Test Tracks

1. Squonk from Trick of the Tail (Genesis) for handling of the combined bass pedal and kick drum notes.

2. Trampled Underfoot (Led Zep) for pace and rhythm.

3. Edith and the Kingpin (Joni Mitchell) because it's Joni Mitchell.

Tin Pan Alley (Stevie Ray Vaughn) is on my test cd too.

Fade to Black (Dire Straits; On Every Street)

For vocals:  What A Shame - Patricia Barber - Cafe Blue and Georgia On My Mind - Jacintha - Here's To Ben

Whoops that's 4!

(To test speaker set-up:  Perfect Sense Pt. 1 - Roger Waters - Amused to Death.  The sound stage should be about 270 degrees.)

One I enjoy using is John Martyn's Small Hours. Others of his will do but the blackness here along with the bird calls can be sublime.

I second Diana Krall's version of A Case Of You. To me it is different and equally as good as the original.

james

The three tracks I'd like to nominate are

Hook, Line & Sinker                    - Roomful of Blues from that album

Single                                         - Everything but the Girl, Walking Wounded

How do I get to Carnegie Hall?   - Sparks, 'Lil Beethoven

for swing. atmosphere and fatigue.

Olly 

Try also Brad Mehldau Trio's cover of this. Larry plays the melody on the bass. It's really something else.

Agree with this. I figured that I simply couldn't live with the crystalline harshness of a CDX2 on many of my favourite recordings, so I didn't buy one.

I do remember turning up at a dealers once with a copy of psychocandy when it was new. The look on his face when the stylus hit the groove was wonderful.

......i don't know Brad Mehldau so will definitely be looking for that tonight thanks. I have a cdx2 which, in part, prompted the comment (it now just acts as a family friendly digital input to an NDS). Perhaps we should start a thread for tracks that will tell you whether you can live with your system.

Enjoying the thread Jeff and i can confirm, having heard it at a Naim demo, that Tin Pan Alley does indeed sound fabulous through Statement. (......personally I'd go for Voodoo Chile though). :-)

regards

Martin

Tried to put most of them on a Qobuz playlist too:

 http://player.qobuz.com/#!/playlist/820554

That is probably the best idea, R.K., as most here would want the higher quality.

I am making a playlist at Spotify but would have no idea how to make it available to others and it would, of course, be at the lower Spotify resolution.  That currently stands at 56 tracks and 5 hours and 41 minutes.

Thanks everyone for all the contributions (others - continue to add to, please).  I listened to a bit of this Sunday and enjoyed the variety as well as the exposure to some things I was unfamiliar with.

So put it all on a usb stick and take to your dealer for a 5 hour demo 

good listenin'

Jeff A

Hi Jeff. I think a number of people use Spotify rather than Qobuz as its now within the Naim system. 

Not sure if others can access it, but the playlist title is:

S1 Test Tracks

Created by is: uagain51

Jeff A

So I have three I use in-home whenever I make a change:

Sinead O'Connor  track "In This Heart"    from album "Universal Mother"  with each verse a voice is added:    solo>duet>trio>quartet

Laura Veirs   track  "Pink Light"  from album  "Saltbreakers"   drummer and handclaps on this track follow a pattern, but it changes by one on every other measure 

Ron Carter   track   "A Hymn For Him"   from album  "Blues Farm"  again, the percussion patterns - triangle, rim shot, tambourine

Cantate Domino - Torsten Nilsson, Marianne Mellnas, Alf Linder

The organ and choir blow me away every time and sends chills down my spine.  This recording was released in 1976 and the recording quality on CD and vinyl is spectacular. 

Diana Krall - A Case of You - Live in Paris  What an emotional song and recording quality is low noise, high detail.  What a song and performance. 

Ray Brown - Ray Brown Trio Walk On (Disc 2) - F.S.R. (For Sonny Rollins) by Ray Brown. 

Dynamics out of this world with imaging that will make you turn your head to see who walked on stage. 

Here's two I was stunned by at Naim Audio demos many years ago:

'O Sacred Head' by Amy Grant from the album 'My Father's Eyes' There was a thunderstorm when the song was recorded and it is captured on the track.

'I Love Paris' by Helen Merrill and Gordon Beck from the album 'No Tears...No Goodbyes' - beautiful piano-vocal track in which you can just feel the moment, which I think is down to the timing. Absolutely gorgeous.

And if I'm limited to three, let's go for Joni Mitchell 'Amelia / Pat's Solo' from the live album, 'Shadows and Light'. It's a favourite track anyway so I always want to hear more.

That's nothing. Try turning up with a You've Got Foetus On Your Breath album, or the Dead Kennedy's Too Drunk To Fxxx. I've done both, back in the day. Most amusing when they were trying to play Dire bloody Straits. Or Phil bloody Collins.

Hi Jeff

Thanks for this thread, it's been great.

I can find you on Spotify, but not the playlist and you show as having no recent activity.

I think you may need to change your settings to automatically make your playlists public.

There's a gear symbol bottom left that takes you through to the settings menu, the relevant tick has to be green i believe.

Cheers

Olly

HH

How the wheel turns, I imagine you could get much the same reaction these days by turning up with a Phil Collins album.  I might take some of his venerable recordings to Bristol and see how many exhibitors I can get to play them!!

Olly

Hi Olly

I went in under Spotify Preferences and ticked a box "Automatically make NEW playlists public" and then clicked and dragged the tracks to a new playlist.

That "new public" playlist is "S1 Test Public" and again the creator is "uagain51".

I would prefer that be the only one currently showing as I have a huge number of playlists and playlist folders and would prefer that they not all be available to public.

If you can find S1 Test Public I will keep the the box ticked for a week or so and then uncheck it as I don't want future lists/folders necessarily public either.

regards

Jeff A

Somebody linked to it on Spotify so it must now be available.

Note - I removed one track, "Dark Star" by the Grateful Dead.  It is 29 minutes long and kind of interrupts the "flow" of test tracks.  That is not meant as a judgement of that track choice, I would encourage people interested to seek that track out individually and listen to it.  It is available on Spotify Premium (US) to include the specific Dick Pick Vol. 4 and show date (2-13-70).

Also, there were 3 or 4 occasions where I could find an artist but not the specific track proposed.  I took the liberty of including the artist and "randomly" picking a track from their discography.

Anyway, thanks for all the contributions (and any future additions).  I have enjoyed listening to the playlist several times and hope there is something there for others to enjoy.

good listenin'

Jeff A

Thanks Jeff, understood.  I'll have another go at finding it.

Olly