Hi-Fi test cds/sacds

hello everyone,

got curious of whether any of you use and recommend any particular hifi testing cd... i know there are several around, but any of them in particular that you find more effective?

similarly, if there are particular tracks that have done the job, or showed something interesting in your systems, it would be really interesting to know about them (i remember not long ago reading about a song - cat stevens i believe - where there he taps the guitar or something, that was used to show the detail of a system).

to start it off - Album: "Blood", Artist: This Mortal Coil,
Track 7 - "Nature's Way": has, right at the beginning, a woman whispering a sentence... only recently I noticed that she said something, and with my latest speakers, I can actually understand her clearly...

Ok, curious to hear your experiences.

Cheers,
Jack

 

The latest issue of Hi-Fi+ has some comments in it regarding Layla from Eric Clapton's Unplugged album:

"...I usually listen to the track "Layla" because I like it and there are all sorts of inner details that appear or disappear depending on the system being used. In particular, I find it a useful track to demonstrate the effects of sub-woofers and super-tweeters. Details like the piano (which effectively plays in a different time signature at certain key points in the chorus) highlight a system's timing ability.

'Layla' has a distint ChunkaChunkaChunk [sic!!] sort of rhythmic swing, and needs to sound earthy and solid. But when you listen, home in on the piano - notice how audible it is and whether you can tell what it's doing at all times. Also notice how apparent the audience is; not just when someone whistles or shouts "Whoaa!", but whether there's a constant background of audience noise. And listen to the harmonies of the backing singers - can you hear the pitches of the notes clearly."

Regardless of all that guff, it's a great CD....

 

a fire alarm on the massive attack track heat mizer on protection (iirc) just before the piano comes in.

the waves on madonas swim - forget the album.

propellerheads - on her majestys sectret service from desc and drums and rock and roll for fast deep bass.
cheers


julian

 

Having done some bake-offs/listening tests lately...

Eels - Flyswatter, Mr E's Beautiful Blues - great tracks for bass definition and tightness, as well as general ability to resolve complex and dirty mixes.

Eleanor McEvoy - I've got you to see me through - surprising bass depth and weight from this track, in conjunction with a very clearly recorded vocal. Good for presence.

Train - Homesick, Swaying - Channel separation and central image location.

 

dicovered the sting track a thousand years (brand new day cd ) at work the other week, it starts off with some realy low stuff before the 'real' music starts ,enough for the subsonic protection to kick in on some of our amps when we cranked it up a bit

 

Damien Rice '0'-close miced and multi layered-soundstage

Alison Krauss and Union Station-New Favourite-any sibiliance?

Nick Drake -Pink Moon-resolution,can you hear him sliding the frets?

Kings Of Leon-how tight is the base?

Metallica-Sandman-how loud can you go and still keep it real?

 

both seconded. also listen for some obscenely deep rumbles on the Madonna track

on the OHMSS tip, have a listen to the David Arnold 'Shaken not Stirred' 007 tribute album. The various Bond film tunes covered by outstanding artists for example Pulp, Natacha Atlas, Propellerheads etc

 

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I just play music I like, as wide a selection as possible, and if I like the way it sounds that's all I'm bothered with.

-- Ian

 

Jacintha - Danny boy - vocals only, wonderful air and naturalness to her voice

Apocalyptica - Nothing Else Matters - 4 cellos playing Metallica, nuff said

Portishead - Roads (live from NYC) - Ambient, haunting, scary

Cowboy Junkies - anything from the llamas CD - closemiked acoustic set, soundstage, instrument seperation and location

And this is the stuff I love to listen to everyday.

 

ian,
yes but after an upgrade certain things have stuck out on these tracks and made an impression during normal listening.
cheers


julian

 

That would be 'Ray Of Light' then

Second the Propellerheads track. Didn't know it was on Decks and Drums... I'll have to look out for that one.

Here are some others I use...

Satriani/Johnson/Vai - G3 Live - Zap

Dire Straits - Love Over Gold - Private Investigations

Massive Attack - Mezzanine - Teardrop (deep deep bass)

Leftfield - Leftism (all of it)

Prodigy - Fat Of The Land - Narayan

Sinead O'Connor - I Do Not Want... - Feel So Different
Sinead O'Connor - I Do Not Want... - The Last Day Of Our Acquaintance

Sisters Of Mercy - Floodland - Flood II

 

Seconded - Chris, get the David Arnold 'Shaken not Stirred' 007 tribute album as mentioned by Rory above. It has, AFAIK, the longest and baddest version of the OHMSS Propellerheads track and the rest of the album is pretty awesome too.

A few of mine (in addition to the above):

Nitin Sawhney - "Nadia" from Beyond Skin

Tracy Chapman - the whole first album but particularly "Behind the Wall".

...I have a few more but can't think of them at the moment. I do find it's easy to get obsessed about your favourite test tracks and then all you end up listening to is those same 5 or 6 tracks, especially if you're making frequent changes or tweaks to your system. That way lies madness IMO and you'll soon only be listening to your system instead of the music.

Michael.

 

Nine Inch Nails 'Kinda I Want To' (from Pretty Hate Machine) - should sound so intense and disorientating that it's hard to listen to. If it just sort of passes you by then something's wrong with your system.

Lene Marlin 'Sitting Down Here' - quite the opposite, it should sound so light, clear and sensual that you want to listen to it for days on end.

I agree somewhat with Micheal's comment. If you constantly seek out a few fantastic sounding tracks and listen to them over and over it can make other albums sound 'bad' in comparison and put you off listening to great music that just doesn't happen to be recorded/produced immaculately.

 

I take the worst produced albums I own with the best music (early Chilli Peppers, Bran Van, and others). If I enjoy the music more, then it's an upgrade. Anything else is totally irrelevent unless willy waving is the order of the day and you want to impress your mates IMO

 

If your system can play "Benedictus" on the Naxos Mozart Requiem without any trace of distortion on the female vocals, at realistic volume, then it's quite good.

Praying I never hear 'Nadia' again! Stunt-bass a go-go.

 

On Dark Side of the Moon there is an intro with a load of clocks striking the hour. It's pretty good at testing the resolution and timbral accuracy of the mid through treble range of a system.

Also, on "So" by Peter Gabriel there are several tracks that vary from very thin to quite bass heavy. If a system is bass heavy or over bright it will make one or more of the tracks severely unbalanced tonaly. The bass on a couple of tracks is also good for judging a systems bass response/extension/accuracy.

GTM

 

Interesting. I'll try that one when I get home

 

For no particular reason, other than the fact that I happen to like them and thus know them well, I tend to use some of the following as 'test' tracks:

Dido - Life for rent
Feeder - Yesterday went too soon
Madonna - The power of goodbye
Dire Straits - Money for nothing, sultans of swing, down to the waterline
Manic street preachers - From despair to where
N.E.R.D - Things are getting better (I like the drums at the start on this)
Oasis - Supersonic & Acquiese (also use 'Whats the story?' to see how certain equipment can make a really crap recording sound....usually still crap but thats the production of the CD )
Ramones - Garden of serenity
Queen - Headlong
Propellerheads - Spybreak
RHCP - Venice Queen, Soul to squeeze
Rob D - Furious Angels
Travis - Love will come through
Turin Brakes - Underdog, Emergency 72
AC-DC - Live album
U2 - Hold Me thrill me, kiss me, kill me and One
The Pixies - Gigantic (Live), Planet of sound, letter to memphis

Theres not necessarily anything special in some of the tracks that I am listening for, I just happen to like them and know how they sound on my own system. The above doesn't really represent my taste in music either, theres very little techno, D&B or hip hop there, but alot of its not really delicate enough to show up other than bass performance to be fair

 

similarly great to test for saturation - on the soundtrack to natural born killers, the NIN track "burn" as it builds toward the end, on lesser systems it just sounds like noise on good systems you can hear each distinct strand.

on the same album there's also cowboy junkies, and leonard cohen, which are also great tracks recorderd well, that are really highlighted by a good system.
frankly it's just one of the best soundtrack albums ever.

also mc 900 ft jesus - one step ahead of the spiders.
the sound of the rain and thunder at the begining of the first track, and just the whole album that is just some of the best tripped out sort of jazz / funk... and considering, it is just a nicely produced album.

 

Very interesting some of the choice of tracks here!
I also use things like Massive Attack and Propellerheads (for the bass) often, but tend to use a few classical tracks as well. For example, I use a cd from the "Strad" magazine, called "Violins of Cremona" which is, imho, very well recorded. I use it to see if the system resolves the piano and brings it enough to the fore, making it sound natural but not too present.

Another cd I use is a percussion cd by Hassam Ramzy called "Sabla Tolo". Absolutely amazing stuff. And, almost forgot, the soundtrack for "Tous les matins du monde", where you can hear Jordi Savall's fingers moving.

Of course, generally, I hear what I enjoy, as those are the things i am used to know how they sound... Tom Waits "The Black Rider" is another really good sounding cd, on my system.

Surprised you mentioned Prodigy. I have the "Fat of the Land" cd and at least on my system the highs are really agressive and the recording sounds really rough and flat... One I would use as a rough recording as mentioned before... Same goes, unfortunately, to most 80s indie stuff, including my beloved Pixies...

So none of you lot uses any of these commercially available hifi tuning and testing cds?

Cheers!
:beer:
Jack