Best songs to test speakers

[dime]

emerson lake plamers brain salad surgery the song toccata is areal good test also nine inch nails or nine inch noise which ever you prefer........

[Islander]

Leonard Cohen's Take This Waltz has a deep organ line running through the song. If your system is weak on the bottom end, it just won't be there.

On a Cohen/CD topic, I tried three ceramic mushroom-shaped anti-resonance footers from Skylan Manufacturing under the DVD/CD player. I placed one directly under the disc spinner section and the other two so the weight on them was roughly equal. The sound was more clear, but Cohen's deep ominous voice seemed to go from baritone to tenor, which took a lot away from it.

A few weeks later, I arranged the footers in a symmetrical triangular pattern, with one front and center and the other two near the rear corners. Leonard's voice regained its baritone sound and the clarity remained, so I'm leaving them like that.

Noel Nolan from Skylan told me to experiment with placing the footers, but I thought he was exaggerating about the effects. Not at all. The difference was obvious and the footers produced a definite improvement in the sound.

[dhtman]

I agree about Marcus Miller's Silver Rain - the first two cuts are an awesome demonstration of deep bass.

I also use James Taylor's Gaia from Hourglass - tests transient response on the drum roll in the verse after the soprano sax solo.

Dire Straits' Telegraph Road and Private Investigation.

I like using Emerson Lake and Palmer's first album, side one, on vinyl - piano, organ, drum solos, some very complex arrangements.

And Supertramp's Crime of the Century.

DMP cds are well recorded - my fave Flim and the BBs is New Pants.

[shawnboyind]

These work for me.

1) Eagles-Desperado

2) Judas Priest-Live

3) Jon and Vangelis-Friends Of Mr. Cairo

4) Pink Floyd-Wish You Were Here

5) The Cult-Sonic Temple

I really enjoy the look you get when you crank "21".

[Ricci]

Here are a few that I like...

Michael Jackson: Thriller (seriously the mix on this is phenomenal)

Perfect Circle

Mars Volta: either Frances the Mute or Bedlam in Goliath

Neurosis: a Sun that Never Sets

Vast

Dillinger Escape Plan: Miss Machine

Primus: Sailing the Seas of Cheese

I like all of these albums because I know them front to back and have heard them all countless times on a variety of different systems. It really doesn't help you audition if you are not really familiar with the music.

[shinerman]

Little Feat (Waiting on Columbus) track -- Dixie Chicken and just about any track on Bela Fleck and The Flecktones Cosmic Hippo, these were my two favorite when I had the jub audition in Ft. Worth.............Thanks again Cask05!!

[homemadeheresy]

Beatles - Sun King (Love the crickets in the intro), Phil Collins - In the Air Tonight, Miles Davis - Blue In Green, Big Head Todd and the Monsters - Its Alright, Lynyrd Skynyrd - Am I Losin, Pink Floyd - Coming Back To Life, Norah Jones - One Flight Down, Edgar Winters - FRANKENSTEIN.

These are just the ones that come to mind, off the top of my head.

[jamesV]

Some of the cd's that I took with me before I purchase my speakers.

System Of A Down - Toxicity

Norah Jones - Come Away With Me

Mariarchi Vargas De Tecalitlan - Aniversario 100 : Canciones Mexicanas Que Canta el Mundo, great range with vocals and instruments.

James

[seti]

I usually just test with what I am currently stuck on. Right now it would be Raymond Scott, Stockhausen, Life Aquatic Soundtrack, and Miho Hatori.

[jason str]

Santana Winning

Beck High 5

Eagles Hotel California

[Rich_Guy]

No Doubt, album - Rock Steady: "Hey Baby" and "Underneath It All"

Linkin Park, album - Meteora: "Numb"

These all have excellent hard hitting powerful bass that will really showoff a good subwoofer.

[bigdaddy]

Benny Benassi- Satisfaction

Catherine McPhee-Somewhere Over the Rainbow

Styx-Renegade, Castle Walls, Lorilei,

Alannis Morisette-Uninvited

Chemical Brothers-Block Rockin Beats

Marilyn Manson-Beautiful People

I also got to hear Flight of the Cosmic Hippo at Cask05 on his Jubilees That song will put your speakers to a test. Very interesting stuff.

Those speakers will give you a bad case of upgraditus.

[colterphoto1]

Here's Michael'sMix from the Pilgrimage last year. I made an 18 minute demo CD of the toughest bits of each of these tracks. I like to do the antithesis of the standard 'sounds good on any system' mamby-pamby tracks in favor sound that are DIFFICULT to reproduce. Busy tracks that turn lesser speakers to mush. Most importantly for novice listeners and to keep everyone on the same page- is WHAT to listen for in a test track. A list of songs doesn't tell me much. I want to know what the challenging parts are..

Klipsch Pilgrimage 2007Demo CD - 18 minute musical extravaganza Selections and recording by Michael Colter - Mastering by Rod Hammer

1 Dave Brubeck Take Five Simple Jazz tune, I hear the breathiness in the sax playing, stick on cymbals, soundstage of Piano L and drums R, sax centered

2 Steely Dan Aja Drum break at end of song, dynamic stick work by Steve Gadd, brittle edge of sax run, nice dull thud of kick, delicate guitar picking, space between instruments

3 Blood Sweat & Tears Go Down Gambling

Heavy guitar picking, full busy track is difficult to keep clear, distinctive grovel of David Clayton Thomas vocals, massed moving harmonies on horns should be heard individually (on lesser systems the horns turn to mush). Hear the bite of the trumpets.

4 Yes Roundabout

Delicate guitar intro 12^th fret harmonics, Listen for the initial ‘piano-like’ transient attack of Chris Squire’s Rickenbacker bass with some flanging. Acoustic R, Electric L, Bass centered, nice rock snare sound. Hammond B3 keyboard trails out.

5 Allman Brothers Jessica Dual strumming acoustic guitars with thin picks and acoustic piano lead to hard panned stereo drum kits. (they should sound very live and real) Hammond organ heard deep in the mix then pulls out front with nice Leslie bubbling.

6 Dire Straits River Runs Deep Long fade in, very airy, DX ‘bottleblow’, good percussion instruments, listen for the nuances and hesitancy in the voice,

7 Santana

Very percussive piano and plucked electric bass, hear the attack. Good dynamics.

8 Earth Wind & Fire Fantasy

Crystalline high vocals, good system should keep strings and horns separate and distinct.

9 Emerson, Lake& Palmer Endless Enigma (piano section) Nasty Hammond intro into well recorded fairly dry Grand Piano, dynamic then pianissimo, clean duet with Alembic Bass.

10 Gustav Holst- Planets Jupiter (middle section) track runs to end- about 5 minutes total

Peaceful, sweeping string section with horns joining in. Keeping it all clear as instrumentation builds is tricky.

[Daddy Dee]

Somebody to Love -- Mother's Finest

(Live in Atlanta)

[dtel]

Marie Osmond or the Wiggles, if you can listen to this cr@p you have a great setup !

[Daddy Dee]

http://sunfire.com/bestdemos.htm

recommendations by Sunfire to demo various units of their gear. I think it's fair to imagine these would do well on Klipsch!

[Jeff Matthews]

Santana - Carnaval/Let the Children Play (Jugando) from the Moonflower album - totally awesome!

Lately, I have listened to the following, which are also very good:

(1) Journey - Stone in Love

(2) Michael McDonald - Sweet Freedom (very excellent production, clean as can be)

(3) Rory Gallagher - Hand's Up (great sounding guitar)

[sunspot42]

[quote

user=Ryklipsch]What songs would be good to listen to or make a cd

that has very deep low end and nice high end for testing speakers, Can any one recommend any??

It's important to pick music

that you're actually familiar with. You

should try to bring along at least one track to represent every style of music

- jazz, classical, rock, pop, soul, dance, new age - you listen to. Of course, there are so many different kinds

of jazz or rock or pop it's probably better to bring along several samples from

each genre. I tend to listen to music

from different eras as well - rock and soul from the '50s, '60s, '70s and '80s

dominates my collection - and since production techniques and recording

technology vary from decade to decade it's a good idea to bring along samples

from each era you listen to. I've been

surprised by how bad a lot of '60s pop sounds on certain speakers for example,

even speakers which sound pretty good with more modern recordings.

I don't recommend toting

along whole albums. Burn one or more

stereo test CDs, and bring those with you instead. I tend to use CD-RW's, as more CD and DVD players can handle

those without any issues for some reason, and if you don't like your track mix

you can always erase and re-record them.

You could burn an MP3 CD or USB stick, or use an iPod, but stick to MP3

compression rates of 256kbps or higher, which tend to be pretty transparent -

good enough to compare the performance of two or more different speakers. If you have an iPod you can also use Apple

Lossless, which provides bit-identical performance to the original CD (although

iPods don't typically have great digital to analog converters and amplifiers,

unfortunately).

Here's my list of artists

& tracks:

The 5th Dimension:

"Up Up & Away", "Aquarius / Let The Sunshine In",

"Wedding Bell Blues"

These tracks were all

engineered and produced by the legendary Bones Howe. My copies come from the Master Hits collection, released a few

years ago, made from the original masters which Howe had held onto for the past

3 decades. Howe is one of the finest

pop/rock engineers who ever lived, and these tracks are more vibrant and

dynamic than almost anything you'll hear recorded today. It's hard to believe they were made before

the era of Dolby noise reduction and hi-fidelity as we've come to know it. If you have the recent remasters they make

excellent test tracks.

The Alan Parsons

Project: "Sirius", "Eye

In The Sky", "Psychobabble", "I Robot", "I

Wouldn't Want To Be Like You", "Nucleus", "Genesis Ch. 1 V.

32", "Games People Play"

Parsons is another legendary

engineer and producer, and if Howe recorded some of the best sounding tracks of

the '60s, Parsons was certainly responsible for some of the best sounding

tracks of the '70s and early '80s.

These are all taken from the original albums (I Robot, The Turn Of A

Friendly Card, and Eye In The Sky, to be precise), mastered for and released on

CD in the 1980s. For early CDs they

sound incredibly good. Unfortunately

Parsons was at war with his label Arista for some time, so more thorough

remasters were slow in coming. They're

out now though and I hear they sound great, so if you take your copies from

those they'll provide even better test material. The title track from I Robot is great for testing the high end,

while "Psychobabble" with its filtered, pumped up bass vocals is

great for testing the low end response of a speaker.

The Beatles: "Here

Comes The Sun", "Because [A Cappella Version]", "Norwegian

Wood", "I'm Looking Through You", "Dear Prudence"

Alan Parsons turns up again

in this list - he engineered The Beatles recording of "Here Comes The

Sun" off 1969's Abbey Road, easily the best-sounding LP in the Beatles'

catalog. When the albums were released

on CD in the 1980s the first few records were digitally remixed from the

multitrack masters, dramatically cleaning up the sound of albums like Help and

Rubber Soul, from which I've selected two tracks, "Norwegian Wood"

and "I'm Looking Through You".

1967's White Album is a somewhat uneven sonic experience, but "Dear

Prudence" is one of their better true-stereo tracks, with hypnotic

layering and a very transparent mix for that era. An a cappella version of Abbey Road's "Because" was

made available as part of the Anthology release a few years back, and it's

electrifying. We forget what wonderful

vocalists The Beatles truly were. What

a change from the manufactured bands of today.

Blondie: "Live It

Up", "Here's Looking At You", "Rapture"

I always thought Blondie's

records sounded like crap, with Autoamerican being the best of the bunch, but

the remasters which came out a few years ago certainly improved the

situation. Parallel Lines and Eat To

The Beat both end up sounding pretty good, and Autoamerican is absolutely

incredible in spots. "Live It Up"

gives Steely Dan a run for their jazzy, hi-fi money, "Here's Looking At

You" is a smooth sounding take on traditional pop, and "Rapture"

sports Joni Mitchell alum Tom Scott on crisp jazz horns in a track with a

soundstage a mile wide and at least as deep.

One of the best-sounding recordings of that decade, without the grating

digital harshness of some later recordings.

David Bowie: "The

Prettiest Star", "Big Brother", "Chant of the Ever Circling

Skeletal Family", "Andy Warhol", "Space Oddity",

"The Man Who Sold The World", "Soul Love",

"Starman", "Win"

I'm a big Bowie fan, so I'm

particularly familiar with how these tracks sound on a range of equipment. "The Prettiest Star",

"Starman" and "Soul Love" from Ziggy Stardust and Aladdin Sane

feature lots of high end activity, enough to challenge any speaker when played

at volume. "Space Oddity" and

"Win" are great for testing stereo imaging, as are "Big

Brother" and "Chant".

The best track here though is probably "Andy Warhol", with the

pinging guitar during the last 30 seconds of the song being a kind of midrange

and high-end torture test for speakers.

I cannot tell you how many otherwise alright-sounding speakers I've

heard flunk the "Andy Warhol" test.

It's arguably the most useful test track I've found.

Bing Crosby &

Rosemary Clooney: "Brazil", "Say 'Si Si'"

Bones Howe worked for Bing

before he became an engineer and producer for '60s superstars like The Mamas

and the Papas and The 5th Dimension.

These two tracks hail from Bing's late '50s recording Fancy Meeting You

Here, and they're stunning. It's hard

to believe anything recorded prior to 1960 could sound this good. Great bass, stunning stereo imaging,

expertly recorded vocals – it reaches a standard most rock acts wouldn't attain

for another 15-20 years, in spite of technological advances. That's because good engineering isn't just a

matter of technology – it's knowing how to record the instruments and the

vocalists, where to position the mics, how to avoid overloads, how to equalize

or otherwise process various elements, and so forth. Unfortunately these things are rapidly becoming a lost art, and

recorded music is suffering as a result.

Many of the new releases I've heard over the past couple of years have

been overcompressed, annoying sonic assaults as a result. No wonder record sales are tanking.

Christopher Cross:

"Sailing"

This was ubiquitous 20 years

or so ago for testing stereo equipment.

Beautiful stereo soundstage, very transparent, lots of high and low-end

activity.

The Doors: "Touch

Me", "People Are Strange", "Hello, I Love You",

"Riders On The Storm"

Some of their early tracks

don't sound so great, but their later tracks from the recent remasters (I have

their Legacy collection) are spectacular.

Earth, Wind & Fire:

"Shining Star", "Fantasy", "September"

All taken from their

Greatest Hits collection, which was remastered a few years back. Some of the best-sounding music from the

'70s, very dynamic and alive, with tons of high-end material and solid bass. Brassy and bold, a real workout at high

volumes.

Eurythmics – "It's

Alright (Baby's Coming Back)", "Don't Ask Me Why", "Never Gonna Cry Again",

"Beethoven (I Love To Listen To)", "Love Is A Stranger",

"I've Got An Angel"

Their ability to radically

change styles from album to album makes them the perfect stereo test material –

same singer, completely different sound.

"It's Alright" hails from their 1985 album Be Yourself

Tonight, and is a great example of aggressive '80s pop-rock. "Don't Ask Me Why" is plucked from

their early '90s Greatest Hits package, and is a good sample of that era's

production techniques, with an excellent soundstage. "Never Gonna Cry Again" hails from a German remaster of

their 1981 album "In The Garden", a great take on Krafterwerk-esque

krautrock with gauzy vocals from Lennox and lots of subtle high-end

content. "Beethoven" hails

from 1986's Savage, and sports stark Syncalvier-sampled vocals with incredible

presence. I auditioned this one on a

pair of large Magnepan speakers and was creeped out by the experience – it

literally sounded like Annie Lennox was in the room. "Love Is A Stranger" and "I've Got An Angel"

come from their breakthrough 1983 CD Sweet Dreams, and feature a clean high end

and extremely deep bass, especially on the recent remaster, which sounds

spectacular.

Fleetwood Mac:

"Landslide", "Rhiannon", "Don't Stop", "Go

Your Own Way", "Gypsy", "Sara", "Over My

Head", "Gold Dust Woman", "Think About Me", "I

Know I'm Not Wrong", "Never Forget"

Most of these tracks are

taken from their Greatest Hits CD, released in the 1990s. There have been recently issued remasters of

their albums which sound incredible, along with a new greatest hits

package. Mac's recordings were

big-budget affairs in some of the finest California studios, made with the full

support of the Warner Brothers machine which also brought us sterling

recordings from Joni Mitchell, Linda Ronstadt and The Eagles, but I think Mac's

tracks are the best-sounding of the Laurel Canyon bunch, which is really saying

something. "Landslide"

features brilliant guitar work, "Rhiannon" beautiful layered bass,

"Don't Stop" has copious midrange and high-end content (that tacked

piano is great for revealing any unnatural emphasis, ringing or response

notches in midranges or tweeters), "Go Your Own Way" is rich with big

booming drums, "Gypsy" is another high end showcase and

"Sara" couples a ton of high-end with a deep soundstage. "Over My Head" is a showcase for Christine

McVie's soulful mellow vocals – you'd be amazed at how many speakers seem to

swallow her voice, a sure sign of midrange issues. "Gold Dust Woman" comes from the Rumours CD itself, and

couples a deep soundstage with an active high end and booming drums – it's a

real speaker workout. "Think About

Me", "I Know I'm Not Wrong" and "Never Forget" hail

from 1979's Tusk, one of the first digitally-recorded rock albums. It's amazingly crisp without being

particularly harsh, unlike a lot of the recordings which followed it. "I Know I'm Not Wrong" was

recorded in Lindsey Buckingham's living room, and it's interesting to hear how

different speakers reproduce the resulting soundstage.

Peter Gabriel –

"Lead A Normal Life", "I Have The Touch", "This Is The

Picture (Excellent Birds)"

Gabriel was a mainstay of

stereo test discs for the better part of the 1980's and early '90s, thanks in

large part to his early embrace of the Fairlight CMI sampling keyboard. Unfortunately, as the recently released

remasters of his '80s recordings reveal, the early Fairlights were 8-bit

samplers, resulting in quite a bit of noise and digital grain – you can clearly

hear samples cutting in on these remasters.

Still, the vocals are well-recorded and there are some interesting

synthetic soundstages and bass content.

Astrud Gilberto –

"Fly Me To The Moon", "Here's That Rainy Day"

Gilberto's "Fly Me To

The Moon" is aural estrogen, beautifully recorded. An excellent demonstration of female vocals

backed by a lovely pop band.

"Here's That Rainy Day" is taken from the wonderful Verve

Remixed, Volume 2, and in addition to her lovely girlish vocals sports a

wonderful low end.

Annie Lennox – "A

Thousand Beautiful Things", "Honestly", "Why",

"Money Can't Buy It", "Little Bird", "Primitive",

"I Can't Get Next To You"

While her work with

Eurythmics provides a good sample of '80s production techniques and sounds, her

solo work exceeds its contemporaries from a sonic standpoint, making it perfect

material to test the limits of speaker performance. "A Thousand Beautiful Things" and "Honestly",

taken from her 2003 release Bare, are flawless recordings with incredible

soundstages and a range of content to challenge any driver. "Why", "Money Can't Buy

It", "Little Bird" and "Primitive" all hail from her

1992 solo debut Diva, one of the first recordings to fully exploit the

capabilities of the Compact Disc. All

of the tracks feature glittering highs and Lennox's husky, well-recorded

vocals. Even more remarkable is the

bass – the intro to "Money Can't Buy It" is a woofer torture test

that most speakers utterly fail to this day.

"Primitive" features deep bass content which continues

throughout most of the song, underneath quiet and understated instrumentation

and vocals – the test here is to see if the deep bass leads to coloration of

distortion of the other material. On

the uptempo "Little Bird" the test should be if individual

instruments remain discernable during the busier passages of the song, as they

should. The surprising thing about Diva

is the low level non-linearity of the recording, an artifact on many early

digital recordings. You'd think this

would detract from the overall fidelity, but it doesn't – a testament to the

care with which the vocals and other instruments were recorded and mixed, and

how the end-product was mastered.

Finally, "I Can't Get Next To You" is taken from her covers

disc, 1994's Medusa, and is a lovely combination of electronic instruments,

Lennox's vocals, and a wonderful Spanish guitar, all of which results in a

crisp, transparent soundstage on good speakers.

Gordon Lightfoot:

"If You Could Read My Mind"

I'm not a huge country or

folk fan, but Lightfoot straddled the line between the two and "If You

Could Read My Mind" is one of the most beautifully-recorded samples of

either genre. This one's taken from his

recent Complete Greatest Hits compellation, which improves greatly on the

sonics of his earlier Gord's Gold collection.

You'll find it hard to believe this track hails from the early 1970's.

Madonna:

"Holiday", "Borderline", "Vogue", "La Isla

Bonita", "The Power of Goodbye", "Nothing Really

Matters"

I know what you're probably

thinking – Madonna?!? But from her

debut onward, she's consistently released some of the best-engineered

recordings out there, head and shoulders above her contemporaries. Her first greatest hits package, The

Immaculate Collection, is the source for the first four tracks. Remixed with Q Sound, a positional

three-dimensional sound processing algorithm, the tracks sport an unnaturally

wide and deep soundstage which is, nevertheless, quite pleasing. Things to listen for with these tracks

include any really unnatural artifacts or tweeter ringing from all the

high-frequency content. The final two

tracks come from her William Orbit produced 1998 record Ray of Light, with

their electronic burbling and rumbling providing a wonderful counterpoint to

Madonna's surprisingly rich vocals.

The Mamas & The

Papas: "Go Where You Wanna Go", "I Saw Her Again",

"Once Was a Time I Thought", "Twelve-Thirty",

"Midnight Voyage", "Dream A Little Dream Of Me"

The Mamas & The Papas

were to the 1960's what Fleetwood Mac would be to the 1970's. Engineered by the legendary Bones Howe, like

the 5th Dimension recordings these tracks have a vibrancy and a soundstage

which defies the limitations of the era's technology. Mama Cass has a unique voice, more pop than rock, which makes her

something of a unique test for midrange speaker performance.

Steve Miller: "Space

Intro", "Fly Like An Eagle", "Take The Money And Run"

The recently released 30th

Anniversary Special Edition of Miller's Fly Like An Eagle album is a real sonic

masterpiece – arena rock never sounded this good before. The low and high-end performance is really

stunning, the imaging is improved (especially the vocals) and Miller's synths

never sounded better. The combination

of electronic and acoustic instruments (listen to those drums on "Take The

Money And Run"!) provides a wide range of tones and timbres for speakers

to handle.

Joni Mitchell:

"Night In The City", "Conversation", "Court And

Spark", "Help Me", "Car On A Hill", "The Hissing

Of Summer Lawns", "Hejira", "Off Night Backstreet"

Mitchell herself produced

these tracks, but even she acknowledges engineer Henry Lewy was essentially her

co-producer, and his spectacular work at A&M Studios set a standard I don't

think anybody has ever really matched.

Mitchell certainly hasn't produced anything as sonically pleasing since

ending her association with Lewy after 1979.

"Night In The City" is amazingly crisp, highlighting

Mitchell's high clear early vocals.

"Conversation" features some of the best-recorded acoustic

guitars ever. "Court And

Spark", "Help Me" and "Car On A Hill" come from

arguably Mitchell's finest recording, Court And Spark, and feature a somewhat

more muted, jazz influenced sound.

"The Hissing Of Summer Lawns" is a comparatively low-fi

affair, sounding more like a television soundtrack recording, but that in

itself makes it interesting test material.

"Hejira" from the album of the same name, and "Off Night

Backstreet" from Don Juan's Reckless Daughter are sterling examples of

'70s high-fi, and equal to anything being done by Fleetwood Mac or Steely Dan

during the same period. Check out the

Jaco Pastorius bass which opens "Hejira" – many speakers have trouble

accurately reproducing it at high volume.

Warners released HDCD remasters of these albums around the turn of the

century and they're pretty spectacular.

If you have the earlier CD releases replace them with these remasters.

Dolly Parton: "9 To

5"

This is the film-soundtrack

version, taken from The Essential Dolly Parton compellation. Of particular interest are Dolly's

multi-tracked vocals, those typewriter bells, and some wonderful rhythm guitar

work twanging in from outer space. This

mix is longer than the more familiar single mix, and features a wonderful New

Orleans-style band weaving in during the fadeout.

Pet Shop Boys:

"Heart", "I Want A Dog", "Single"

"Heart", from

their 1987 album Actually, is one of the earliest examples of just how intense

the bass coming from a CD could be in comparison to LPs (this kind of bass

would pop a needle right out of the groove on a conventional 33 1/3 RPM album

if unattenuated). The track also

features a glittering high end. "I

Want A Dog" from the subsequent Introspective sports even more intense bass,

the kind of grinding which can not only reveal driver weakness but also nasty

cabinet resonances, always an issue in large, cheap speakers which aren't

properly braced and dampened.

"Single" off of the '90s release Bilingual is noteworthy for

its Brazilian percussion and a deft layering of acoustic instruments and

percussion with electronics and vocals.

Prince: "Black

Sweat", "What Do U Want Me 2 Do?", "Christopher Tracy's

Parade", "New Position", "Mountains",

"Anotherloverholeenyohead", "When Doves Cry", "Soft

And Wet", "Kiss"

Prince's sonic masterpiece

is his 1986 soundtrack for Under The Cherry Moon, featuring tracks like

"Kiss", "Christopher Tracy's Parade", "New

Position" and "Mountains".

This album in particular features slamming bass and a whip-snapping high

end, with some of the best stereo imaging ever (listen to the kisses in

"Kiss" – they should be distinctly identifiable on good

speakers). "Black Sweat" and

"What Do U Want Me 2 Do" hail from his more recent albums but

maintain similar standards. "Soft

And Wet" and "When Doves Cry" are older tracks, but not much

older, and are representative of their era.

The Rolling Stones:

"Angie", "Waiting On A Friend", "Country Honk",

"Monkey Man", "She's A Rainbow", "2000 Light Years

From Home"

In my opinion the Stones

didn't become a major creative force until well into the early years of the

high-fidelity era (at least, for rock), and tracks like "Angie", and

even earlier material like "Monkey Man" off the SACD remaster of Let It

Bleed, exceed the fidelity of most of the Beatles' late '60s releases (at last,

as currently available on CD).

"2000 Light Years From Home" sports pretty incredible bass for

its age, and even lower-fi tracks like "Waiting On A Friend" are

useful for assessing how a speaker handles more typical pop recordings from the

'60s thru into the early '80s.

Linda Ronstadt:

"It's So Easy"

It's actually not so easy to

pick Ronstadt tracks, since almost all of her '70s output sounds great. Kudos go to producer Peter Asher. I picked this track because it sounds a lot

like The Eagles, so you can kill two birds with one stone and assess how both

acts might sound on a given pair of speakers.

Boz Scaggs:

"Breakdown Dead Ahead"

The last decade of the

analog era produced arguably the best-sounding rock recordings ever made, and

this is one of them. Yeah it's slick

and hyper-produced, but it's never shrill or unnatural like so much of the

material which followed it in subsequent years. I don't blame digital recording for the overall decline in audio

quality which took hold in the 1980s – a more harsh, less natural, more shrill

sound simply became trendy during the '80s, overwhelming some of the benefits

of digital recording (indeed, making their enhanced crystalline accuracy a

drawback instead of an advantage).

Nina Simone: "Love Me Or Leave Me", "Black

Is The Color Of My True Love's Hair", "Ain't Got No / I Got Life

(Groovefinder Remix)"

The interesting thing about

Nina Simone is that her older Verve recordings sound much, much, much better

than her RCA stuff, which came later but sonically is really primitive

stuff. "Love Me Or Leave Me"

hails from her essential Verve collection Nina Simone's Finest Hour, and is a

great example of how good '60s jazz/pop should sound, with crisp piano work and

well-defined vocals. Simone has been a

favorite of late with remixers, and here selections here from Verve Remixed 2

and a Simone-specific Remixed And Reimagined release make wonderful test

pieces.

Dusty Springfield: "Needle In A Haystack",

"Don't Forget About Me", "The Windmills Of Your Mind",

"What Are You Doing The Rest Of Your Life", "That's How

Heartaches Are Made", "If It Hadn't Been For You", "The

Look Of Love"

Dusty's catalog is a real

mixed bag from a fidelity standpoint, but this has its advantages as it allows

you to test speakers with less-than-ideal material. "Needle In A Haystack" is a recent remix of a

previously unreleased track, taken from the US Anthology release. The fidelity here is great – they remixed

the original multitrack masters in the late '90s, and Dusty's '60s vocals never

sounded finer. "Don't You Forget

About Me" and "The Windmills Of Your Mind" come from her seminal

LP Dusty In Memphis, here represented by the mid-'90s Rhino Deluxe

Edition. Memphis was always a hissy

recording – the original masters were destroyed long ago in a huge fire along

with the rest of Atlantic's priceless masters (say goodbye to all of Aretha's

classic recordings, too) – but the stereo imaging is good and the hiss at least

imparts a wonderful aura of space to the soundstage as it enhances the apparent

high-end. A UK remaster came out a few

years later that NoNoised the recording TO DEATH without properly accounting

for the lost high-end. "What Are

You Doing The Rest Of Your Life" was recently resurrected for a diamond

commercial on television, which is when I realized how stunning this recording

sounds. It's available on the Dusty In

London compellation. The other tracks

come from the US editions of her earlier records, and they're great examples of

fairly low-fi '60s pop. If you listen

to this style of music though (think old Motown) it's crucial you test your

speakers with it. No point buying

speakers that'll make these tracks unlistenable due to odd colorations or other

defects. "The Look of Love"

is the exception here – it was apparently recorded by Burt Bacharach himself,

and features some pretty funky engineering.

Dusty sounds like she's coming out of some wormhole from another universe, which is a unique effect, especially when well-rendered by a good set of speakers.

Steely Dan:

"Peg", "Josie", "Hey Ninenteen", "Time Out

Of Mind"

Four of the best-sounding

tracks ever recorded, two from Aja, two from Gaucho. There are probably another dozen SD tracks you could pick, but

since nobody else really sounds like them I'm hesitant to load the list with

too much SD. Anyhow, I already have a

ton of Fleetwood Mac on the list, which already provides a huge sampling of

hyper-produced '70s studio rock. The

big difference between the two is that where Mac sometimes revels in its

impossibly lush production and indulges its acoustic folkie tendencies, SD

tends to be a bit more spare, crystalline and electric with its

overproduction. The FM mixes often have

more fullness and depth as a result, with all sorts of cool and hypnotic

spatial cues, but you can't hear thru them as clearly to pick out individual

elements as you can with the SD stuff.

The high end is generally sharper with SD too, especially on Gaucho with

its drum machines.

I've got a few other acts

I'd include on this list, like Sting, Al Stewart, Stevie Wonder, Yes (tracks

from 90125 especially), Jean-Michel Jarre (stuff from Equinoxe and Oxygene),

and a few select soundtrack items from John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith (his

soundtrack from the 1st Star Trek film is a stereo test disc in its own right -

it's certainly better than the film that inspired it), but that should be

enough to test any speakers for a pop/rock listener.

[RichardP]

Michael Colter and Sunspot42: Fantastic lists and even more fantastic descriptions (and jeez, SS42, what an incredible first post). We always need better attempts on the forum to verbally describe the aural nuances we hear, or try to hear, in music recordings, or specific instruments or points in a track to listen for. Thanks for your exceptional posts.

[BLSamuel]

Klipsch Pilgrimage 2007Demo CD - 18 minute musical extravaganza Selections and recording by Michael Colter - Mastering by Rod Hammer

Michael,

I actually took the time to listen to this in it's entirety in the 'phone room last June on the IMAGE prototypes and it sounded amazing. Thanks for the additional info as I don't remember the listing of what to listen for. I suspect knowing what to listen for in a certain track can be valuable in evaluating speakers. Wish I'd had the info above last year or I spaced it if I did. And at times I was playing real low and pulling out the IMAGE to try and hear what y'all were saying. So wasn't listening really critically and probably still in the how the heck can something this tiny producde such big sound dumbfounded mode? Totally blew me away.

I was a little disappointed it didn't really seem to be used by anyone especially since you put quite a bit of time and effort into it as I suspect Rod must have as well. I think even you used the Yes Symphonic with the crazy pedal bass in the RF room with the RT12D though that may have been when I was just wondering around. I think you said around an octave below a bass guitar and the notes sounded very distinct and not the mush a lesser "sub" woofer would produce. I'd say that probably qualifies as a real sub woofer. And in a smallish, stylish package. I think an electric bass low E (I've assumed that's the low string?) is 42HZ so we're talking +- 21HZ. I didn't think we were supposed to be able to hear notes that low as much as feel them?

Of course, then we wouldn't have heard the crazy amazing a cappella "1812 Overture" (was that it the memory fades) selection played by Jim Hunter before Pink Floyd's "Money" which was preceded by Coytee's Marie Osmond comment and Jim' reaction when he introduced "Money" as the first song he heard on Klipschorns (priceless). That's actually the first time I'd really heard Kliplschorns [:$] - all I'd expected for years but even more stunning than I expected.