Best test tracks for imaging

[davidlzimmer]

In a few weeks my first really good set of speakers will be complete. When I test them, I want to experience some great imaging. Something I have to employ immagination to enjoy with my present speakers.

What tracks do any of you suggest for imaging? I'm talking holographics! 😀

Thanks,

 

[audiotux]

Hi David ,

maybe Andreas Vollenweider : Carverna Magica
( under the tree-in the cave )
the title song can also be used to adjust the analog player
(vinyl-version)

Greetings from Germany

Jürgen

 

[davidlzimmer]

Thank you audiotux.

So no one else has had any great imaging experiences?

 

[reverber]

Something off of Pink Floyd's "The Final Cut," perhaps?

Cody

 

[SY]

So no one else has had any great imaging experiences?

Well, it IS a rather broad question. Any of the old Proprius LPs (Kor, Jazz at the Pawnshop...). Nearly anything on Reference Recordings. Anything on Mapleshade. That'll keep you busy for a while.
😉

 

[davidlzimmer]

Thanks SY

I think Jazz is the key word. In which case, I may already have some good stuff. Even with my (4 letter word) speakers, Eva Cassidy's "Live at Blues Alley" produce imaging.

I'm sure with a fine pair of MTMs that album will sound so real I'll catch myself ordering a drink.

Side Note: If all the EVA CASSIDY CDs are sold before you guys get to hear them, don't blame me for not warning you!

 

[traderbam]

try Buena Vista Social Club.
Track 4 is particularly good.

 

[razz]

Bewitched, Bothered, & Bewildered--Ella Fitzgerald songbook, one of the few magical tracks on my speakers/system

 

[davidlzimmer]

Thanks razz and traderbam,

That's the kind of answer I was looking for. Magic!

 

[facundonu]

marc johnson - the sound of summer running.

and i mean the whole album!

 

[rdf]

Roger Waters "Amused to Death". 100% artificial (and to my tastes music not far removed from a trip to the dentist) but very natural vocals and employing production techniques capable of ghosting sources well beyond the boundaries of your speakers. The catch: the effect is head-in-a-vice fragile and doesn't tolerate careless speaker placement.

 

[SY]

The Q-Sound tricks don't seem to work with dipoles, but with point-source speakers, I've jumped a few times whan the dog barks near the beginning of the first track; it seems like it comes from behind.

 

[rdf]

Acoustats? I wonder if it relates to HF dispersion. A pair of 12" Tannoy Golds sitting on the floor sans cabinets work great. They're effectively dipolar below 1 kHz, transitioning to directional when the tweeter kicks in. With them I hear that dog twenty feet to my direct right. I'm starting to think these auditory tricks provide valuable insights into important performance aspects of music systems.

 

[lazyfly]

Jane Monheit & Michael Buble duet 'I wont dance'.

 

[KBK]

I'll mention something made out of 'unobtainium': "The Blues, Ad Lib", Joe Williams, Count Basie. 😀

Frightenly good. Huge space. Amazing voice, etc. Mind boggling performance. Very early stereo, all tube! (obviously) big black slabs.

One of the great sins of jazz/blues, that this is not re-issued.

 

[davidlzimmer]

I'm trying to find samples of all your suggestions.

Note worthy: Roger Waters, interesting to say the least

Jane Monheit, No brainer! As soon as I heard a sample I bid on the CD. Excellant sound! And is she HOT!!!!!

More looking and sampling to go,

Thanks all

 

[Pdspecl]

Are you able to accommodate the HDCD format? If so, I can make some recommendations. I picked up a NAD C542 player that handles this format. I've been purchasing some HDCD releases for the past year. They are not easy to locate in record/cd stores. Shopping the web makes it easier.

Peter Frampton's Comes Alive (HDCD) - - awesome
The very best of Greatful Dead (HDCD) - - very nice
Beach Boys - Surfer Girl/Shut Down Volume 2 (HDCD) - - awesome
Bee Gees - One Night Only {live} (HDCD) - - nice
Bad Company set titled (HDCD, remastered by Steve Hoffman)
- - incredible, great bass.
Pink Floyd boxed set - The Wall Live 1980-81,
- Is There Anybody Out There?
CD format - remastered - -
simply amazing for regular CD format
Eric Clapton - Unplugged (always a good CD for sizing up equipmt)
Chris Rea - Auberge (some great sound effects with cars, bottles rolling across the floor, birds....)

 

[renfrow]

Louis Armstrong & Duke Ellington
-- The Great Summit: The Master Takes

This is the remastered one and is the one I use to check out speakers.

Tom.

 

[Scottmoose]

Loreena McKennitt: To Drive the Cold Winter Away. If you don't know what haunting is, you will after hearing this collection of carols and forgotten winter songs, simply recorded, live, in churches in Canada and Ireland.

 

[Pano]

Jürgen, that's not fair! Caverena Magica, 1st track is the most amazing holographic big - Big - BIG thing I've ever heard. All fake, too. Lexicon reverb.

But not fair because it takes an incredible system to do it justice. Rare, so rare, is the system that can. (mine can not)