Benchmark albums and numbers for auditioning equipment

[jls001]

To get back to the thread, I would think that one must take along music that one is intimately familiar with, or at least familiar with to a good extent. It's nice to have discs like Chesky's Ultimate, etc, but they will serve their purpose if the listener has familiarised himself beforehand. My test CD consisted of the following tracks, for reasons explained against each track (of course, your mileage will vary):

1. Rebecca Pidgeon - Spanish Harlem (female voice, resolving between very closely spaced instruments)
2. Mozart - Piano Sonata No 11 in A Major K.331 (right handed piano sound, piano transients)
3. Jim Reeves - I'll Fly Away (baritone voice handling, and noise handling as this old record was qiute noisy)
4. Alan Parsons Project - Limelight (beautiful transient attack and decay in the intro)
5. River of Sorrow - Hui Fen Min (Erhu) and Michelle Li (Yang Qin) - extremely high dynamics, and nice string sound)
6. Tears in Heaven - Ayako Hosokawa (beautiful female voice and a slur sexier than Smokie Robinson's)
7. Alan Jackson - Bring On the Night (baritone voice, violin and piano)
8. Steely Dan - Home At Last (sax and drum transient responses)
9. Deep Purple - Smoke On The Water (hard rock)
10. Vince Gill - Look at Us (very light and airy sound)
11. Queen - Another Bites The Dust (pounding bass line)
12. Tears for Fears - Women in Chains (stereo imaging and sound staging)
13. Evanescense - Bring Me To Life (not a particularly good number but one can't deny its loud!)
14. Dire Straits - Water of Love (low bass and low freq drums)
15. John Barry - Long and Winding Road (nice song, I like it more than the orig Beatles)
16. Extreme - More Than Words (acoustic guitar and hall ambience)
17. The Police Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic (another nice song!)

If one wants to go to subterranean bass, then one must consider something like Christian McBride playing acoustic standing bass for Diana Krall, or classical organ passages where the lowest registers can go down to 32 Hz. If you will listen to classical, I strongly recommend Handel's Messiah choral works for the dynamic variations - this can be very frustrating to listen to without remote as the low passage are too low and need to be jacked up, and loud passages are too loud and needs to be toned down. Sometimes, a normalised MP3 is easier on the ear!

Of course, I didn't inflict all the tracks on the hapless shopwallah!

Right now, my reference album on both LP and CD is Steely Dan's Aja. This album, to my mind, is what a good mastering should be. I thought my Euro pressing and the MoFi pressing were good, when I listened to malvai's limited edition Cisco pressing. This one is tighter than a rodent's gluteus:lol:

 

[denom]

This is one of my definitive lists:

From W to A Running in opposite direction just like me hyeah:

All tracks with specific instances that have taken place in my life at certain intervals, hence totally relate to & know them tracks inside out

Whitesnake - In The Still Of The Night /
Velvet Revolver - Fall To Pieces
Van Halen - Runaround
van halen - Dreams
van halen - jump (1984 album version)
Van Halen - Poundcake /
Ugly Kid Joe - Everything About You
Uriah Heep - July Morning
Uriah Heep - Gypsy
U2 - Vertigo /
U2 - Sunday Bloody Sunday
The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
The Rolling Stones - Angie /
Tom Petty - Last Dance With Mary Jane
The Police - Every Breath You Take
Tesla - Cumin Atcha Live
Tears For Fears - Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Switchfoot - Stars
STING - IF I EVER LOSE MY FAITH IN YOU
Steve Vai - For The Love Of God /
Steely Dan - Bodhisattva /
Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun /
Skid Row - Wasted Time
Shania Twain - Kaching /
Shakira - Attension Tango /
Scorpions - Rock You LIke A Hurricane
Scorpions - Still Loving You
Santana - Black Magic Woman
Sade - No Ordinary Love
Rush - Tom Sawyer /
Reo Speedwagon - Take It On The Run
Red Hot Chilli Peppers - Aeroplane
QUEEN - Breakthrough /
Pink Floyd - Money
Pearl Jam - Alive
Pantera - Cemetry Gates /
Ozzy Osbourne - Crazy Train
Norah Jones - Sunrise
Norah Jones - Come Away With Me
No Doubt - Hellagood /
No Doubt - Don't Speak
Niladri Kumar - Priority
Mr. Mister - Broken Wings
Metallica - Nothing Else Matters
Metallica - Hero Of The Day /
Maxi Priest - Close To You
Lynrd Skynrd - Freebird
Lionel Ritchie - Hello
Lenny Kravitz - Are You Gonna Go My Way /
Lenny Kravitz - Again
Led Zeppelin - Travelling Riverside Blues
Led Zeppelin - Stairway To Heaven
LEd Zeppelin - Black Dog /
Kulashaker - Govinda /
Kings of Leon - Use Somebody /
Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby /
Judas Priest - Judas Is Rising
Joe Satriani - Crystal Planet /
Jimi Hendrix - All along the Watchtower /
Jethro Tull - Aqualung
Iron Maiden - Nomad /
Iron Maiden - Can I Play WIth Madness
INXS - NOT ENOUGH TIME
Hoobastank - The Reason
Guns N'Roses - Sweet Child OF Mine /
Goo Goo Dolls - Iris
Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams
Green Day - Basket Case
Gary Moore - Still Got The Blues
Foo Fighters - Best of You /
Extreme - More Than Words
Europe - The Final Countdown
Eric Clapton - Wonderful Tonight
Eric Johnson - MAnhatten
Edwyn Collins - A Girl Like You /
Eagles - Hotel California (NOT THE ACOUSTIC VERSION PLS!!)
DOORS - RIDERS ON THE STORM /
DIRE STRAITS - YOU & YOUR FRIEND /
Dire Straits - Tunnel Of Love
Dire Straits - Money For Nothing /
DIRE STRAITS - FADE TO BLACK
Depeche Mode - Personal Jesus
Depeche Mode - Its no good /
Depeche Mode - Enjoy The Silence /
Deftones - My Own Summer (Shove It) /
David Bowie - Let's Dance /
Damn Yankees - High Enough
Creed - My Sacrifice /
Creed - Higher
Creed - With Arms Wide Open
Chris Rea - Nothing to Fear
Chris Rea - The Road To Hell /
Chris Isaac - Wicked Game /
Boston - More Than A Feeling /
Black Eyed Peas - Bebot /
Black Crowes - Remedy /
BeeGees - How Deep Is Your Love
Audio Slave - Cochise /
AUdio Slave - Be Yourself /
Apollo 440 - Raw Power
Alterbridge - Shed My Skin
Allman Brothers - Jessica
Alannah Myles - Black Velvet
Aerosmith - Sweet Emotion /
Aerosmith - Crazy
Aerosmith - Living on the Edge

Never been able to listen to them all at 1 demo for obvious reasons, but have nearly heard 50% at certain fortunate times:lol:

 

[trittya]

Dear Friends,
Many thanks to all those who have contributed.
We, now seem to be making good headway with your invaluable experience, comments and suggestions.
I am slightly busy so have not been able to edit that list which I want to post here for bass freaks like my dear friend Hemant Waghe.
Please bear with me for a little while longer.
Warm regards and sincere Gratitude for your efforts here. I am sure many more forum members will benefit from your suggestions. Lets keep up the good work here.
Cheers

 

[navinmra]

Looking at the wide variety of material that have called out in the posts, I am convinced that each of us build our benchmarks very organically. I mean, we all have our favourite songs. And sometimes as a matter of chance you listen to one of them on a well tuned system. And if you magically hear all the detailing that evaded you all these years, you believe thats your moment of truth. And the song becomes your benchmark reference material, firmly imprinted in your memory. Of course untill something else comes along
Am sure it happens to all of us. I have some memorable experiences to report:

1. I once heard MJ's beat it on an LP played on Project Debut II hooked up to a Denon AV driving a pair of Martin Logan Electrostatic speakers. It wasn't anything I had heard in the 15 odd years the song has been around. You could almost feel the sound engineer working the sound through the entire song.
   
2. Another such experience is when I heard Dave Brubeck's Take 5 on a pair of Focal floor standers driven by a Chord stereo amp. Not only could you point point Mr Brubeck's position on the soundstage, you could hear his breath in some sections - I've never heard Take 5 that way again
   

I'm sure my quest for good faithful sound will one day present me another opportunity to up my benchmark just like these experiences did to my favourite songs.
Happy listening guys!

 

[jls001]

Looking at the wide variety of material that have called out in the posts, I am convinced that each of us build our benchmarks very organically. I mean, we all have our favourite songs. And sometimes as a matter of chance you listen to one of them on a well tuned system. And if you magically hear all the detailing that evaded you all these years, you believe thats your moment of truth. And the song becomes your benchmark reference material, firmly imprinted in your memory. Of course untill something else comes along
Am sure it happens to all of us. I have some memorable experiences to report:

How very true!

Eureka moments for me:
1. Extreme's III Sides To Every Story was my favourite album in college, and I had it on 90 minute metal tape, original and not copied from friends. My player was a trusty Thai-made National Panasonic 2-in-1 with 20 Watts RMS. It didn't really play loud for the rock music that I so favoured in those growing days, but it had nice mids and highs and about zero LF. I changed the head with ones purchased from Koti in Hyderabad (I don't know if that area still has those electronic-wallas), but it didn't really change the sound signature. But it sounded worse than my friend's UNICEF-issue Crown Walkman. This little walkman was battered and bruised and had long been missing the cassette lid, but its sound was way better than any Sony or Aiwa walkman I'd heard of the era, but then I am digressing (do allow me some nostalgia).

When I recently picked up the same album from an airport bookshop on CD and gave it a listen, there were so many details that had never revealed themselves in the cassette, especially the string section. It raised Nuno Bettencourt a few more notches in my (already high) esteem.

2. I had liked Alan Parson's Limelight from my college days. When I auditioned my current amp and speakers, the attack and decay on the intro synth on this number was altogether something else. I'd never heard such a fast attack and decay, making the music so much more realistic and immediate. The inclusion of that number in my test CD contributed in no small way to my decision to buy the amp. Later, by a circuitous and convoluted turn of events - much of which was unfortunately unpleasant, I ended up with the same model of speakers that I had auditioned on.

Joshua

 

[captrajesh]

we all have our favourite songs. And sometimes as a matter of chance you listen to one of them on a well tuned system. And if you magically hear all the detailing that evaded you all these years, you believe thats your moment of truth. And the song becomes your benchmark reference material, firmly imprinted in your memory.

Very well said. +1:clapping:

 

[trittya]

Sorry for keeping the bass freaks' list pending for so long.
Here it is, Hemant, this is for you. . .
This list is essentially for bass freaks !
(the likes of my dear friend Hemant Waghe. Hemant, buddy, hope you have multiple eargasms listening to all this)
The fact (or likelihood thereof) that the manufacturer (SVS) actually designed and tuned/tweaked their subs in accordance with these titles/tracks cannot be ruled out and needs to be duly discounted/accounted for.

QUOTE

Bass Demo Music
You thought maybe all the good bass was in movies? Think again. Some of the newest, and some of the oldest music you are likely to run into can have prodigious bass that'll put many action flicks to shame! Check out some of these selections below, and feel free to forward any you feel out to be on the list. We'd be happy to measure and add them someday. With SACS and DVD-Audio hitting the mainstream finally, you can find clean and inspiring bass in all sorts of places. Yes, even in the lowly CD!

Since we know you're wondering, we did the low class scandalous stuff first. Finally, we've addressed some of the more well know classical and "pipe organ" music. Just because we know who the "Beastie Boys" are doesn't mean SVS hasn't been caught enjoying Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D minor! Wonder what sort of bass it takes for music to sound real? Look no further than the below torture tests, and we dare you to admit you have delved into both sections... "Classical" and "Head banger".

Classical repertoire!
Mahler From the DTS demo DVD.

"Mahler's Symphony No. 2" Finale
Tchaikovsky Telarc recording, also from the DTS demo DVD. Can any audio collection be complete without this stirring standard?
"1812 Overture" by the Cincinnati Symphony
"1812 Overture" Final cannon shots
The below selection are from Michael Murray's "Organ Blaster CD" sampler
Johann Sebastian Bach "Toccata and Fugue in D minor" the quintessential organ bass classic.
All below time selections from the Skinner/Schilicker organs, First Congregational Church in Los Angeles:

Andre' Campra "Riqaudon from Idomeneo" Aeolian-Skinner organ, Church of the Advent, Boston:


Joseph Jongen "Toccata from the Symphonie Concertante", Ruffati organ, Davis Symphony Hall in San Francisco:


Charles Marie Widor "Toccata from Symphonie No. 5, Opus 42", Aeolian-Skinner organ, Symphony Hall, Boston:



Finale*
Antonio Soler "The Emperors Fanfare", Aeolian-Skinner organ, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New York City:

Cesar Franck "Beaucoup from Grande Piece Symphonique, Opus 17, Cavailli-Coll organ, St. Sernin Basilica, Touloise France:

Oliver Messiaen "Dieu Parmi Nous from La Nativite", Ruffatti organ, Davies Symphony Hall:



Josef Rheinberger "Finale fro Concerto in F Major, Opus 137", Willis organ, Royal Albert Hall, London:

John Cook "Fanfare", Willis organ, Salisbury Cathedral, Salisbury England:

Camille Saint Saens "Maestoso from Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, Opus 78", Church of Saint Francis de Sales, Philidelphia:


Head banger ball!
Beastie Boys -- "Brass Monkey" Killer 50Hz stuff.

City of Angels (Soundtrack) -- "Uninvited" The graph shows one "boom" slowly fading, and then the next starts right at the bottom of the graph. Great high 20s bass in this one. If you look closely at the bottom--- you can see the harmonics of the low bass in the actual recording (28/56/84hz peaks).


AC/DC -- "Highway to Hell" The little spikes in the upper right is the guitar intro leading into the kick drum. Any musicians might be able to correlate those to music notes. The kick drum starts toward the bottom. One interesting bit of bass trivia -- there's a bit of 10-18hz noise throughout the track. Maybe a defective high-pass filter? Who said audio was boring?
Metallica "Cunning Stunts" has been something of a head-banger bass standard for some time. See why here:

"Enter Sandman" (cannon shot)* Disk 3 Track 3
"One" (opening gunfire)* Disk 1 Track 7*
Nine Inch Nails -- "Closer"

Notorious B.I.G. -- "Dead Wrong" Main bass is 30hz and up...but there's a good bit of signal real low too --- like 10-20Hz low.

System of a Down -- "Sugar"

Marilyn Manson -- "Great Big White World" At about 45-55 seconds into the song, check out the synthesized bass bridge. And...the end of the same song (see next chart), as the volume drops quickly and just before DOPE SHOW starts (signified by the burst at the very bottom of the chart). More good synthesized stuff down to the mid 20Hz range.

UNQUOTE
The link(Refer to para 9)
SVSound - FAQs

 

[denom]

YouTube - Toccata and Fugue - Bach

Performed at Riga Cathedral on the Organ Of Organs! Listening to it makes the hair at the back of my neck stand!

 

[sam9s]

May i agree to disagree with you, on using your stick too often particularly on this very thread,( i don't know the reason). I think, end of the day, its a forum for conversation among people of mutual interest, I am not writing an official memo so that i need to be so correct with spells.

I do understand that you are moderator, and the job is tough, but please re-think.

Cheers,

+1 BTW, spend some time, and you will know the reason as well ,,,,,,

Anyway coming to the thread topic, what I have experienced during my numreous auditioning and music listening, is........ it does not much depend on the type of music or the artist or the CD as such but........the recording, the studio and quality of the equipment used for the recording ........

With that I have seen "Stockfisch" records produces excellent recording. Recently I was listening to "David Roth - " pearl diver on my friends Dali concept 6 and it seriously was an awsome quality recording, brings out the heart and soul of the music system, and its not even SACD. Just a simple CD. Compare it to any Indian casual 160 rs SONY cd and its crap like hell ...... Another example was when I inserted the usual SONY cd for " I hate love stories " which sounded junk in comparison to a far older movie music CD of Quarbani/Janbaaz recorded in Universal Studio, which sounded excellent and far far better than most of the current movie CDs .......

So you see, it all depends on the level of recording, the studio and the quality of the equipment used ........

Google Stockfisch records for some more information about the audiophile recordings .....

To end A.R Rehman is the only artist I found today that has his recordings at a quality level that can be compared to an Audiophile recording .....