What are your favorite tracks to evaluate stereo systems?

[Lee]

I’m working on creating a playlist of demo and evaluation tracks.

Do you have any favorites when you want to evaluate sound quality?

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Malletoba Spank, from Ellington's "Jazz Party In Stereo" is a long term go-to and hard to beat for vinyl front ends. read my 13 year old link for why it's useful.

for classical vinyl i like the second movement of the Reiner Scheherazade, particularly disc 2 of the Classic Records 45rpm 4 disc set. it covers so many important sonic test factors for classical.

for digital i love the 1955 recording of Munch/Boston 'Ravel: Daphnis et Chloe, 192/24 on Quboz (also on Tidal 176/24). fantastic digital and soooo much detail and excellent scale and articulate bass. fantastic transfer. a 70 year old recording. one of the very early stereo recordings. they clearly knew a bit about recording. played a bit loud it's a system workout and will test your soundstage coherence, balance, scale and ease. the recording should breathe and have excellent flow.

 

[Lee]

Malletoba Spank, from Ellington's "Jazz Party In Stereo" is a long term go-to and hard to beat for vinyl front ends. read my 13 year old link for why it's useful.

for classical i like the second movement of the Reiner Scheherazade, particularly disc 2 of the Classic Records 45rpm 4 disc set. it covers so many important sonic test factors for classical.

Thanks Mike. I know both tracks well.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Thanks Mike. I know both tracks well.

added a digital track as an edit.

 

[Lee]

added a digital track as an edit.

Awesome, thanks again.

 

[Lee]

Anyone else have suggested tracks?

 

[Backpacker]

This has choir, period orchestra and it’s a phenomenal recording. Also has full tilt to silence in a few places which I find helpful

 

[Anton D]

Trying to pick some off the beaten track choices...

From the Duke Ellington band LP "For Duke," 'Satin Doll.' One of the best horn demos I can think of.

The track "Big Bad Bill" from Ry Cooder's "Jazz." It's not that tough of a workout, but it really rewards a good system with 'rightness.'

Bruce Cockburn's version of "What is the Soul of a Man" from the album "Nothing But a Burning Light."

Then, Tom Jones did a cover of the same song on his LP "Spirit in the Room." It's a slow starter but gives a great bass demo. Dealing with Tom's voice and avoiding chestiness is a good demo. The guitar should sound like you are in some dark industrial space.

OK, then to get more afield, a combo of tracks to audition all in a row...

1) John Hiatt's "Feels Like Rain." It shows how well a system can handle his intense midrange vocal. (The guitar is quite dry, low reverb.)

2) Aaron Neville's "Feels Like Rain." Good for seeing how well a system handles low level and then higher levels vocals and keeping it feeling all 'of a piece.' Aaron has a more intense upper midrange impact. A good rig can really capture to 'wetness' of his vocal. Some systems change their imaging when he goes from his lower range to his upper range. It can seem as if he is moving back into the image when he goes up, rather than staying in place, so to speak. (It's also good for how well a system keeps different voices present and distinct.

3) Buddy Guy's "Feels Like Rain." Also useful for seeing how well vocal interplay is preserved. Buddy's voice will involve the woofer more and it's useful for seeing how a woofer and midrange play together.

 

[Another Johnson]

Based on DAW’s book of notes, I chased down his list of essential demo albums useful to him as he designed and evaluated his speakers. I have to admit that aside from DAW’s interest in them, they were not interesting to me.

Tom O’Keefe, legendary US based LP12 setup specialist, did his evaluations for his setups using the first few bars of one cut on Steely Dan’s Gaucho album. Again, interesting because of my respect for Tom … but not of long term interest to me.

These days I’m not so interested in evaluation tracks. But if I were, a few candidates would include

Tiger on Paula Cole’s This Fire.

The Beat Hotel on Allan Taylor’s Hotels and Dreamers

The Man in the Long Black Coat on Bob Dylan’s Mercy

Somewhere Down that Crazy River on Robbie Robertson’s Robbie Robertson

Windows on Jack Wilkins’ Windows

The Man’s too Strong on Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms

Mark on Ron Affif’s Solotude

There are many others, but these come to mind quickly.

 

[Lee]

This has choir, period orchestra and it’s a phenomenal recording. Also has full tilt to silence in a few places which I find helpful

The Jordi Savall recordings in general are excellent.

 

[microstrip]

This has choir, period orchestra and it’s a phenomenal recording. Also has full tilt to silence in a few places which I find helpful

You should also listen to Les Routes de l'Esclavage. A nice thing on this is that people can see the recording teaser on youtube and see what they listening to

Most Manuel Mohino engineered recordings sound fabulous.

 

[microstrip]

The Jordi Savall recordings in general are excellent.

Yes. Savall was very concerned with sound quality of recordings and had an active participation in aspects such as microphone layouts and acoustics since his early days.

 

[rob]

Based on DAW’s book of notes, I chased down his list of essential demo albums useful to him as he designed and evaluated his speakers. I have to admit that aside from DAW’s interest in them, they were not interesting to me.

Tom O’Keefe, legendary US based LP12 setup specialist, did his evaluations for his setups using the first few bars of one cut on Steely Dan’s Gaucho album. Again, interesting because of my respect for Tom … but not of long term interest to me.

These days I’m not so interested in evaluation tracks. But if I were, a few candidates would include

Tiger on Paula Cole’s This Fire.

The Beat Hotel on Allan Taylor’s Hotels and Dreamers

The Man in the Long Black Coat on Bob Dylan’s Mercy

Somewhere Down that Crazy River on Robbie Robertson’s Robbie Robertson

Windows on Jack Wilkins’ Windows

The Man’s too Strong on Dire Straits’ Brothers in Arms

Mark on Ron Affif’s Solotude

There are many others, but these come to mind quickly.

Somewhere Down that Crazy River on Robbie Robertson’s Robbie Robertson

Thanks for the memory.

I fondly remember a dealer using this track on LP as a demo for his custom built ribbon speakers. Back when I was in my mid teens and spent most Saturday’s travelling from shop to shop listening to everything I could.
This and Elton John’s Indian Sunset were 2 of his demo tracks.

 

[Anton D]

Oh, man, another vote for "Somewhere Down the Crazy River."

You'd think the wind would have sort of pushed me that way, but I overlooked it.

Great call!

 

[Backpacker]

You should also listen to Les Routes de l'Esclavage. A nice thing on this is that people can see the recording teaser on youtube and see what they listening to

Most Manuel Mohino engineered recordings sound fabulous.

View attachment 160536

Very cool, thank you microstrip.

And Somehwere Down the Crazy River is wild. It’s been more than a few upgrades since I listened to that. Didn’t know what I was missing.

This one has the blackest of backgrounds, amazing space and immediacy. Perhaps not complex enough for a reference and some of the other tracks on this have more going on.

 

[Stevet]

I’m working on creating a playlist of demo and evaluation tracks.

Do you have any favorites when you want to evaluate sound quality?

I like music which both challenges the speakers and also, with excellent speakers and systems, can create a strong emotional connection. Some I like are "Billy Austin" by Steve Earle, "Nessun Dorma" sung by the best, Pavarotti, Dvorak's #9 "New World Symphony" by any of a number of conductors/orchestras, Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" from the Royal Albert Hall concerts from the early 2000's (this is a great extended version/jam which has rock and jazz influences played exceptionally well by a group which is finally playing together in unison instead of fighting each other musically and showing off on stage), the latest Analogue Productions reissue of "Roundabout" from Fragile (great for testing bass as on excellent systems you can hear/tell the make and model of the bass guitar) and the first track from Miles' "Sketches of Spain". All of these are available to stream, on CD/SACD, on tape or on well done remastered LP's, whichever you prefer and depending upon what the dealer has available for you to use.

 

[Lee]

Great suggestions!

 

[DasguteOhr]

Andreas Vollenweider's Caverna Magica Lp takes you on an audio journey into this cave. The better your speakers and room work together, the more realistic the experience will be. Fascinating 3D sound very good for positioning the speakers in the room.

 

[Anton D]

This next one is tough. It's recommending a song I don't particularly like, but....

Blood, Sweat, and Tears' Spinning Wheels' on the Super Disk LP has a great demo section at the end of the song when all the 'calliope' sounds hit. On a good system demo, it goes from a kind of cacophony to a rather interesting and detailed conglomeration of sounds that become much easier to follow for detail on a good rig. Once you can follow each sound as you direct your attention, it is not only a good demo, but actually increasing one's interest in what's going on!

Same with Bartok's "Miraculous Mandarin." It's not my cup of meat, and a really good example of it is the London digital recording of the Detroit Symphony conducted by Dorati. It translates reasonably well to vinyl. It has good sonic hijinx that a good system can use to show dynamics (macro and micro.)

 

[jazdoc]

I try and avoid the audiophile war horses out of sheer boredom. Currently using:

Wet Leg "Catch These Fists"
Adam Ben Ezra "Heavy Drops"
St. Vincent "Savior"
Gutter Twins "Who Will Lead Us?"
Janelle Monae "Make Me Feel"
David Murray "Ming's Samba"
Rolling Stones "Miss You" (45 rpm 'Disco Version')
Midnight Oil "The Deadheart" (45 rpm version)
Fine Young Cannibals "Johnny Come Home" (45 rpm version)
Cat Power "I Can't Get No Satisfaction"
Prince "Erotic City" (45 rpm version)