fas42 Posted June 9, 2017 Share Posted June 9, 2017 An old favourite ... Status Quo: 12 Gold Bars. This can tell one so much about the competence of a rig in a short period of time, it would give me a nay in seconds, or indicate that there was potential within - used to be my main test disk, years ago, when wandering through the stores. Link to comment
Popular Post fas42 Posted June 25, 2017 Popular Post Share Posted June 25, 2017 Talking of such, this has been mentioned many times - a goody ... elcorso and PAP 2 Link to comment
fas42 Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 This whole soundtrack album is a fabulous "stress test" for overall competence - huge dynamic swings, tremendously high impact tracks; dense, dense, complex and intensely rich mixes. Most systems would fail dismally, would collapse at the knees trying to project the energy of this music - amazing to listen to if the rig is up to it ... Link to comment
fas42 Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 There's this bizarre idea that only "perfect" recordings are suitable for evaluating systems ... "Enjoy your test drive in the new, super-refined WMB vehicle, sir - I recommend you drive on the new motorway; it's billard table flat, with no curves at all - that will tell you everything you need to know about how this car drives ..." Link to comment
fas42 Posted March 16, 2018 Share Posted March 16, 2018 2 hours ago, Ralf11 said: someone on another site posted that cymbal crashes could be very diagnostic (he was talking about good analog vs. digital tho) This is a goody, Most high end rigs will run screaming, as far away from this as possible - but it's a good test ... . Link to comment
fas42 Posted September 10, 2018 Share Posted September 10, 2018 Peter asked @jabbr and I to stop discussing OT matter on his Ambient, Psybient ... thread - for which I also apologise . But this was added, Quote I listen to a variety of music types both for enjoyment and testing. I tend to use sounds that I’ve heard acoustically eg vocals, and unamplified instruments which have a real reference, but also electronic. I wonder whether a listening impression on something electronic is “better” in a subjective sense when not perfectly accurate eg when even harmonics are added or tubes, the sound can be very pleasing. I heard a demo of a very ambitious setup which started with an extremely percussive piece - this was highly spectacular, seemed to indicate that the rig had the goods ... but then on a vocals plus big band recording fell short, very short. IOW, when one doesn't have a good internal 'reference' as to what the sounds really are like it's much harder to gauge if "anything is wrong". Which leads to saying that something that is pure electronica may sound "better" to some people when the system is adding significant, 'right' distortion. But I've always found that the cleanest reproduction, that gives the best results for conventional acoustical instruments and voices, also is necessary for optimum electronica: what is gained is (a) big sound; the volume can go to any level with no discomfort, it's always "easy to listen to"; (b) pristine treble; much of the interest in synth sounds is the tremendous complexity of the harmonics, and all this is lost when the SQ is below par - "it's boring!"; and (c) richness of acoustic; the intricacy of the myriad sound spaces that these compositions have is a delight to the ears, it's an exercise of exploring, aurally, the complexity, and because we don't 'know' how the spaces should fit together - as we would, say, for an orchestral work - there is an extra layer of discovery when listening. Link to comment
fas42 Posted September 14, 2018 Share Posted September 14, 2018 I was just reminded of THE most telling track on DSOTM for assessing competence, Most rigs botch the climatic points in this track, and it was this I used often when 'debugging' my rig in the early days - could it present these moments with complete clarity, or not. Link to comment
fas42 Posted September 14, 2018 Share Posted September 14, 2018 Redbook. Just a "standard", earlier release. lucretius 1 Link to comment
fas42 Posted September 17, 2018 Share Posted September 17, 2018 I would listen to the following, every time, rather than something from DSOTM, if the rig was up to it ... The hugeness and drive in this type of track gets me very time ... austinpop 1 Link to comment
fas42 Posted September 23, 2018 Share Posted September 23, 2018 3 hours ago, austinpop said: Big fan of ELO myself! Haven't really found any good digital remasters, both redbook and hi-res. Any good pointers? I remember their original vinyl releases being quite nice, but unlike other bands that have gotten the loving remastering treatment, ELO doesn't seem to have. Maybe I'm wrong? The version I have is just a budget CD release of a normal mastering - stocking filler packaging. The SQ is nothing special at all, and will sound very ordinary unless the rig is in tip top shape. I normally always go for original releases, because they have the most musical depth to them - for me. Link to comment
fas42 Posted November 16, 2018 Share Posted November 16, 2018 Tribute albums can have brilliant material - this one I've mentioned before, for Hound Dog Taylor, is an amazing power ride of driving tracks, as good as it gets ... Link to comment
fas42 Posted February 5, 2019 Share Posted February 5, 2019 More amazing that so many people are down on microphones - clever little bastards, they react to all the sound impinging on their diaphragms, just like our ears, and a half decent recording chain captures that information ... . All recordings have the information, no matter how it was captured; but usually it's buried deeper in the mix. This means that the playback chain has to be on its best behaviour, to make all those acoustic clues clear - and most times, that's not the case ... Link to comment
fas42 Posted February 27, 2019 Share Posted February 27, 2019 Why it works on a conventional quality rig is that the recording is so simple in what makes it up that human hearing can still hear past the usual problems of the playback chain, and discover the delights within, . All the microphone has to do is capture the sound field at one point, a trivial exercise, and the music making all makes sense - and sounds good. A car with shockingly badly designed suspension will still feel smooth on a road that has been engineered, and laid down with a laser precison of flatness and accuracy - it's how the bumps are handled, the car's responsibility, that really are what matter .... Not many people want to create 'baby food' recordings - it's up to the rig to do its side of the process correctly. PAP 1 Link to comment
fas42 Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 Can't go past the brilliance of what's on this album, to test a rig in so many ways ... This is an album that shows no limits to how overwhelming music making can present, if people decide to push things ... Josh Mound 1 Link to comment
fas42 Posted March 3, 2019 Share Posted March 3, 2019 From a completely different angle, Brazilian latin lounge music ... I have CD of compilation of efforts from the early 60's to 80's, a freebie by a coffee producing mob from the area; so obscure I couldn't even find it on a Google search - this is meant to be layback music, but the recording technique is very, very 'aggressive', on every track ... if your rig has sibilance issues, then this disk will be a nightmare; the microphones are jammed up hard against everything, and huge artificial reverb is added. Every tiny, tiny irritating aspect in playback is magnified greatly - this is a tough one ... Link to comment
fas42 Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 Speaking of ABBA, I have the original album, as shown at the start here, and this song should be able to blow your roof off, with complete fidelity - a powerful drug, , A slower paced number which tells a lot, Both tracks should be intensely satisying listening experiences ... Link to comment
fas42 Posted April 1, 2019 Share Posted April 1, 2019 I bought the CD many years ago, in Australia, with no thought of getting the "best quality" - it was this specific release, https://www.discogs.com/ABBA-ABBA/release/8429082 I heard a remastering fairly recently of classic ABBA material - shockingly bad, gross bass and badly compressed; so I understand the dilemma ... Link to comment
Popular Post fas42 Posted April 1, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted April 1, 2019 9 hours ago, John Dyson said: For a real trip, listen to Linda Ronstadts recordings -- beautiful vocals, horrible processing (the Aphex distorter (oh, I mean Exciter.) :-)). Ahhh, memories ... my go to is the Simple Dreams album, fabulous stuff, John Dyson, austinpop and christian u 2 1 Link to comment
fas42 Posted April 4, 2019 Share Posted April 4, 2019 In the spirit of Big Music, this soundtrack album, that I've mentioned many times, is a system buster if ever there was one - superbly recorded, this delivers a massive subjective hit if the rig can keep it together at good volumes ... Link to comment
fas42 Posted October 4, 2019 Share Posted October 4, 2019 I was just reminded of this track, which is a current fav for assessing the NAD, Sharp combo, The system juust manages to hang in there, depending upon the status of tune at the time - slightly below par, and the track becomes impossible, sounds a mess ... this sort of recording makes it easy to get a snap, Yes/No verdict, when such is needed. Link to comment
fas42 Posted November 8, 2019 Share Posted November 8, 2019 In a similar vein, and as an example of a "system bustin' " track - I'm sure I've posted this before, but can't see where - this Skyhook's effort - from a proper CD quality version, of course!! - ticks all the boxes, The finale should lift off the roof - in a good way ... in terms of a musical 'climax' they don't get much better ... 😜. Link to comment
fas42 Posted February 7, 2020 Share Posted February 7, 2020 A fabulous, "system busting", CD is this one, Huge, dynamic, driving sound; "liveness" to die for, 🙂 - if a setup has problems, this will rip your ears off, Link to comment
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