Your audition playlist

Posted by: MangoMonkey on 02 April 2017

Do you have a playlist of music you use when you audition new gear - new speakers etc?

What do you listen for when you hear each track in this playlist.

Please share!

 Link to spotify playlist would probably be great too.

Posted on: 02 April 2017 by The Strat (Fender)

Mango,

https://forums.naimaudio.com/to...nth-and-final-review

My listening list when I was running in my S20s.  

Regards,

Lindsay

Posted on: 02 April 2017 by MangoMonkey

Thanks!  Here's your playlist: Strat's Playlist

 

 

Posted on: 02 April 2017 by KTMax

My 'standard' list of CDs I always use to audition something:

  1. Me'Shell Ndegéocello - Peace Beyond Passion
  2. Eagles - Hell Freezes Over
  3. Steely Dan - Two Against Nature
  4. Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
  5. Erykah Badu - Live
  6. Pink Foyd - The Final Cut
  7. Roger Waters - Amused to Death
  8. Stevie Ray Vaughan - Couldn't Stand the Weather
  9. Johnny Guitar Watson - A Real Mother for Ya
  10. Marc Moulin - I Am You
  11. Lyle Mays - Street Dreams
  12. Dave Grusin - Harlequin
  13.  D'Angelo - Voodoo

Imo it's not that important that you use perfect 'audiophile' recordings. I think it's more important to know the recordings inside out and that you have listened to them on as many different systems as possible.

Posted on: 02 April 2017 by joerand
KTMax posted:

Imo it's not that important that you use perfect 'audiophile' recordings. I think it's more important to know the recordings inside out and that you have listened to them on as many different systems as possible.

I agree and in that regard Yes' Fragile album is for me a good candidate for quality music with compromised SQ, FWIW. As KTMax suggests, I'd go with what I'm familiar with and have little interest in what others listen to. Dealers always seem to want to start you out streaming what they deem impressive recordings that gel with their system. Typically nothing I've heard before. Best to peruse tracks you know well both good and bad for SQ, then focus on the musicality.

Posted on: 04 April 2017 by Alan Willby

Clapton Unplugged and 24 Hours - great live ambience and loads of fine detail

Tori Amos Under the Pink - great vocals and piano

Crash Test Dummies - only the Mmm song - great vocals and dynamics 

Dire Straits Telegraph Road and Private Investigation + Brothers in Arms album - great guitar

Tom Petty Full Moon Fever - great rock

Neil Young Harvest Moon - fabulous bass

Frank Zappa - Hot Rats - a test for any system

Any Tallis Scholars album - wonderful singing and ambience

Any New Order - great drive and power

Simon Rattle - Beethoven's 5th - its got it all

Afrocelts - Seed - lots of detail

Pink Floyd - Division Bell - great production and on some days my favourite Floyd album

Led Zep - II - crunching guitars and bass and of course the singer is pretty good

Black Sabbath - Paranoid - a test for your equipment's bass quality

Yes - The Yes Album - ditto

Sting - The Soul Cages - loads of detail and some interesting wide sound stage affects

I'll just select tracks from that lot as the mood takes me and depending on what I am listening for

 

Posted on: 04 April 2017 by nickpeacock
Arvo Pärt - Spiegel im Spiegel [Brilliant Classics label, Benjamin Hudson, Sebastian Klinger, Jürgen Kruse]
The Tallis Scholars - Allegri's Miserere [Gimmell label - has to be the Latin version]
Cocteau Twins - Blue Bell Knoll
The Fall - Blindness
The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun
The Housemartins - I Smell Winter
Dexys Midnight Runners - There There My Dear
Killing Joke - Millennium
Daft Punk - Get Lucky
Kraftwerk - Radioactivity
The Jayhawks - All The Right Reasons
Mara Carlyle - I Blame You Not
 
Chosen because there are lots of different styles here and these tracks - if the sound is right - produce an immediate emotional response in me.
Posted on: 04 April 2017 by audio1946

must be female  ella,  carole kidd,  lyne Stanley  ,or     bass   let there be drums  sandy nelson

Posted on: 04 April 2017 by antony d

heres mine

London Grammar - waisting my younger years. strong, Hey Now

Elton John - Captain Fanstastic

Tori Amos - China Parasol

Paul Simon - Graceland & African Skies Homeless

The Who - Behind Blue Eyes

Pink Flyod - Fearless - Time

Rodger Waters The Wall Live - Mother

Tears for Fears - Woman in Chains