Aural crossover tests. What signal?

[OldGuy]

Enjoyed as several thousand other lurkers did the long string on xover capacitors, and the result that all the electronic testing did not really identify what is best. The result comes down to the individual listeners decision.

What type of source material do the experts use and how often do the same individuals go out and find some unamplified source of music to recalibrate the listeners hearing?

Norm

[D-MAN]

Personally, I listen for changes in the "nuance" signals, the very low-level transients, "noise" and reflections that determine the "soundstaging". These elements tend to describe the overall clarity of the recording and form the basis for determining the size and localizations of various instrument placements, etc.

This so-called "soundstage" is where I attempt to detect the sonic differences in various components. Not scientific, but definitely there if one selects appropriate source material, that is, material with the appropriate nuances recorded in the soundstage (hard rock,rap,etc. need not apply). Most multi-tracked recordings are not real useful for this, either. Which leads to the inevitable "lone girl with the guitar" syndrome often preferred by the single-driver and/or flea-power crowd. But they are after exactly the same things, too.

DM

[Deang]

Funny. I specifically use compressed Rock recordings and wait for the pain. If there is grain, hash, makes me grit my teeth or my eyes twitch it gets tossed into the trash can.

[BEC]

Personally, I use music with a lot of dynamic range and a lot of all the frequencies to test new gear. Usually that involves using more than one recording to cover it all.

For instance, for listening to highs to check out a new tweeter or the HF section of a crossover, I might choose "Land Downunder" by Men at Work.

For checking out the midrange, I might choose "Baby Elephant Walk" by Henry Mancini.

For seeing how the bass is working, perhaps "Maria Maria" by Carlos Santana.

Also I might listen to a few recordings I have that, if reproduced accurately should make me grit my teeth and should make my eyes twitch. I always want to make sure that works too.

Bob Crites

[Deang]

It's hard for me to figure anything out if I use recordings I'm not real familiar with. I do use a lot of Moody Blues - Hayward's voice is kind of buried into my brain. One thing I need is some well recorded piano.

I don't know if you have a DVD player Bob, but I just received my Animusic discs in the mail. Klipsch used some of this stuff in Indy to show off their THX system. Everyone was pretty much blown away by the demo. At any rate, you might consider getting at least one of them for the pure joy of it. Incredible stuff really - both visually and audibly.

http://www.animusic.com/

[BEC]

Dean,

Sounds like a good suggestion.

Bob