Just found that Suzanne Vega - Woman on the Tier has some low bass...
YouTube - Suzanne Vega - woman on the tier (I'll see you throught)
Bottomed out my sub the first time I turned it up...
YouTube - Suzanne Vega - woman on the tier (I'll see you throught)
Bottomed out my sub the first time I turned it up...
And add to the above The Tudors (Main Title) - Trevor Morris.
Bloody hell, apart from being a cracking piece, there's some serious low-end extension and ample detail. If you can still hear the clicking in the background over the main orchestral movement, your gear (And ears!) are doing well!
Bloody hell, apart from being a cracking piece, there's some serious low-end extension and ample detail. If you can still hear the clicking in the background over the main orchestral movement, your gear (And ears!) are doing well!
When I want to evaluate a piece of gear or a change in my system, I always use music that I am very familiar with and is also of high recorded quality. What works for me may not work well for others, but I'll list a few here to give folks an idea. I use both analoge vinyl and digital CDs.
Vinyl: Several Sheffield direct-to-disc recordings with clarity and imaging second to none.
King James Version - Harry James
Coming From A good Place - Harry James
Growing Up In Hollywood Town - Lincoln Mayorga/Amanda McBroom
Discovered Again - Dave Grusin
Big Band Jazz - (Umbrella label)
Other Audiophile vinyl such as Mobile Fidelity and Nautilus half-speed masters plus:
Jazz At The Pawnshop - Original Audio Source Pressing (Norway)
Dreaming - Amanda McBroom (Monster Cable remastered version/very rare)
Professor Keith Johnson's Outstanding Sound Show - Reference Recordings
CD:
1812 Overture - Litton/Dallas - Delos Virtual Reality Recording (Dynamics)
Happy Coat - Shota Osabe Piano Trio (great bass/Ray Brown)
The Lady In Red - Hot Club Of San Francisco (Clarity Recordings - 2 mikes)
Live At Blues Alley - Eva Cassidy (a great live recording)
Red Rodney 1957 - (extraordinary studio recording)
I absolutly agrree with that.
A recoding may be first rate but, unless you know exactly how it supposed to sound, it may be of little help.
Also like Hollow State said, use a varity of program material and sources.
Personally, I've found that it can take quite some time to complely balance a sys. (L-pads/EQ etc)....making adjustmensts, listen for a while and make more adjustments, etc.
Also it is always a compromise more or less as you will never get everything/all sources to sound the same.
BTW, I think I finally have settled on settings (I can live with) for my current sys after fiddling with it for a couple of months.
I like to have a have a setting, I like and forget it as you will drive yourself nuts after a while constantly adjusting it.
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Best song to present the system - which one to choose?
If you had a chance to present your system to someone you really want to impress, but had only enough time to play one song - what would you choose and why?
(assuming you don't know anything about that person's musical taste)
At the minute I am leaning towards "Unfinished Sympathy" from the '91 CD single by Massive (Massive Attack). It is a fairly well-known song, recorded at the renown Abbey Road studio, which combines funky modern rhythm with symphonic elements and female vocals, while presenting both frequency extremes reasonably well. What I don't like about it, is the way it was edited, because it sounds like it was recorded in separate tracks which were then stuck together... It doesn't really "glue" that well.
I have two "runner ups":
Dragon Boy by Joe Hisaishi from the 2002 Spirited Away Soundtrack CD
Pros: Incredibly dynamic and richly orchestrated, some very natural bass notes, perfectly recorded with abundant room cues
Cons: It's an obscure piece, no vocals
Don't Let Go by En Vogue from their '97 CD album EV3.
Pros: Powerful, dynamic, complex vocals, well recorded, reasonably popular
Cons: Lead piano sounds more like Yamaha synthesiser than Yamaha grand piano...
Let me know what would be your pick.
If you could please post full song / artist names, ideally with a YouTube link to the particular version you have in mind, as well as which pressing/master you consider the best or most suitable
If you had a chance to present your system to someone you really want to impress, but had only enough time to play one song - what would you choose and why?
(assuming you don't know anything about that person's musical taste)
At the minute I am leaning towards "Unfinished Sympathy" from the '91 CD single by Massive (Massive Attack). It is a fairly well-known song, recorded at the renown Abbey Road studio, which combines funky modern rhythm with symphonic elements and female vocals, while presenting both frequency extremes reasonably well. What I don't like about it, is the way it was edited, because it sounds like it was recorded in separate tracks which were then stuck together... It doesn't really "glue" that well.
I have two "runner ups":
Dragon Boy by Joe Hisaishi from the 2002 Spirited Away Soundtrack CD
Pros: Incredibly dynamic and richly orchestrated, some very natural bass notes, perfectly recorded with abundant room cues
Cons: It's an obscure piece, no vocals
Don't Let Go by En Vogue from their '97 CD album EV3.
Pros: Powerful, dynamic, complex vocals, well recorded, reasonably popular
Cons: Lead piano sounds more like Yamaha synthesiser than Yamaha grand piano...
Let me know what would be your pick.
If you could please post full song / artist names, ideally with a YouTube link to the particular version you have in mind, as well as which pressing/master you consider the best or most suitable
Boy, that's a tough call uncle leon.
There's a few that I regularly go to when I test my system.
The Call Of The Wild from Alan Parson's Time Machine CD. Good vocals, low bass, well recorded (typical for Alan).
Angel On Sunset From Larry Coryell's Fallen Angel CD. No vocals, low bass, nice jazz guitar.
Hey Nineteen from Steely Dan's Gaucho album. I have a vinyl rip of this, but the CD is very good as well. Recording is top notch as are most of SD's albums.
There's a few that I regularly go to when I test my system.
The Call Of The Wild from Alan Parson's Time Machine CD. Good vocals, low bass, well recorded (typical for Alan).
Angel On Sunset From Larry Coryell's Fallen Angel CD. No vocals, low bass, nice jazz guitar.
Hey Nineteen from Steely Dan's Gaucho album. I have a vinyl rip of this, but the CD is very good as well. Recording is top notch as are most of SD's albums.
Thanks kec, I really like the first of your songs (The call of the wild) - so much so, that I ordered the CD album Nice one, I never heard of Alan Parsons before - and he seems to be quite a figure in the music industry.
The other two songs are certainly a good listen, but they lack the "wow factor"... Something to really grab listener's attention - like the intro to "Another Day In Paradise" or "Smooth Criminal". The person "to be impressed" may not necessarily be a hard-core connoisseur, you see... But thanks for posting them anyway, I definitely enjoyed them.
Nice one, I never heard of Alan Parsons before - and he seems to be quite a figure in the music industry.The other two songs are certainly a good listen, but they lack the "wow factor"... Something to really grab listener's attention - like the intro to "Another Day In Paradise" or "Smooth Criminal". The person "to be impressed" may not necessarily be a hard-core connoisseur, you see... But thanks for posting them anyway, I definitely enjoyed them.
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Alan Parsons - Eye In The Sky
Stepenwolfe - Der Earsplittenloudenboomer
Doors - Morrison Hotel
Savoy Brown - Raw Sienna
Pat Metheny (With Lyle Mays) - -White album-
Stanley Jordan - Magic Touch
Quarterflash - Back Into Blue
Quicksilver - Happy Trails
Joe Satriani - Time Machine (Echo)
Boz Skaggs - Runnin Blue
Cold Blood - Cold Blood
Al Stewart - Year of Cat (Only a few cuts for dynamic range before it gets repetative)
All vinyl.
Doc
Stepenwolfe - Der Earsplittenloudenboomer
Doors - Morrison Hotel
Savoy Brown - Raw Sienna
Pat Metheny (With Lyle Mays) - -White album-
Stanley Jordan - Magic Touch
Quarterflash - Back Into Blue
Quicksilver - Happy Trails
Joe Satriani - Time Machine (Echo)
Boz Skaggs - Runnin Blue
Cold Blood - Cold Blood
Al Stewart - Year of Cat (Only a few cuts for dynamic range before it gets repetative)
All vinyl.
Doc
I've always been towards the purist end of the hifi world, favouring acoustic instrument recordings without excessive control-room manipulation besides what multi-mic'ing requires.
So, I have always supposed that pop recordings, such as show up quite a bit on this thread, are not of much value as demo inputs because the hand of the recording engineer has (or might have) manipulated the sound. There is no real or objective reference with which to compare the reproduced sound to - unless you have in mind the sound in arena concerts or open stadiums.
Can someone please help me understand how such pop recordings can be used as demos.
Ben
So, I have always supposed that pop recordings, such as show up quite a bit on this thread, are not of much value as demo inputs because the hand of the recording engineer has (or might have) manipulated the sound. There is no real or objective reference with which to compare the reproduced sound to - unless you have in mind the sound in arena concerts or open stadiums.
Can someone please help me understand how such pop recordings can be used as demos.
Ben
These are two different things - both are artifacts of human ingenuity and culture. A photograph is the same thing, and a painting too. Neither is any worse than the other, nor would I want to live without either.
I appreciate it that you understood my question was asked sincerely.
Noting your reply - nothing for me to argue with there. But it doesn't address the DIYer issue: if the bass sounds great on a certain pop record, is it because my woofer is wonderful or is it because the engineer cranked up the bass to make 10-million iPod listeners happy?
On a recording of a symphony, there is reason to believe the engineer tried to capture bass and treble similar to their live balance. I am not naive enough to believe this entirely, but as an approximation of the engineer's purpose.
Ben
Noting your reply - nothing for me to argue with there. But it doesn't address the DIYer issue: if the bass sounds great on a certain pop record, is it because my woofer is wonderful or is it because the engineer cranked up the bass to make 10-million iPod listeners happy?
On a recording of a symphony, there is reason to believe the engineer tried to capture bass and treble similar to their live balance. I am not naive enough to believe this entirely, but as an approximation of the engineer's purpose.
Ben
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Well, there's always the familiarity issue. The more familiar you are with a piece, the more you can detect nuances from different equipment. With Classical, I find there are so many recordings and variations of specific music that I can't settle on any one for long. But with Pop (Jazz too to a certain degree), there's usually one or two versions of a song worth listening to.
Now, with a very familiar song, I have the chance to actually notice the difference those pricey nude foil resistors have on the input of my phono stage.
Just a thought.
For all you pipe organ fans. These will give your speakers a workout. Direct to disc recordings.
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