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Ultimate Demo Disc for Audio Geeks

In a recent demo of Wilson speakers, my local high end dealer jumped around from disc to disc taken from his giant case, as we tried to sample a variety of music.

Most of his demo discs appeared to be "ripped" and not original versions of the CDs being used.

Given that some of you claim that "ripped" (?) CD's can somehow sound better than the original, I think I have missed the obvious concept of creating a demo disc of sample tracks, test tones, steam trains, ping pong balls jazz, classical, pop, rock, Dusty Springfield, percussion etc. into to one easy to use CD.

Has anyone tried this? Any other thoughts? What tracks would you consolidate on your ultimate demo disc?

I am thinking about an Alesis Masterlink for a second system and this has been one of the ideas which sprang to mind.

Thank you,
cwlondon
7 responses Add your response
shadorne's avatar
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shadorne
7,467 posts
 
Sheffield Drum track - track 1 - Jim Keltner
Slave to the Rhythm (Hot Blooded Mix) - Grace Jones
Man in the Long Black Coat - Bob Dylan
Last Dance for Mary Jane - Tom Petty
Diamonds and Rust - Joan Baez
What is Hip - Soul Vaccination - Tower of Power
Me and My Shadow - Robbie Williams Win When your Swinging
Don't Pay the Ferryman - Chris De Burg
Moart Requiem - Chis Hogwood - Emma Kirby
Bach Toccata in Fugue in D Minor - The one done on a real cathedral organ Westminster? (I need to check)
Just Squeeze Me - Dave Grusin Hommage to Duke
Family Man - Roachford
Mozart's Clarinet Quintet in A major, K. 581
Rachmaninov No 2 Telarc
& something from Pablo de Sarsate ( from a Violin virtuoso - telarc are good too)
imin2u
392 posts
 
The fade in and first few verses of "Slow Train To ..." form Rickie Lee Jones

If your system can go from black to life in a nice blooming way - it's on this track. Great for stereo image after that point in the song.
nsgarch's avatar
nsgarch
2,524 posts
 
I'll leave the compilation choices to others. The reason (some say) that burned discs sound better is because they're (literally) burned and not stamped/punched. Supposedly, the 'pits' of (stamped) commercial discs have rough edges that scatter the laser some. While the 'pits' of burned or 'ripped' discs have no edges at all and give a cleaner 'read'.

I think this *can* be true, depending how well or poorly the original stamped disc was made. Some producers of expensive specialty discs note that they burn their products in 'real time' and do not stamp them.
.
ras422
182 posts
 
jazz at the pawn shop xrcd--patricia barber cafe blue sacd--------paul simon graceland remastered
cwlondon OP
1,210 posts
 
Ras422

For Patricia Barber, we would be ripping from the CD layer? And that would still be on your demo disc?

Has anyone done this already to make for light travel to the audio store?
ras422
182 posts
 
sorry-didn't realize you wanted to make copies--shouldn't be doing this at work :)
rixthetrick's avatar
rixthetrick
1,060 posts
 
There was a company called audioXsell that sold black CDR media, and another from Germany with black CDR, probably close to a decade ago. There were starkly audible differences to be heard during playback.

The disks I have were burnt on a Yamaha F1 burner ( from memory I think it may have seen SCSI) and yeah it was better sounding. If you're going to burn music to CD, you might want to look into the write and playback quality of the media itself.

However all my music are ripped by EAC to an SSD drive these days, no moving parts, no spinners of any kind.
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