What are your favorite cd's for use when testing out new speakers or systems?

...pf dsotm

Something with a nice bass guitar, a real drum kit played by a real person using a real pair of drum sticks, sax, vocals, organ, and instrumental break using lead guitar (and more sax : )

Money, get away
Get a good job with more pay and your'e okay
Money, it's a gas
Grab that cash with both hands and make a stash
New car, caviar, four shelf naim-fraim
Think i'll buy me a pair of dbl's

Let's face it; testing out new kit usually means you'll need money!

It also leads into: us and them (Customers and Dealers?)
...and the piano timbre that is so usefull when listerning to unfamilier components : )

regards ~
nymph

Any music I like, no matter how it sounds.

Just a random collection of stuff - the kit has to be able to play anything well and picking a couple of "well recorded" albums is not likely to tell you that much - you need a mix too see how it handles a variety of stuff.

Wot Ghom sez, but make sure the "random collection" includes simple recordings of acoustic instruments (because you know what a piano or guitar or whatever on its own ought to sound like, but you've no idea what a studio-processed synth is meant to sound like, so that gives you a basic idea of general accuracy of reproduction) and also some stuff you think you know forwards, backwards and sideways, as you'll be able to pick out changes from it more easily.

But the underlying need is a wide selection of music you want to listen to because it's good music.

Pete.

when I had a turntable I used to use a Paris mono recording of Willian Burroughs reading extracts from Naked Lunch & Nova Express. Now I tend to favour Jeff Beck playing Greensleeves from the Beckola CD.

Stan the Man Live (Stan Webb), especially tracks 2 & 3

Gonzalo Rubalcaba - Besame Mucho
A Perfect Circle -
Patricia Barber - Companion
Nathalie Merchant - Tigerlili

Tend to go armed with a range which varies but I always come back to Lyle Lovett - I Love Everybody. It has crisp drums, beautiful bass, some nice natural strings, up front vocals and some harmonies. If it doesn't sound right then you usually know about it pretty quick.

Mike

quote:

Originally posted by Mike Hughes:
Tend to go armed with a range which varies but I always come back to Lyle Lovett - I Love Everybody. It has crisp drums, beautiful bass, some nice natural strings, up front vocals and some harmonies. If it doesn't sound right then you usually know about it pretty quick.

Mike

Excellent album. Seems to be either loved or hated within LL's fanbase though. 'Penguins' is probably my most played track off that recording.

Ones with great msuic in great performances on!

George

hell freezes over - the eagles
built for comfort - robert lucas
tour de france - kraftwerk

Whatever is on the current playlist.

Steve

oh ok then.....it would have to be WYWH.

quote:

Whatever is on the current playlist.

Me too - i.e Basia Bulat, any HMHB CD, Folk Roots, New Roots and 4 or 5 other CDs including Sinfonietta from this gem

Worth considering something other than your favourites - my experience is that buying better kit has expanded my taste in music. Different types of music show what the kit can do as well opening up qualities in music that perhaps you hadn't noticed or appreciated before.

If I had to name one test disc it would be Pet Sounds - melodic and complex.

music that is fresh on my mind, that i have been listening recently. different kind of music: classic, etnic-world, jazz,...

classic is very good. some systems completely mess up!

Hi, I posted some very specific comments on the albums that have helped make my decisions when choosing my system a week or two ago, see:

http://forums.naim-audio.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/38019385/m/1552954317

Hope that is of some help.

Jamie