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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

Showing 2 responses by mrtennis

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.
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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