What do you listen to to test you new creations?

[Keriwena]

Yet another Dire Straits fan, the album with "Money for Nothin'".
Also, Robbie Roberson's first solo album and Warren Zevon's "Excitable Boy".

For females, Joni Michell, of course, as well as Patti LaBelle, and the Eurythmics.

Acoustic instruments, John Williams (guitar) and John O'Conner (piano).

Oh, and Trevor Pinnock. Lots of Trevor Pinnock.

[Bill poster]

A good test for speakers

Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, 4th movement

f*cking c*nt , Whisker Twister

[sakis]

o but of course your answer is so simple :

Always the same CD .... it is not importand what type of music or recording It is importand though that you know its and everey detail of te specific cd ...

that will be enough

[soongsc]

Man, this is really a difficult subject. But I normally go through lots of different types of music, listen at different levels. Hear are a few things that I have learned from others.
1. Vocals. I never thought I'd put this up first, but vocals have much more detail, emotions, and skills involved. If you learn to appreciate these of specific performers, then these are really the most obvious, and don't change too much with recording methods. They are effected by how they are processed though.

2. Low level detail. The obviousness of recorded room acoustics is a give away. Recordings in dead rooms will sound different from recordings in rooms that are more live and of different sizes. The echo of the room is quite difficult to reproduce since it gets mixed with the systems own stored energy release.

I could go on and on, but the others are really too hair splitting to list out.

[SY]

Vocals for sure, and almost entirely recording done by people whose voices I know well from live interaction. "Lonesome on the Ground" by Steve Edmunds. "The Great Re-arranger" by Robert Ellis. "The Cruelty of Teenage Girls" by Southpaw Jones. "The Barbers" by Lee Barber. "Animal Boy" by Matt the Electrician.

[lduarte1973]

dave matthews band before these crowded streets is a good test cd , lots of diferent instruments , a very good recorded cd , bass is superb , lots of drum details.

[lduarte1973]

i use this cd to set the sub volume and cut off frequency , when it is just righ the whole room shakes with the bass and it´s supertight.

[sofaspud]

I want something with real detail like the fingers of the player moving on the fret board, their breath in the mic.

No vocals, and not fingers per se, but how 'bout Ry Cooder "Dark Is The Night" from his first album? Some good acoustic slide goin' on there with engaging dynamics.

[Soundminded]

I use a variety of recordings but if I had to choose a single one, it would be something with a wide range of acoustical instruments and operatic voices. These are sounds I'm familiar with in the real world and can often tell where the distortions are. The CD release of the 1962 recording of Von Karajan conducting the Beethoven's 9th symphony comes to mind. I'll also try a range of recordings where I know the inherent spectral balance from one to the other is at extremes. This tells me where the speaker falls as far as general overall balance is concerned.

[Pano]

Originally Posted by Soundminded

The CD release of the 1962 recording of Von Karajan conducting the Beethoven's 9th symphony comes to mind.

A grand classic that one! Isn't it the version used on the Clockwork Orange soundtrack? 4th movement, anyway.