Top 3 songs to evaluate a system

First, I enjoyed reading everybody’s choices...some were not really expected. Second a few years ago a friend of mine passed away and he always used Diana Krall’s (Paris Album) to test speakers, amps and DACS. The specific cut he used was "A Case of You ". If you can’t hear piano frets being released, Diana moving aroound on the piano stool and her mike changes and most importantly at the start of her song the different postions of the audiance members caughing you need to focus grass hopper".
i just listen to this track.... A great choice...

But all these details about imaging, details about the piano frets, the caughing, all is there coming from my under 500 bucks system... The reason is my system is rightfully embed especially acoustically...

BUT MY AUDIO SYSTEM so good it is, is not perfect nor it is the best possible at all... How do i know it? Because i can judge the timbre microdynamic clarity and image coming from it....

It is impossible to judge a system only with dynamic, decay, attack, imaging, soundstage, source width, listener envelopment, bass rendition, high rendition, mids rendition alone...

Putting in words what make a sound great is impossible anyway...We all know that...

For me the only criteria that encompasses all the others in a nutshell is "timbre microdynamic"....

Each piano note must live in his own 3-d bubble with a unique physionomy of his own like a human face....Nevermind the recording...If the recording is not great it will be impossible to catch and see the timbre microdynamic even if we listen to someone caughing at different rows distance on the recording...Imaging details is only one acoustic factor...

If i had TIMBRE i have all the rest, because we cannot produce a natural realistic timbre microdynamic in a room, without all acoustic settings treatment and controls in place, and with them all these others conditions that will make possible the timbre microdynamic perception are: dynamic, decay, attack, imaging, soundstage, source width, listener envelopment, bass,mid, and high optimal rendition....

Then we cannot focus on these characteristics alone to judge a system but we must focus on "timbre microdynamic" because it encompass them all....Piano, organ, brass, and human choral voices are the best test for me,,,

When i created my acoustic controls my main guidance was timbre first, not , bass, dynamic etc by themselves....

It is my experience ....

Thanks for this magnificent thread....








 Empire brass ensemble : Gabrielli 

It is one of my cd test...because of the intermingling of all these brass  instruments forming a wall of sound in all the room 3-d with the necessary distinctive character timbre of each one of the instruments...

For piano:

Vladimir Felstman, Bach , well tempered klavier.... Here each note has a face like each human...Very well recorded and played...

For voices :

Alistair Dixon directing Chapelle du roy in Tallis complete works... Here each voice must be heard in distinction with his one physionomy....





My audio system give me a "taste" of what i described.... Proof that my embeddings controls are right.... But i know for sure that a costlier well chosen and well embedded one will geve more of that.... Cost will not be around 500 bucks but  at least around 15,000 bucks....


 Dont upgrade before embedding all gear right

As I read through the replies I noticed that most people seem to pick a song that they actually like or have an attribute that they feel stands out. For example - deep bass, 3D soundstage, type of bass guitar, or pick up a cymbal sound. This is interesting to me as these are recording attributes. I mostly prefer to hear these but I don’t use them to judge the sound. How many of you play an instrument or have recorded anything? Not that this may matter. I listen for piano first. What does that sound like as most music is in the mid-range. To me SS cannot offer the piano sound I prefer as the decay of the notes is to my ears to fast. Tubes seem to delay the decay which I prefer as to me it sounds more realistic and I can hear the "wood" of the instrument. Same goes for the sax reproduction. After that I listen for space, separation, and the placement around instruments and vocals. Especially the layering of vocal parts. How separate are they and does the layering seem smeared. Then I listen for backing instruments. I hear many systems that have layering and separation but the tone if off. Drums and bongos especially. Most of these need to have a "boing" or you should hear the skin flex and the body of the drum box. Same as the piano, how is the decay of the notes. Too many times I hear bongos sound like a flat wack. Almost like the drum is made of cardboard. Last to me is the emotion. Does the system portray emotion which I believe comes from the note decay. Shinko resistors from my experience have been the best emotional resistor I have heard.

So to my ears, does your system lay out the music and make me want to listen and not just how much I love the song.

Happy Listening.

Thanks very much for this great post....

Food for tought....You describe exactly and nail it with way  better words than i could what we must strive for when we create the right acoustic with a good system to begin with...

Anyway a good acoustic well done will reveal WHICH part of the system is to be upgrade...

But thanks to all people here for their great music  recommendation....

I will note some.....