What recordings do you use to audition (or test) your system.

I prefer difficult recordings that sound bad on most systems. Traffic, Roxy Music If there is something. Piano solo is revealing too. Stuff I know well and I have heard on many systems. Distorted sounds like Jimmy H. produced are great too. Classical music is not the most revealing in my experience. Better a jazz band with someone singing.

Pink noise is very revealing if you know how it should sound. Also in AB-ing systems, pink noise should be your first station.
 
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Interesting, thanks. Do sonic images appear well forward and far either side of the seat when listening off centre? The 3's have a reputation for tight forward directionality. Wondering if the minimal room interaction prior to rear wall reflection is a factor.
Most likley. I have them 4' from the back wall and 4' from the front wall, exactly equidistant. They really do need symmetry. However ime dynamic drivers do as well unless they are designed to against the wall, in corners...It's just much more critical with flat panels. The change in imaging from 'less' than 1mm is astounding. But you will not realize this until you get really serious about set up/placement. I'm using 4 of the Acoustat servo OTL monos, 2 for each side on Monitor 3s with doubled up panels isobarically. They are fully damped between each set of panels. Each set of three are driven by one amp so two amps per side. They sound great with good top end extension. Sound stage/imaging character is actually similar to my Infinity Kappa 9. There is no sharp drop off when moving off center until well to the left or right.
 
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Wagner's "Also Sprach Zarathustra" from the soundtrack to "2001: A Space Oddysey"
Bach: The little G Minor
Kurt Masur conducting the Leipzig Gewandhaus thru Beethoven's 9th (@ the Berlin Wall)
Pink Floyd "Time"
Rush "La Villa Strangiato" (note the low-key jazz riff halfway thru...)
Rush "Xanadu" (live)

The classical pieces in particular are a great way to test for dynamic range and IM distortion especially if you don't like your neighbors.
On a serious note, I actually don't listen at all any more since my screen name is literal.
Also Sprach Zarathustra was written by Richard Strauss.
 
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Many of the tracks you are recommending are better sounding in their first release on CD. Paul Simons Graceland is no good from Tidal or Qobuz. I like many of these tracks https://tidal.com/browse/playlist/d13391d9-82ec-44ac-8e02-363bf4a21044 but even there many of them exists in better sounding releases.


I've got an original Paul Simon "Graceland" CD....& recently purchased the "25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition" version as a 24bit 96kHz FLAC file from Qobuz who must have got it from the studio....


The FLAC file sounds better IMHO than the CD.......much "clearer", more details..but thats the remastering let alone the higher resolution which makes it flow better.
 
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I have a fantastic Ella Fitzgerald vinyl ‘Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Irving Berlin Songbook’). For CD, try later Fourplay recordings and Steve Gadd Band. Classical - Vienna Philharmonic’s recording of Sibelius with Lorin Maazel or the LSO’s ‘Firebird Suite’ with Claudio Abbado - this last one has huge dynamic range and the recording clips a bit in just one place but it’s a great piece of music.
 
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Not to mention the infrasonic rumble loosening up the subs... (Typing that very facetiously).
Many older recordings have rumble <30 Hz and especially those done large halls aka ‘acoustic rumble’. If you filter at 40 dB/decade below about 50 Hz, you can remove a lot of it before it gets to the sub. It’s also present on CD versions of the vinyl recordings.
 
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I've got an original Paul Simon "Graceland" CD....& recently purchased the "25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition" version as a 24bit 96kHz FLAC file from Qobuz who must have got it from the studio....
On cassette for me -- my youngest son and his friend -- would take them to baseball practice in my GT Mustang with the T-Tops off blaring "Graceland" - we wore out the tape it was played so many times!

I just received John Pizzarelli "Dear Mr. Cole"
 
I've got an original Paul Simon "Graceland" CD....& recently purchased the "25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition" version as a 24bit 96kHz FLAC file from Qobuz who must have got it from the studio....


The FLAC file sounds better IMHO than the CD.......much "clearer", more details..but thats the remastering let alone the higher resolution which makes it flow better.
So you like the dynamic reduction of the original? They have loudnessraced it 6 dB by compression.
 
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So you like the dynamic reduction of the original? They have loudnessraced it 6 dB by compression.

I'll clarify....I had the LP when it first came out in 1986.....sounded great....until it wore out!...So i bought a CD version...which sounded not as good by comparison....but then again CD is a compressed format compared to LP...

I now have the 24bit 96kHz FLAC file of the 25th Anniversary Deluxe Edition......& yes it is "louder" than the CD...i.e. I don't have to turn the volume knob on the amp up as much compared to the CD...

However, when doing back to back listening of the "original" CD -vs- the "Anni' FLAC" & when setting/adjusting the volume knob so they both sound the same volume...to me the "Anni' FLAC" still sounds better....partly because its 24bit 96kHz -vs-16bit 44.1kHz, & partly because its remastered...

But then again everybody hears things differently, so others may not agree...
 
I have a wood piano, a Steinway 49 console 1940; so piano tracks have to sound like that. The 3 meter grands have better bass, I've heard those in churches & the Ky Center for the Arts. I use Rudolf Serkin 3 Beethoven Sonatas as Appassionata goes way down and way up.
Top octave solo piano is very difficult to reproduce, No speaker has come close to headphones until my current pair. Peter Nero Young & Warm & Wonderful has a solo top octave passage in When I Fall in Love . One mod made the piano have fast vibrato, ha!
Martin Denny Hawaii has a lot of tinkly and fizzy percussion, that sounds awful with a little IM distortion.
ZZ Top Afterburner has a deep intense bass drum that can swoop if the bass is not time aligned. Woke Up with Wood track.
Funny what demonstation tracks hifi stores use. I heard the AR3 & KLH5 in 1971? on Simon & Garfunkel, which contain no highs or lows. Pah! Made the bookshelf speakers sound good. I heard Kiipschhorn with McIntosh amps about 1974 with jazz, trumpet, string bass, brush on snare drum. Nothing difficult about any of those instruments. Told me nothing.
 
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