Hifi audition tracks - songs and tracks recommended by SNA members

[Ian McP]

< Nils Petter Molvaer - Khmer - Khmer - Stunning trumpet surrounded by a soundscape of swirling music.  Right channel has an amazing droning bass that holds the track to the floor.  Huge dynamics from the production at ECM. >

 

Another superb ECM recording Nik Bartsch's Ronin Live

https://www.discogs.com/Nik-Bärtschs-Ronin-Live/release/3859716

 

Nils live with Sly and Robbie! Excellent picture quality and sound's not too shabby either!

 

 

[sir sanders zingmore]

On 04/08/2017 at 5:42 PM, Spinnergeoff said:

Greg Borrowman quite rightly has a go at those people at hifi shows who have the temerity to put up signs at their demo rooms saying "Diana Krall-Free Zone".

 

On 04/08/2017 at 5:42 PM, Spinnergeoff said:

What's used in demos will continue to change with fashion, and so it should.

 

Perhaps all the signs are are a sign that the Diana Krall is going out of fashion. 

Mr Borrowman probably shouldn't take it so seriously. 

Edited August 29, 2017 by Sir Sanders Zingmore

[Spinnergeoff]

Perhaps the demo people shouldn't take it so seriously. I did mention that some were so off as to belittle her music. That's serious, is it not? If Krall goes out of fashion any number of jazz people can be said to be "out of fashion". Fortunately the best performers are still around in recordings so we can enjoy them regardless.

You are the nit picker here, Sir Sanders Zingmore. 

Edited August 29, 2017 by Spinnergeoff
add words

[Guest Hensa]

On 8/4/2017 at 5:42 PM, Spinnergeoff said:

It's true that demo albums have always ended up being thrashed to death in the industry, from way back when the Telarc 1810 Overture was in use

 

Speaking of 'nitpicking', was this the prequel to the 1812 Overture...?

[Spinnergeoff]

11 hours ago, Hensa said:

 

Speaking of 'nitpicking', was this the prequel to the 1812 Overture...?

It's a fair cop on that one! But yes, typo nitpicking is easy most days. At least it is done with humour in your case. The 1810 was the undersampled rather than the oversampled version.

What remains true is that demo discs are over-used by exactly the sort of people who then put out the "Krall Free Zone" signs.

[ravengrace]

Thanks for recommending, these are nice. -- TinyTunes Android app

[JPete9]

I have found the following to be a nice system show off setlist.

 

Richness, no airiness, 

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Tin Pan Alley

Bozz Scaggs - Thanks to you

Vince Jones - I put a spell on you

Ian Moss - Janelle (Lets all get together version)

Bliss n Eso - Off the Grid (This crazy, super positive vibe Aussie LP is the best rap record since Lic to Ill - sounds wildly different on different systems)

Carl Riseley - This guys ion Love with you. 

 

Airiness and finess and female voices that aren't Dianna or Nora.

Lars Jansson - My Treasure

Carly Simon - Blue of Blue

Eva Cassidy -  Fields of Gold (or anything else she has recorded)

Madeline Peyroux - Dance me to end of love

Emiliana Torrini - Fishermans Woman (the whole album) - check out Lifesaver and Snow

 

 

Edited October 6, 2017 by JPete9

[Ian McP]

Outstanding recording! Cop the dynamic range! A request from me in the Telos Audio Distributors room at last hifi show! Wowed everyone!

scared the bejesus out of the guys in the telos room at last hifi show with this outstanding track!

 

[att23]

Anyone mentioned the Drum n Bass genre at all?  I find that I always like to sneak in any albums by LTJ Bukem, such as his many CDs from the Earth series back in late 90s or his popular Logical Progression album.  

 

Its already very well recorded with lots of airiness, soundstage and spatial effects, so it will sound good in many system, but will sound excellent in some. Best way to test high notes, lots of fast drums, subwoofer/bass or the commonly used ‘PRaT’.

[Guest Sime]

“Fever” on Ray Charles Album. ”Genius Loves Company”

[Eddierukiddingvarese]

This is my own track- please don't laugh too much and no I'm not paying for any psychosis as a result of listening to it , so if you need counselling after don't come to me.......

 

http://www.kompoz.com/music/collaboration/696455

[JPete9]

On 15/08/2018 at 2:53 PM, Eddierukiddingvarese said:

This is my own track- please don't laugh too much and no I'm not paying for any psychosis as a result of listening to it , so if you need counselling after don't come to me.......

 

http://www.kompoz.com/music/collaboration/696455

I played it backwards...its a nora jones ballad! 

[Eddierukiddingvarese]

13 hours ago, JPete9 said:

I played it backwards...its a nora jones ballad! 

Damn you picked it far too easily my gig is up

[jamesrc]

On 14/06/2013 at 11:11 PM, ThirdDrawerDown said:

Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Session - 1. "Mining for Gold": This whole track has what sounds like an air conditioner that is very prominent and easy to pick on a high resolution system.

I know this is resuscitating a zombie thread but..

 

I lived in Toronto for a while just up the road from the Trinity Church.   The sound on the beginning of that track is a tram running up the road outside the church. 

 

On a related note we did get to see them live that year (1991) in Toronto.  It was special

[JPete9]

I’m following it

[markm1111]

42 minutes ago, JPete9 said:

I’m following it

Me too

[ThirdDrawerDown]

@djb 

 

For the Cowboy Junkies and tram enthusiasts among us.

 

[jamesrc]

On 25/10/2018 at 5:43 PM, ThirdDrawerDown said:

@djb 

 

For the Cowboy Junkies and tram enthusiasts among us.

 

Could be a small subset...

 

[magical]

On 14/06/2013 at 11:11 PM, ThirdDrawerDown said:

 

 

http://www.stereo.net.au/forums/index.php?/topic/3698-list-songs-to-use-for-evaluating-system-capabilities/

 

Includes lists of the categories of music that could be explored and what to listen for, as well as specific recommendations.

 

Solo female - if the system cannot do this properly then I stop listening, regardless of any of its other qualities. The midrange is where my music is at, and if the mids are not done properly I probably won't like the system.

Large orchestra - on a good recording of a well conducted work you should be able to hear what each musician is doing. A good test of soundstaging and separation. A large orchestra will also tax each driver in a speaker - in large multi-driver speakers I use this to pick out problems with coherence. On some speakers you can hear that the sound produced by separate drivers isn't "tied together" properly.

Pipe organ - I use this to test for bass.

Jazz - I use this to test for colorations in the top end, and to get a sense of the rhythm of the system. I listen for natural sounding high-hats, check that the double basses are actually audible as separate notes (and not just one bass note with a few missing), and that saxophones sound normal and not shrill.

Solo violin - test for soundstaging.

 

Cowboy Junkies - The Trinity Session - 1. "Mining for Gold": This whole track has what sounds like an air conditioner that is very prominent and easy to pick on a high resolution system. When I was at Tony C's house I could have sworn there was an actual air conditioner turned on by someone when that track was put on... quite eerie. Without being told where the airconditioner is in the recording location I cannot be certain, but at Tony C's house it sounded like it was well into the room in front of the speakers and above my head. If we knew where the air conditioner was actually situated this would be a good track to test a systems ability to resolve depth.

Nitin Sawhney - Beyond Skin - 6. "Nadia": At about the 1 minute mark (and throughout the track) there is what sounds like an electronic rolling wave of bass that digs very low. This is a great track for testing out a systems ability to handle bass. If it can handle this track it will handle most things (well maybe not woofer cooker). You should be able to hear all the bass frequencies clearly (it’s a rolling bass generation) without it sounding boomy or one noted.

 

Thomas Tallis Spem in Alium - the forty part motet. There are eight five part choirs beginning with a solo voice, polyphony, homophony on the crescendos and unbelievable counterpoint at the end. A system that can recover the forty parts, not fall apart on the crescendo and place the choirs in space with the reverberation from the church will do well with everything else bar thunderous bass. (Tallis Scholars Gimell 006) .... Any complex choral is a test on imaging, clarity and separation. Spem in Alium can sound muddy and terrible quite easily.

 

For Head bop and foot tap etc...You should feel good after hearing it.  Chesky's Ultimate Demonstration Disk. Track 19: I Love Paris - Johnny Frigo

 

Rodrigo Y Gabriella- Live in Manchester and Dublin - FOC- Speed and timbre. There is a bit towards the end where they are hitting the guitars that is amazing for this.

John Williams- Romance of the Guitar- Concierto De Aranjeuz: Big Orchestral wide sound stage that comes around 8mins in, alot of cd players and speakers crumble with it.

Massive Attack- Collected - Teardrop- One word, Bass. This is the ultimate test track for bass response.

Bernard Fanning- Tea & Sympathy- Watch Over Me: This is a really well recorded track. I generally look for imaging and the fine details of the strings being struck.

Dire Straits- Brothers in Arms- Latest Trick: On the right system the saxophone sounds amazing. I listen to this one just to hear that sexy saxophone smoothness.  .... The Brothers in Arms album was a frequent test disk in a lot of HiFi store years ago, don't seem to see it around much anymore but like you say Latest Trick is a great smooth track

 

Widor, Symphony number 5: last movement, shows me how the speakers respond to bass pedal arpeggios and move between drivers. If I use my favourite recording ('Sounds of York Minster') you should be able to hear the air in the organ stops.

The Chieftains, 'Long Black Veil': track 3, 'Foggy Dew'. I like this because there is fantastic imaging, the vocal should snap into place in the centre and the system has to tease out the layers of instruments building up through the song.

Leonard Cohen, "I'm your man", title track. Should just be foot tappingly rhythmic.

Ben Harper, Live on Mars, disc 2, track 4 'Power of the Gospel'. The scratching on the fret, the breathless playing, the pluck of the strings. Then toward the end the rhythm kicks in. This is gorgeous.

 

Keith Jarrett's Staircase as I like it and piano is hard to reproduce, and this is solo piano.

Ted Hawkins - The Next Hundred Years, particularly the track Biloxi - it has such emotion and if the hairs don't stand up on the back of your neck, buy better equipment.

For deep base I inflict U2's Discoteque on people. However, I must say the repressing of Aqualung goes much deeper than I've heard that album before (it's definitely a better balanced pressing, but I'm not sure if I have had a really good listen since replacing the speakers so that is probably a factor too).

Beethoven's 7th, Karajan either the '63 or the '77 tests speed and the excitement of the music should shine through. Anyway, it's my favourite piece of classical since Keith played it to me months ago.

Then find some crappily recorded bootleg to see how it copes with bad quality recordings, we all have some music which ain't recorded real well but we like so when assessing equipment it's worth putting it on.

 

testing a subs capability is Chemical Brothers under the influence which is track 2 on the surrender album which just took me about half hour to find cos i couldn't remember which album :biggrin: you could use just about any CB track for testing a sub but this particular track has what i could best describe as a space ship coming in to land which cycles down very very low about every 30 seconds on the track, not everyone's cup of tea but good for a bass test none the less, my old sub would basically go silent through these transients

 

Groove Armada's opener Suntoucher on their Goodbye Country Hello Nightclub album, it has a very funky bass line throughout which goes real deep another good tester....  'Suntoucher' has a series of magnificent descending basslines in the intro before switching into a vinyl derived sample with a fast sounding drum beat - the combination of sounds in under a minute is the test......bass and detail and speed all in one go. Beware though....if hiphop ain't your thing!

 

The Knife 'Silent Shout' - The title track to this album is an electro stunner. All created on computer and impossible to 'play' this tests out bass (as you'd expect) with what seems (feels?) like single digit frequencies at high levels in the closing 30 seconds. It also demonstrates speed as the harmony (?) is delivered using a clear rounded tone played at guitar like speed but each note starts and stops very fast. This is counterpointed by a sharp stopped bass beat throughout. Then there is the detail in the background - little drum fills and the like. Outstanding track from an outstanding album - electro equivalent of Van Halen's 'Jump'

KCRW Rare on Air Volume 1 - a compilation with many great tracks, all done live with no overdubs . The test track I most often use is Lindsay Buckingham's revisit of the Fleetwood Mac track 'Never Going Back Again' which he does solo on twelve string acoustic...everyone knows how a good guitar should sound

Steve Vai 'The Ultra Zone' - a loony guitar album but the opening track is a hard rock hoot and brilliantly produced - very high and hard sounding....detail and midrange tests are here in spades. Multi-tracked to within an inch of its life this is a tough track to play without sounding muddy and lost........but the best thing is that it TOTALLY annoys the hifi salespeople because it is just so bogan

 

For speed of recovery on deep bass notes while playing finely/delicate upper mids and high frequencies-Theme track to American Beauty

For female vocals and sound staging [smallish sound stage]-The Patsy Cline Story-American double LP.

For opera [large sound stage] Callas-Pavarotti 1972 covent gardens " Lucia Di Lammemoor" LP

For phase coherence and staging [medium] Sting-Dream of the Blue Turtles.

For staging [small] and midrange/bass timing-Tom Waits -Heart attack and Vine.[one of the best recordings EVER]American Asylum LP pressing.

For checking Cartridge/tonearm tracking ability-Tears for Fears- 'Songs from the big chair"LP, they foolishly put the highest modulated cut on the innermost track of this LP, if your TT can master this it can track anything.
 
Original 45 Single of "Live and Let Die"-James Bond theme-can be true horror of a disc to get tracking correctly,but when you do.....wow!  I would love to see this disc as a 12" 45rpm,it would be far easier to track. [sound engineers in this present time of over compression/loudness wars should listen to how it CAN be done without squashing the dynamics,"Live and Let Die" proves the point]

For checking everything,a one disc does it all, well it would have to be this.  "Mellow Mood"-Oscar Peterson,I've got it on LP and it is sublime,you can get it on SACD This is the baby to KNOW if anything is amiss with your system,you only have to play "Who can I turn to"-Truly amazing.  The power of this recording is brilliant,so is the finesse,It has the soundstaging really second to none and the piano is not in the room with you, you are in the room with him. Even if your not a Peterson fan.you owe it to yourself to at least listen to the brilliant disc.

 

"Starlovers" by Gus Gus (from "This Is Normal" CD) for testing that the subsonic bass is handled correctly (in most cases, it is missing or horribly smeared, and can also reduce some valve amps to a quivering mess).

 

 "It's A Hard World" by Supertramp (from "Some Things Never Change") for its bass and rim shots, and sound stage with all the special effects in the opening 1:30 minutes.

 

 "Spanish Harlem" by Rebecca Pidgeon or any number of Diana Krall tracks for femme vocals

 

 "The Golden Age" by Beck (from "Sea Change") for warm guitars and male vocals

 

 "When Poets Dreamed Of Angels" by David Sylvian (from "Secrets Of The Beehive") for acoustic guitar

 

 "Private Investigations" by Dire Straits (from "Love Over Gold") for dynamics (especially the electric guitar attack and the kick drums in the second half)

 

 "Be Where Now" by Padmasana to test that the ring of a bell can still be heard with clarity over thumping dubby bass

The Trinity sessions.There's no aircon sound there. The recoding was done in one take in a Monterey church onto a WMD6c walkman pro, and mastered from that. 

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

Train Song: Holly Cole

Amazing female vocal, woody double bass doubling as percussion, amazing bell sounds passed across the soundstage.

 

(sorry if already listed).

[Bengineer]

Purely for a hard hitting bass track. Lapalux - Make Money. Sounds like **** if your speakers/headphones can't handle sub-bass.

[JPete9]

On 22/04/2019 at 3:10 PM, furtherpale said:

Train Song: Holly Cole

Amazing female vocal, woody double bass doubling as percussion, amazing bell sounds passed across the soundstage.

 

(sorry if already listed).

Agree.

Try, Ballad of the Runaway Horse - Jenifer Warnes and Blind-Hearted - Sara K

 

[H.E. Pennypacker]

4 minutes ago, JPete9 said:

Agree.

Try, Ballad of the Runaway Horse - Jenifer Warnes and Blind-Hearted - Sara K

 

Will do on Friday night

[Ian McP]

 

https://www.ecmrecords.com/catalogue/1516699598

 

 

[Sir Rab of Everest]

On 26/03/2019 at 11:48 AM, magical said:

The Trinity sessions.There's no aircon sound there. The recoding was done in one take in a Monterey church onto a WMD6c walkman pro, and mastered from that. 

 

That aspect has already been addressed earlier in this thread:

On 25/10/2018 at 4:19 PM, jamesrc said:

I lived in Toronto for a while just up the road from the Trinity Church.   The sound on the beginning of that track is a tram running up the road outside the church.