Your favorite CD to test the sound of speakers?

[agidol]

What CD do you bring to the retailer when you shop for new speakers. I like to bring Grover Washington Jr's greatest hits -- usually play "take five (take another five)".

[Dusty Chalk]

I actually did shop for new speakers recently, and brought the following albums:

Einstürzende Neubauten, Silence is Sexy -- bass
Stabbing Westward, Darkest Days -- "busy" music
Costanzo Festa, La Spagna (SACD; has some really nasty sonorities if the system is bad in the area of THD)
Mike Oldfield, Tubular Bells (also SACD) -- transients, and just plain familiarity
Ghost in the Shell soundtrack -- there's a slow, four-note synth motif that plays just before the main melody kicks back in, during the "Main Titles" track (#1), that's usually a wash of noise on most systems.

[DPM]

A little over a year ago I was auditioning speakers to purchase for my brother as a present. They were to be used with his recording gear. I brewed up a CDR of favorite tracks then hit the stores. Here is the track list:

1) No Ego's Under Water/Aquarium Rescue Unit--This tune is somewhat bright, but it is punchy.
2) Time Waits For No One/Ambrosia--Alan Parsons engineered this song. It sounds great, and I know it well.
3) The Foot Of Our Stairs/Jethro Tull--Ian Anderson's deep voice is great for checking out the upper bass/low midrange of speakers.
4) West County/Bela Fleck--Deep bass guitar on this one, and the banjo helps to highlight any excessive brightness in the upper mids.
5) The Embrace/Al DiMeola--Nice guitar tone and lively dynamics.
6) Mahle Jchi/R. Robertson & Red Rd. Ensemble--Very well recorded female vocals.
7) 6:00/Dream Theatre--Hey, the speakers have to be able to handle the heavy stuff.
8) The Indian Problem/Djam Karet--Some fairly deep/punchy drum transients on this moody number.
9) South Bound Traveller/Al DiMeola--Nicely recorded percussion and articulate bass guitar.
10) Your Latest Trick/Dire Straits--Gotta' test them speakers with some sax.
11) Waitin' For The Bus/ZZ Top--Down and gritty blues rock that shouuld retain its nature on the speakers in question.
12) The Crucible/White Willow--Well recorded prog instrumental with flute and decent dynamic range.
13) Spring/Vivaldi--Gotta' try the classical.

Dave M

[Demetrio]

Some favorites of mine:

- BRIAN BROMBERG - Wood
- VERTU- Vertu
- BOZZIO LEVIN STEVENS - Black Light Syndrome & Situation Dangerous
- CARLA LOTHER - Ephemera
- HECTOR ZAZOU - Lights in the Dark
- PORCUPINE TREE - In Absentia & Signify (REMASTER)

Demetrio.

[nobody]

Make sure you play plenty of what you like to listen to. The most important thing is that they sound good when you're doing your regular listening.

I'd also suggest playing some crappy recordings on them to see how they sound in a worst case scenario. You don't want something that makes some stuff unlistenable.

In my opinion, those really good recordings don't necessarily tell you all you need to know about speakers. Sure, the great recordings sound great. You need to find out how what you really listen to will sound and how well they handle problematic discs.

[kexodusc]

I use:
Alter Bridge...hey if a pair of speakers can make this crap sound good...I'm definitely gonna buy them.

[Pat D]

Initially, I listen to selected examples of full orchestra with massed strings, male vocals, female vocals, mixed chorus, and piano.

There are a number of CDs that could be used and most of these types of music can be found on a good classical sampler. Since I have used it for so many years, I have used the DENON NEW RELEASES Classical Sampler 1985/1986, Denon GES-9079, and for consistency, I keep on using it. I get part of Schubert's 9th Symphony on Band 9, and operatic excerpts on Bands 10 and 11.

I'd suggest you find a sampler that provides material which often sounds different on different speakers and which tells you what you want to know. There are quite a few sampler discs available and they usually don't cost very much since they are basically promotional discs.

I use a variety of other material for those speakers that pass the gauntlet of the sampler selections, such as Beethoven or Brahms symphonies, Roger Whittaker, Dire Straits, Diana Krall, Patricia Barber, Mozart's Requiem, Vladimir Horowitz (piano), Three Blind Mice jazz recordings, and so on.

[Mr MidFi]

I also use a demo comp, with a bunch of varied stuff on it. The tracks I can remember include:
Porcupine Tree - Radioactive Toy
Eagles - Hotel California (live acoustic)
Nora Jones - Lone Star
Sting - All This Time
Steely Dan - Babylon Sisters
JC Mellencamp - Your Life Is Now
Yes/Steve Howe - Mood for a Day
Mark Knopfler - Speedway in Nazareth
Aerosmith - Living on the Edge

[Pat D]

I also use a demo comp, with a bunch of varied stuff on it. The tracks I can remember include:
Porcupine Tree - Radioactive Toy
Eagles - Hotel California (live acoustic)
Nora Jones - Lone Star
Sting - All This Time
Steely Dan - Babylon Sisters
JC Mellencamp - Your Life Is Now
Yes/Steve Howe - Mood for a Day
Mark Knopfler - Speedway in Nazareth
Aerosmith - Living on the Edge

Yes, it makes it easier and more efficient for everybody, both you and the store employees.

[Javier]

The last time i went to sample speakers i took with me:
1.- Roger waters amused to death, Q recording excellent for soundstage, with lot of fine details.
2.- Dead can dance into the labyrinth an excellent choice for female voice i use The wind that sahkes the barlow ( a capella from Lisa).
3.- Erich Kunzel and cincinnatti pops on Telarc, i think you should hear a full orchestra on your speaker of choice from this one i sampled The seven magnificent and also sprach zaratustra.
4.- Al Dimeola orange and blue.
5.- Diana Krall when i look into yoy eyes.
6.- Also some dvd Like Yes shimphonic and Roger waters .
7.- cat Stevens mona bone jackon remastered.

[RGA]

If you had a LOT of time I would do this and you don't need any recordings and you'd be surprised how well it works - Does not require the products fom company who wrote the article either http://www.audionote.co.uk/anp1.htm

But basically it doesn't matter what you throw it at from any genre - good speakers will play Everything extremely well - if not - keep looking.

Still - even I don't have the time commitments to follow the article and it would work better if two sets of speakers are at the front of the room which works for Audio Note because they're supposed to be in corners but most speakers should be 3-4feet into the room so comparing 2 like that is very tough.

So I usually Bring a wide variety of music and recording qualities to the table:

I don't bring everything at each session but I might pull out 4-5 from each general genre.

So Classical/instrumental or what I call Pop Classical:

Yo Yo Ma "Classic Yo-Yo"
Beethoven "Piano Sonata Vol 1"
Beethoven (9 symphonies)
Albinoni "Adagio" (I love the oboe maybe because I used to play it but more that Albinoni makes it sound right).
Bach - The Art of Fugue
Correlli - Concerti Grossi - nos. 1-6 and 7-12
Chopin - Nocturnes - Vol 1
Dvorak - Serenade for Wind
Naxos - Art of the Baroque Trumpet
Liszt - Years of Pilmgrimage
Handel - Fireworks ...
Vivaldi(again my liking for the oboe and organ) He's my favorite.
Emma Shaplin - Carmine Meo
Mozart - COncerto Flute And Harp - Violin Concertos 3 and 5. String Quintets(complete), Piano Concertos (complete),

Jazz/New Age

Pat Metheny group - several tracks - next time i'm going in with the LP's
Jane Bunnet - various tracks
Paul Desmond - Take Ten
Ella Fitgerald - a 3 disc set
Dianna Krall - "Girl in the Other Room and certain tracks off of her previous albums
Miles Davis "Kinda Blue" -- Kinda Obvious
Deodato "Also Sprach Zarathustra"
Natalie Cole "Unforgettable"
Norah Jones - both albums
Acoustic Alchemy - (never go out without these guys)
The YellowJackets.
Angela McCluskey - She was on sampler i liked the song - go to order it and they don't sellt the album??? Had to order it??? what's the point of samplers if you don't carry them??? Anyway she has quite a unique voice. Unique will be loathed or loved - she's groing on me. Ther eis a lot of hall effects in her first track which is interesting.

The Rest:
Rory Block "Tornado"
Jesse Cook "Tempest"
Madonna "Immaculate Collection" - and tracks "Vogue" and "Die Another Day"
Tina Turner "Simply the Best"
Dido "Life For Rent"
Leahy: Lakefield (Excellent fiddle highland dance group from Eastern Canada)
Sarah McLachlan - Pretty much all of her stuff - including her Re-mixed Trance disc
Delerium hits - Trance/progressive.
Phil Collins - But Seriously
Santana - Abraxas and Shaman
Loreena McKenitt - Parallell Dreams, The Visit.
The Outfield "Play Deep and Voices of Babylon"
Jackson Browne "The Pretender and Running on Empty"
Areosmith "Pump"
Motley Crue "Dr.Feelgood"

Some others I usually bring a lot less- (Lee Morgan, The Beautiful South "Welcom to and Carry on Up the charts", Don Henley "The end of the Innoocence" Gowan, Gloria Estefan "Greatest Hits", Fleetwood Mac "The Dance", Jewel "This Way", Corona "Rythm of the Night" from Dance mx 94, Enya "Sheppard Moon", Sarah Brightman "La Luna", Deanna Carter, Bad Company "Holy water", Amanda Marshall, Eric Clapton "Unplugged", Goo Goo Dolls "Dizzy up the Girl", Linda Rondstadt, Mike Oldfield "Tubular Bells II", Dave Brubeck Quartet "Time out Take Five", David Sanborn "Closu-up, Pearls, SOngs from the Night Before", Patricia Barber "Cafe Blue", Sade "Greatest hits, Promise, Diamond Life, Schindler's List Sound track, Amadeus Soundtrack,

Yes I had nothing to do tonight.