system calibration record(s)...
Posted by: ken c on 07 June 2001
wasnt sure whether this belongs to music or hifi, but anyway, here goes:
which record do you play when you want to check that all is well with your system?
for lp12, i play Ricky Lee Jones, Girl at the Volcano Album, "under the boardwalk" track, to make sure dynamics/slam are OK
sonny rollins, "tennessee waltz" on"falling in love with jazz" to make sure tenor sax nuances are there
gladys knight "where do i put his memory" on Anthology album, for the emotion.
joe cockers "organic" to check voice
for cd, because thats what i have, i play brubeck's "take 5" to check the dynamics/slam
joe henderson "so near, yet so far"
hyperions "the songmakers almanac, schubertiade" to check soprason doesnt slice my ears, and may be a bit of van morrison "avalon sunset" for emotion.
for detail i play one or two west african highlife tracks -- that tends to tell me if there is any congestion.
however, i must point out that the list does change to a large extent -- but one or more of the above will feature somewhere...
i tend to find that, if one of the test records is OK, then the other will be ok also. if i ever find myself playing more than a few records to check if all is OK, then all is NOT ok...
whats your experience??
oh, by the way, my system sounds absolutely fantastic right now...
enjoy
ken
Treble: Supertramp's well-recorded but somewhat edgy "Paris", especially the harmonica intro on "School". If it hurts your ears, forget about it.
Mid/voices: Cowboy Junkies' "The Caution Horses" - very pure voice. Decca recordings of french sopran Régine Crespin singing Berlioz is brilliant too.
Bass: Darryl Jones on Miles' "Decoy". Best bass player in the world.
Detail: Grateful Dead's "Without A Net". IMO the best sounding live recording ever made, even though the sound engineer was an american... Maybe I'm wrong with this preconception ?!
Ability to Rock: AC/DC's 1992 live recording of "Whole Lotta Rosie". Blows your arse off, and Chris Slade's drumming is so metronomic that it's also a good PRaT test. Otherwise, Hüsker Dü's "Zen Arcade" sounds awful but that's exactly the way it should. If that record sounds good, I'll buy another system 
But in the end, the most important records in a listening test are those I like most, even if they sound no good. Horowitz, Callas, Casals, John Lennon, Keith Richards must sound like Horowitz, Callas, Casals, John Lennon and Keith Richards - and if they do, I'm very prone to forget about PRaT, imaging, smoothness and whatever else.
Cheese - may all beings be happy 