Music to test gear by

Paul at Billy Vee told me that they had one customer who only used recordings of steam locomotives... I guess that's less than helpful. Whatever you do I'd suggest that if the dealer is worth his salt he will let you take some options home. They will always sound different there and unless you enjoy an unusual arrangement with your dealer, that's where you will be living with the results of your choice.

dont be afraid to listen to music that you dont know. whenever i do, if i end up being curious about what the record is, who by, what else they have done, etc, then i know the system is doing a proper job (all else being equal).

in all cases, if i find myself worrying about frequency balance, etc, then, time to move on.

enjoy

ken

Best advice is to get a home dem, though.

cheers

Nigel

quote:

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I'm about to audition some new gear (probably my first Naim purchase) and was selecting some music to take along, which got me thinking about what the best music to use was.

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I just tend to grab a handful of stuff that I am currently enjoying at home, and also to buy something on the way to the dem or take something I have not got round to playing to see how easily I understand new music on the system. It is often worth letting the dealer play something of his choice too, I find it interesting seeing if the system can communicate music well outside of my normal taste.

I guess I use a variation of Linn's Tune Dem, in that I do not concentrate overly on detail etc, I home in on whether I can follow the pitch and timing easily - i.e. does the tune work. If listening to a comparative dem, the thing that gets these priorities more right is the better component. I always start listening off axis, as I find stereo artefacts can distract me from the more important musical content, and try to 'turn off my mind, relax and float down stream' as it were, avoiding analysing the sound. There is tendency to totally miss the whole point of the music when looking intently at tiny details.

Tony.

My 2 cents.

John

...and try to 'turn off my mind, relax and float down stream' as it were, avoiding analysing the sound. There is tendency to totally miss the whole point of the music when looking intently at tiny details.

i find that if a dem is successful, the particular choice of music becomes much much less important.

enjoy

ken

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My latest discovery is something that my dealer (NAF of Loughborough) has advocated for a while now, but which I have only recently accepted. This is to listen to each piece of music on each of the systems being compared for two minutes at most! It may seem crazy - particularly with music that barely starts developing in two minutes - but it really works, making differences seem much more clearcut.

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Hmmm, I'm not convinced by this. I find that a systems ability to play a few bars well does not necessarily indicate whether it allows a piece of music to develop correctly through its whole length. I tend to learn more from listening to a whole song, or at least a fairly large chunk of one. Its important how certain changes in a piece relate to one another, and listening to one isolated section looses this musical continuity. I prefer listening to the whole song, then playing the first few bars of the beginning to refresh my memory, then changing over for the whole song on the next option. In the past I have often mistaken impressive for better in short A B dems.

Tony.

i used this method in my grand catridge demo at infidelity and the second phase very qucikly narrowed down the DV XX2.

but i guess like everything, its whatever works for you...

enjoy

ken

I think it's particularly dangerous and potentially very misleading to always use the same test tracks for any given dems. I know one guy who always used the same kit, and was (in actuality) striving for a sonic rendering of how it should be in his mind - this seemed completely at odds to his stated goal of a "natrual and lifelike" reproduction.

So take what you're enjoying at the mo, and perhaps something you haven't listened to for a loo-oong while. Let the dealer play you something you don't know, too! And go to live performances, as these provide the reference.

Buy what makes your feet tap, and provides you with music the way you like to hear it.

Sorted.

Rico - let them eat Kans.

It's important to take stuff that you actually listen too, not just because you think it'll give the equipment a good technical challenge.

This is one of the most interesting topics I’ve read so far on the Forum. Nice one.

I’ve only recently started listening to CDs. I have a Cambridge Audio CD5 and my first batch of CDs came from the Naim E-store.

A few weeks ago I put on Naim CD022 Charlie Haden and Chris Anderson – None But The Lonely Heart. Just 2 instruments - piano and double bass. On one track in particular (track 3) it sounded like the disk was spinning backwards! My system just couldn’t make any sense of the music at all. Virtually no discernible pitch, no rhythm and the timing was way off!

I knew this wasn’t right and this is what prompted me to demo a better CD player. To me this was the perfect CD to test the difference in players. It is and probably never will be my favourite CD.

1 minute with my own system at the dealers was enough to confirm what I had heard at home. And it didn’t take long (seconds) to hear the superiority of the Naim CD5. Now it started to make sense, now I could hear someone playing a piano who knew how to play a piano.

Replacing the Rega Kytes for Royd RR1’s improved things even more. Now the bass player and pianist were playing together, there was a beat you could tap your foot to, and above all there was emotion.

So to me the 2 golden rules are:

1 - Have a good reason to demo better gear in the first place.

2 - Use a CD/record(s) that for some reason you’re dissatisfied with as well as you’re favourite stuff.

Steve B

Steve B

Mind you, I have bought close to 100% of everything I have taken home! The only exception being a recent Arcam tuner from the Diva range. It wasn't that I didn't like it, I just got dis-illusioned with the broadcast quality of the radio stations I liked.

The first Naim equipment I trialed at home was a Nait 3R with a Arcam Alpha One and B&W601's. Much better than the Rotel 930 Mk2 I was using, but what about a CD3.5 and a pair of Intros to match? Even better but what about a 92/90? Yup, now that's the business. Oh, you have a second hand 72 and shoebox 90. OK I'll give that a go. No prizes for what I ended up with!

But I digress.

Demo music - I use recent aquisitions because chances are I won't know it back to front but I'm familiar enough to know what the good tracks are and what the intent is.

But nothing can replace time, sitting back and relaxing. Sometimes you can listen to something and say, "yeah that sounds different, but it doesn't sound obviously better, what's it actually doing?" It's good to have the time, go back and "listen" again.

I really doubt whether I would have bought a CDX if I hadn't been able to sit down and do that over a few days. Gee....thanks Chris and Steve! (I'm sure the Wellington boys can relate to that!)

Jay

i agree. removes the some of the pressure to "carry" demo music to the dealers.

enjoy

ken

Giles

It's always a nice day for it, have a good one
Steve

very close to my approach. i also find that pretty much every record i have that i enjoy has an emotional component in it -- be it rock, jazz, folk, country, classical, reggae, highlife, garage, hiphop, etc...

of late, i am playing around with the theory that i only need to listen to piano music to descriminate between competing systems. results to-date are very encouraging and i am finding piano reproduction to be a very useful test indeed. i am not sure its sensible to recommend this as a general method because there is no such thing -- but next time i audition QS reference, i will see how much mileage i can get out of this.

enjoy

ken