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What is your "reference" recording?

SaSi

SaSi

Seriously Illogical
What is the LP/CD or whatever that you listen to when you want to evaluate a cartridge, amp, speaker or your room? The recording that brings up the virtues or the shortcommings of a component or system?

Do you have different reference tracks for low frequency, clear highs, vocal presence, etc?

I think it would be interesting to share this.

I was triggered to make this post after enjoying "Winton Marsalis Septet - In This House, On This Morning" which made me realize how inadequate my loudspeakers are in the low end - and how wonderful reproduction I get from the Sennheiser HD650 headphones.
 
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Aaron Copland- Fanfare for the common man/ Atlanta Symphony on Telarc. The tympani will show you how low your system can get. Be careful, you can damage woofers with this. First time I heard this recording was in a store played on the Amazing Carver loudspeakers. Almost gave me a heart attack. Also great french horns, trumpets and cymbals.
 
bela fleck and the flecktones-flight of the cosmic hippo

is a great cd for the low end. the title cut is excellent for integrating a subwoofer int your system. victor wooten descends the scale into the sub-basement with his instrument.

there are plenty of other sounds on the disc to evaluate with as well.

for tracking a cartridge-steely dan's royal scam-cut 2 on either side-caves of altamira or haitian divorce-have high energy cymbals that if your cart can track them, they can track anything.

just start out at about 1.7 gr and reduce the tracing force a tenth each time until you think you hear mistracking. then up the force a bit until it ISNT mistracking and youre there.
 
For voice: Sarah Vaughan -Sarah Vaughan
Label: Verve

Small band with some brass: Bob Marley: Natty Dread
Label: Island
 
One word: Abraxas Use Black Magic Woman and don't skip the opening chimes intro. The bass shows up soon enough. Good for evaluating the depth and resolution of your soundstage.
 
John Klemmer "Straight from the Heart" Nautilus direct-to-disc
Joni Mitchell "Court and Spark" - whole first side
Glenn Miller Band "In the Digital Mood" on Telarc
Mahler 7th Symphony, Klemperer, on Angel
Kind of Blue
 
I have a bunch. Some of the most common ones I trot out to see what we're dealing with when it comes to novel hifi hardware include:

Angel Sarah McLachlan
Banish Misfortune/Open Hand and Who Holds Your Hand? Patty Larkin
Way Down Deep Jennifer Warnes
Three O'Clock Blues Eric Clapton and BB King
 
Just off the top of my head, these are the albums I grab first to evaluate any piece of gear or system...

Tracy Chapman: Tracy Chapman
Joni Mitchell: Court & Spark
Rickie Lee Jones: Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones: Pop Pop
Jennifer Warnes: Famous Blue Raincoat
Jennifer Warnes: The Hunter
Cowboy Junkies: Trinity Session
Nojima: Nojima Plays Liszt (Reference Recordings LP)
Nojima: Nojima Plays Ravel (Reference Recordings LP)
Joe Jackson: Body & Soul
Steely Dan: Aja
Steely Dan: Gaucho
Diane Schuur: Collection
Tuck & Patti: Love Warriors
Donald Fagen: The Nightfly
Donald Fagen: Kamakiriad
FIM Audio Reference IV HDCD (Anything from FIM is great for sonics)
Muddy Waters: Folk Singer (Mobile Fidelity)
AC/DC: Back In Black
Metallica: Master Of Puppets
Metallica: Metallica (aka Black Album)
Sarah McLachlan: Surfacing
The Eagles: Hell Freezes Over
Stanley Clarke & Friends: Live At The Greek
Stravinsky "The Firebird": Antal Dorati (Mercury Living Presence)
Valerie Joyce: The Look Of Love - Music Of Burt Bacharach
 
Pink Floyd: Animals and The Wall
Thin Lizzy: Johnny the Fox and Bad Reputation
Samuel Barber: Adagio for Strings
Misfits: Legacy of Brutality
Heavy Metal: The Movie Soundtrack
The Smiths: Louder than Bombs
Morrissey: Viva Hate
The Dictators:Go Girl Crazy
Riot: Fire Down Below
Wasp: Electric Circus
 
Solar Fields - Movements
Shpongle - Are you Shpongled?
Shpongle - Tales Of The Inexpressible
Shulman - In Search Of A Meaningful Moment
Entheogenic - Spontaneous Illumination
Infected Mushroom - Classical Mushroom
Younger Brother - The Last Days Of Gravity
 
Diana Krall - Live in Paris
Diana Krall - Greatest Hits

Mostly for vocals and piano. Well recorded with minimal mixing.
 
doverfish said:
One word: Abraxas Use Black Magic Woman and don't skip the opening chimes intro. The bass shows up soon enough. Good for evaluating the depth and resolution of your soundstage.
Click to expand...


Yeah Abraxas is a good choice, especially the recently released MFSL pressing. Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms would work also.
 
MFSL gold Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
MFSL gold Pink Floyd - The Wall
MFSL gold Supertramp - Crime of the Century
 
Donald Fagan's "Nightfly" is good as is his "Kamakariad"

Most Steely Dan albums are really well mastered.

One of my favorites is somewhat obscure, Jeff Beck's "Jeff Beck's Guitar Shop."

Lastly, I used Clapton's "Journeyman" album when I went speaker hunting. It was an album I had listened to a lot so I was able to make a really good comparison of what I was hearing from the new speakers to that to which I was accustomed.

That is probably the best of all...something with which you are really familiar.
 
Patricia Barber "Cafe Blue" on 45rpm LP ,,all her albums are sonic marvels imo!
Steely Dan "Goucho" on Japanese Vinyl
Steely Dan "Aja" the new Cisco Vinyl release
Larry Carlton "Discovery" on Vinyl ,, one of my best sounding LPs!
The Beatles "For Sale" on Parlaphone Vinyl 70s' pressing
Eva Cassidy "Songbird" Vinyl
Bill Evans "Moon Beams" and "Waltz For Debbie" Riverside Vinyl ,, most of his LPs are great sonically!
Chet Atkins "Mister Guitar" RCA Vinyl
All the above are some of my favorite artists and these all have excellent sonics except Beatles For Sale which is very good but I'm a life long fan so I am sooo familiar with their music that I have to use one of their albums when I test a component!

Steely Dan "Two Against Nature" CD
Foreplay "Four" CD ,,, most of their earlier CDs' are very good w/ great sonics!
George Benson "Absolute Benson" CD
Larry Carlton, Lee Retinour "Lee And Larry" CD
Wes Montgomery "Groove Yard" XRCD
many more on CD, once again, some of my favorite artists and these all have excellent sonics but I prefer to listen to vinyl as my first choice.
If I had to pick just one to test a system, it would probably be Cafe Blue or Goucho, oh, that's 2! Sorry for my long list but these are the main ones I would use to evaluate any system or individual component.
 
Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon" sadly in digital lol [have no Record player or records XD] in FLAC 24-bit/96kHz/2804kBps Form.
 
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