What is wrong with their "favorite" music/genre/tracks". These are the ones we are most intimately familiar with and most likely to have heard live. What more can you compare to?
Why do I like Bonnie Raitt, because I like the music.
U tube audio is pretty abysmal so I didn't link it previously.
However, Please listen to this if you have a decent computer sound system:
YouTube - Bonnie Raitt - Nick Of Time
I really like the attack of the drum. Cymbals are hardly even evident on my computer. On the amp I'm working with it has a wonderful metallic ring and decay.
Unfortunately it was mixed and produced in 1989 when compression was already in full swing so the dynamic range is not as great as I'd like.
I'm not a musician, and although I've taken guitar lessons (classical in Spain) I never was able to learn to play. Best I can play is a stereo.
That said I still appreciate music or I wouldn't be working on tube amps.
In a similar vein, here is Love Letter.
YouTube - Bonnie Raitt - Love letter
Slide guitar, Bass, Drums, Lead guitar, Keyboard, background vocals, Tenor Sax, and lots of horns. Nice range of instruments.
Why do I like Bonnie Raitt, because I like the music.
U tube audio is pretty abysmal so I didn't link it previously.
However, Please listen to this if you have a decent computer sound system:
YouTube - Bonnie Raitt - Nick Of Time
I really like the attack of the drum. Cymbals are hardly even evident on my computer. On the amp I'm working with it has a wonderful metallic ring and decay.
Unfortunately it was mixed and produced in 1989 when compression was already in full swing so the dynamic range is not as great as I'd like.
I'm not a musician, and although I've taken guitar lessons (classical in Spain) I never was able to learn to play. Best I can play is a stereo.
That said I still appreciate music or I wouldn't be working on tube amps.
In a similar vein, here is Love Letter.
YouTube - Bonnie Raitt - Love letter
Slide guitar, Bass, Drums, Lead guitar, Keyboard, background vocals, Tenor Sax, and lots of horns. Nice range of instruments.
Hi everyone,
Here comes yet another suggestion:
To check dynamics/noise floor, I listen among others to "Rainbow - Live on Stage".
I only have the vinyl version and this is definitely not car-audio compatible compressed
. In fact there are passages that completely disappear if there is any sort of louder background noise in the listening room if you don't crank up the amp.
In addition there is a lot of low level sound even in the louder passages that can be heard with a good amp (if you like it or not) like footsteps on stage and even something metallic falling over behind the drums (mic stand?).
It's not my most favorite music but I like the recording for it's huge dynamic range and the odd noises.
Martin
Here comes yet another suggestion:
To check dynamics/noise floor, I listen among others to "Rainbow - Live on Stage".
I only have the vinyl version and this is definitely not car-audio compatible compressed
. In fact there are passages that completely disappear if there is any sort of louder background noise in the listening room if you don't crank up the amp. In addition there is a lot of low level sound even in the louder passages that can be heard with a good amp (if you like it or not) like footsteps on stage and even something metallic falling over behind the drums (mic stand?).
It's not my most favorite music but I like the recording for it's huge dynamic range and the odd noises.
Martin
My testing playlist consist mostly of the following (plus a random selection by whim):
1) The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
A finely recorded album with lot's of different instruments - both electric and acoustic - and well sung harmonies. Also good space.
2) Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
Pretty much the same rap as abowe. Lot's of details to be found, lot's of space and layers. Also Dave's guitar sound is a really good indicator of harshness - it's a bit harsh by nature (I've built my own HiWatt, I have a pretty good idea what it's supposed to sound like), but with good hifi it gets a bit liquid also.
3) Some oldies but goldies. I've found that the oldest and crappiest of recordings (from a technical point of view) benefit the most with good hifi; some 1930's & 1940's stuff like Robert Johnson and Lady Day. With good hifi, you really get to be in the room with Johnson, and you kind of forget how old it really is. Yma Sumac also from the fifties - wonderful voice, and it gets even better. Some modern female vocals get a little bit better, but the oldies get a lot better in my opinion.
4) Dusty Springfield - The Look Of Love
This has to sound intimate enough, or the amp gets modded or scrapped.
5) The bass on my scratchy Duke Ellington - Stompy single.
It doesn't exactly jump out of the record, the amp has to really dig it out of there. If it does, it's probably a good amp in my opinion.
1) The Beatles - Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band
A finely recorded album with lot's of different instruments - both electric and acoustic - and well sung harmonies. Also good space.
2) Pink Floyd - Dark Side Of The Moon
Pretty much the same rap as abowe. Lot's of details to be found, lot's of space and layers. Also Dave's guitar sound is a really good indicator of harshness - it's a bit harsh by nature (I've built my own HiWatt, I have a pretty good idea what it's supposed to sound like), but with good hifi it gets a bit liquid also.
3) Some oldies but goldies. I've found that the oldest and crappiest of recordings (from a technical point of view) benefit the most with good hifi; some 1930's & 1940's stuff like Robert Johnson and Lady Day. With good hifi, you really get to be in the room with Johnson, and you kind of forget how old it really is. Yma Sumac also from the fifties - wonderful voice, and it gets even better. Some modern female vocals get a little bit better, but the oldies get a lot better in my opinion.
4) Dusty Springfield - The Look Of Love
This has to sound intimate enough, or the amp gets modded or scrapped.
5) The bass on my scratchy Duke Ellington - Stompy single.
It doesn't exactly jump out of the record, the amp has to really dig it out of there. If it does, it's probably a good amp in my opinion.
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