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Your First Music With Your New Speakers


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This is a tough one. I`m still pacing around the house going through album after album. What is right for my first Cornwall experience. I am a virgin you know. What was your choice when you got your last pair of speakers. Klipsch or not. It does`nt matter. Lets have some fun with this. That`s what I`m doing, prolonging the anticipation. They`re hooked up and ready to fire. My God, they are BIG!

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Always play something that you are intimately familiar with and is a great recording (it's nice to start out with good recordings). I have different selections for CDs vs LPs. On CD I play Chris Rhea's "Texas" from the "Road to Hell" CD. Great vocals and good bass thump. Then I go to something acoustic like "Grateful Dawg" studio version on the "Grateful Dawg" motion picture soundtrack. On LP, something like Jethro Tull "Thick as a Brick" which has about every kind of instrument in a rock album you can find. Those are just some of my preferences. I'm sure you have your favorites.

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Queen - "I'm in Love with my Car" Less than 60 seconds into the track on CD there is a guitar squeel that will pierce your skull with digital audio and SS.

Try some songs with a lot of cymbals to test the highs. With the wrong electronics and source the sound from the tweeter can disconnect from the rest of the sound.

MIDNIGHT OIL - "Beds are burning" One of Mallett's favs with big bass and crashing highs.

RUSH - 2112 "the instramental beginning--the sound rapid fires back and forth between the left and right speakers with some big drum sounds.

Acoustic recordings (voices and instraments) are good to evaluate accuracy.

There is a test CD with solo sounds from major instraments.

I agree with the post above...it's important you know the recording and that it is a good recording.

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The first thing I ever heard on my KLF 30's was Louis Armstrong singing What a Wonderful Life . The first pieces I played when I hooked them up at home were Drums of War and Paul Roebling's reading of a quotation from Oliver Wendell Holmes* from Ken Burns' The Civil War Soundtrack . It gave me shivers then and again about 5 minutes ago when I gave it another listen.

*

"We have shared the incommunicable experience of war.We have felt,we still feel,the passion of life to its top....In our youths,our hearts were touched with fire."

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Thank You for causing me revisit those first glorious moments with my KLF's.

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XTC - Apple Venus Vol I - great for frequency range, dynamics

I'll 2nd the Dire Straights - Brothers In Arms, Ride Across The River is great for imaging.

Dave Matthews & Tim Reynolds - Live @ Luther College - great for acoustic guitar and that 'being there' live feel.

Paul Simon - Graceland, Rhythm of the Saints

Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach

Patricia Barber - Companion

Yo-Yo Ma - The 6 Bach Unaccomanied Cello Concertos

Crash Test Dummie - God Shuffled His Feet

Rush - 2112, A Farewell to Kings

Pat Metheny - Letter From Home

Bela Fleck and the Flecktones - Outbound

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Steely Dan - AJA

Talking Heads - Naked

Eric Clapton - Unplugged

Sibilance test: Emerson, Lake, and Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery (first cut "Jerusalem" will tell you all you need to know). The snare will drive you nuts on poor gear. Great for testing the electronics chain. If your system passes this test, you are doing very well. I'll warn you, though - this can make one very dissatisfied with their equipment.

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Yeah, I know. The first time is always a little scary. And then when you see those things in person--after only seeing pictures in magazines and websites--they do look so big, and you wonder, "How are they going to fit?!?" Don't worry. They'll fit.

I think the best thing to do (and it worked for me), is pour yourself a glass of wine, and take it slow. I wouldn't neccessarily expect them to be gentle with you, though...

And remember, report back!

Doug,

I seem to remember a "first time" story involving you and Ross Taylor in some motel in Arkansas...

fini

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Well, interesting things here! My choice would be (which was sent to David Mallet for his evaluation) a CD made by Stanley Clark, Jean-Luc Ponte and Al Di Meola called the Rite of Strings. Awsome acoustics on that one! Another one would be Stravinsky's Firebird on Telarc for some superb dynamics (and music!).

I forgot that Patric Moraz played with yes...that explains why I love Flags done by Moraz and Bruford (also of Yes fame). I never thought of using ELP as a test of sound, and I absolutely love Jerusalem...I'll have to try it...maybe even when tube rolling!

Are you still holding out?

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Oooops, you said album, as in vinyl. Well, the Telarc recording was a direct to disk so that's one. I don't know if the Rite of Strings is on vinyl. Flags is not on CD, so that will work. Another good one (both vynil and digital format) is Dr. L. Sabramaniam and Stephane Grappelli called Conversations...very nicely recorded.

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OK. I ended up starting out with The Eagles Hotel California. They were the band I used when I auditioned my first CD player also. I`ve heard them more than anyone I guess.

#2>>Moody Blues/On The Threshold Of A Dream. On Nautilus Super Discs Vinyl. A little classical and a little R&R.

#3>>REM/Reckoning. On vinyl. One of my favs.

#4>>Miles Davis/Someday My Prince Will Come. Columbia Jazz Masterpieces. My favorite Miles recording.

#5>>Sara Vaughan/No Count Sara. Vinyl, first pressing and I found it for 10 bucks. Mint!

#6>>The Beatles/A Hard Days Night. Mobil Fidelity Vinyl. George Martin was the greatest producer ever!

#7>>Rolling Stones/Let It Bleed. Vinyl.

#8>>Pink Floyd/The Wall. Vinyl

#9>>Horowitz Plays Mozart. CD

Cornwall review forthcomming... 2.gif

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