Classical orchestral is the best music for making fine discriminations in the quality of reproduction. It is best because it makes it easy to quickly hear what is wrong with the reproduction. That is, IF you know what it is supposed to sound like to begin with.
Unfortunately, like pink noise (the other best tool for making frequency balance judgments), many if not most listeners these days don't really know what it should sound like since they don't hear such music performed unamplified in a decent hall much, if at all. Two major reasons for this are (1) shifts in musical taste toward pop, rock, and everything else but classical, both at concerts and in churches and (2) the fact that much of the classical music that people can hear these days in concert is amplified at the performing venue. You hear the orchestra through electronics and speakers of unknown quality mixed by someone who may have little desire to present as true a picture of the unamplified sound as possible.
It's not very difficult to hunt down the good, unamplified stuff in a major city like New York, LA, or Chicago, at least as long as you are willing to pay the price of admission. But if you don't live near a major city, it may be much more difficult to regularly or even occasionally hear a good orchestra in a decent hall. And if you don't really like classical orchestral music, the price of admission to many events may be off-putting.
I hear unamplified classical music at least weekly, both as a performer on stage and as a listener in the audience. No, I don't attend classical concerts that often. But I do attend church every week and sing in the choir there. My church is one of the few in the Chicago area that has classical music vocal and orchestral ensembles or orchestras every week and it is never amplified in any way. The church's sanctuary has truly astounding acoustics. Musicians who play or sing there for the first time fall instantly in love with the venue because they sound so good there, both to themselves on stage and when they walk out in the audience to hear the other performers. They also can hear all the other performers on stage and get great "feedback" from the room as they perform--they can hear their sound projected and reflected back and thus have a great feel for how they are driving the room as they perform. Ask musicians about this and they will tell you how rare such an experience is.
This is all just a long way of saying that I think I know what orchestral music should sound like and can thus judge when a recording and playback system gets it right. The single most useful recording I've found for judging home audio system quality is, in fact, a recording of classical orchestral music. It is an old 1993 Pro Arte recording of Rachmanioff's Symphonic Dances with Eduardo Mata leading the Dallas Symphony. A few copies are usually still available from various sources, including Amazon. Here's one.
If you are both one who can hear classical music performed regularly in a good venue and are an audiophile/music lover, this disk will lead you on your quest for better, more accurate home reproduction. To the extent that playback of this disc does not sound like a live unamplified orchestra in a good hall from a good audience seat, my experience over the years tells me that your system is wrong to that extent. Work to maximize the realism of this recording and you will be thrilled with the results on other recordings as well.
If you can't hear or don't care to hear live unamplified classical music in a good hall, well. . . never mind. This recording will be useless to you.
Unfortunately, like pink noise (the other best tool for making frequency balance judgments), many if not most listeners these days don't really know what it should sound like since they don't hear such music performed unamplified in a decent hall much, if at all. Two major reasons for this are (1) shifts in musical taste toward pop, rock, and everything else but classical, both at concerts and in churches and (2) the fact that much of the classical music that people can hear these days in concert is amplified at the performing venue. You hear the orchestra through electronics and speakers of unknown quality mixed by someone who may have little desire to present as true a picture of the unamplified sound as possible.
It's not very difficult to hunt down the good, unamplified stuff in a major city like New York, LA, or Chicago, at least as long as you are willing to pay the price of admission. But if you don't live near a major city, it may be much more difficult to regularly or even occasionally hear a good orchestra in a decent hall. And if you don't really like classical orchestral music, the price of admission to many events may be off-putting.
I hear unamplified classical music at least weekly, both as a performer on stage and as a listener in the audience. No, I don't attend classical concerts that often. But I do attend church every week and sing in the choir there. My church is one of the few in the Chicago area that has classical music vocal and orchestral ensembles or orchestras every week and it is never amplified in any way. The church's sanctuary has truly astounding acoustics. Musicians who play or sing there for the first time fall instantly in love with the venue because they sound so good there, both to themselves on stage and when they walk out in the audience to hear the other performers. They also can hear all the other performers on stage and get great "feedback" from the room as they perform--they can hear their sound projected and reflected back and thus have a great feel for how they are driving the room as they perform. Ask musicians about this and they will tell you how rare such an experience is.
This is all just a long way of saying that I think I know what orchestral music should sound like and can thus judge when a recording and playback system gets it right. The single most useful recording I've found for judging home audio system quality is, in fact, a recording of classical orchestral music. It is an old 1993 Pro Arte recording of Rachmanioff's Symphonic Dances with Eduardo Mata leading the Dallas Symphony. A few copies are usually still available from various sources, including Amazon. Here's one.
If you are both one who can hear classical music performed regularly in a good venue and are an audiophile/music lover, this disk will lead you on your quest for better, more accurate home reproduction. To the extent that playback of this disc does not sound like a live unamplified orchestra in a good hall from a good audience seat, my experience over the years tells me that your system is wrong to that extent. Work to maximize the realism of this recording and you will be thrilled with the results on other recordings as well.
If you can't hear or don't care to hear live unamplified classical music in a good hall, well. . . never mind. This recording will be useless to you.