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System-Buster CDs

What CDs do you use to test whether a system is accurate? I don't mean those CDs that make your system sound really good, but rather the CDs you use to test new systems/components, the ones that make all but the very best systems sound like crap.

For example: My all-time favorite system-buster is track 4 from the Sigur Ros "white" cd (sorry, there doesn't appear to be a name or any writing to help identify it; most of the packaging and the cd itself are basically a grayish-white). The bass content on this track is both very low and enormously powerful, though the recording is dense with sound from all registers. I've taken it to various high-end dealers, and either (i) the bass booms like a bad automobile sub-woofer that you can hear from blocks away, or (ii) most of the bass content is just missing. Most systems just can't sort it out.

Another favorite is track 3 of Arvo Part's Tabula Rasa, which consists of 12 cellos playing different lines. Most systems put this out as horrific screeching.

Another one I like is track 4 from John Renbourn's Sir John Alot, with three recorders (or similar instruments) playing at the same time. The amount of distortion that comes out of most systems makes this track nearly unlistenable! (One manufacturer took the cd off after five seconds, put it away, and said the recording was clearly defective.)

So: What CD's do you use to sort out the wheat from the chaff?
jimjoyce25
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jeromedny
61 posts
 
I am not in the habit of testing frequently; I have what I like and can't afford anymore. But, to see what my system can do, these are some of my go-to's:

John Coltrane's A Love Supreme, Digital remaster - this brings a fast changing range of tone's and paces, and, as a jazz fan, it is my benchmark

Billy Taylor's "Ten Fingers, One Voice" - all piano solo - I've read that a piano is the hardest instrument for a speaker to reproduce. This is a great collection, with lots of keyboard runs, as well as some very slow-paced pieces. THis one in particular I like to listen to what it sounds like from a different room.

a Sarah McLachlin cd of my wife's - voice, the other hardest instrument to reproduce. this one has both of them.

Joni Mitchell's Blue (this replaced Jewel's "Pieces of You") THis is all about the voice.

Led Zepplin's "How the West Was One", specifically "Moby DIck", John Bonham's 19 minute drum solo, guess you can figure that one.
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
i use the following:

track 1 from holly cole don't smoke in bed. her voice is close miked and sibilance can be excessive in most stereo systems.

bob james and earl klugh two of a kind. i listen for cymbal and acoustic guitar. in most stereo systems the cymbal sounds thin and lacking in timbral accuracy. the acoustic guiatr , with nylong strings often sounds like a steel string guitar without a wood body.
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shadorne
7,467 posts
 
Try Sheffield Labs Drum track CD. If the drum set is in the room then it passes the "system-buster test".

The bass content on this track is both very low and enormously powerful, though the recording is dense with sound from all registers. I've taken it to various high-end dealers, and either (i) the bass booms like a bad automobile sub-woofer that you can hear from blocks away, or (ii) most of the bass content is just missing. Most systems just can't sort it out.

This is not so surprising - most dealers are selling stuff that is aesthetically pleasing; often two ways with nice veneer are what people most want - even subwoofers, which look nice, are simply too small to produce anything but distortion - but that is what people want so naturally that it what is offered. Dealers would rather not show up the deficiencies in these systems by having a serious reference system on hand - why kill a sale (although many dealers will have a serious reference system at home - these however do not easily sell as the wife will take one look at the big boxes and immediately give the thumbs down).
jimjoyce25 OP
215 posts
 
That's exactly my point. As purchasers of audio equipment, what tools do we have at our disposal to discriminate between products? Really nothing except our ears and the cds/vinyl we know that put audio gear to the test.

On the other side are manufacturers, dealers and reviewers who never seem to produce, carry or review gear that isn't top notch in one way or another, and the reputation (which from our perspective is nothing more than that) which certain gear has developed over time. Moreover, there is the clearly expressed sense that if we want an improvement, we have to spend ever larger sums.

I don't know any other way to deal with this situation except to play my system-busters during auditions, and be willing to tell the dealer that their gear doesn't perform. (This may not make us many friends among dealers, but as Bill Cosby used to say in his pitchman role: "It's my money!")
mrtennis
3,295 posts
 
the idea of the "drum set is in the room" is unrealistic and often indiactive of a forward midrange. if the soundfield normally emanates from behind the speaker, why would anyone want the musician in the room, pushed forward several feet ?

if one is talking about natural sound, i.e., the instrument sounds real, what difference does it make if the source of the sound is the speaker, to the left of the speaker, behind the speaker, or anywhere else ?

be happy that an instrument sounds like what it is, rather than where its coming from.
boper39
13 posts
 
Pink Floyd, The Dark Side of the Moon---great 3-d and very wide soundstage with, top to bottom, drums to bells. Eva Cassidy, Live at Blues Alley--fantistic female voice. I use these to monitor my system when I make a change.
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