo Latino! A Celebration of Latin Jazz
The Airmen of Note
Bob Dawson, engineer