CHANGSTAR: Audiophile Headphone Reviews and Early 90s Style BBS
Lobby => Music and Recordings => Topic started by: LFF on November 26, 2011, 07:43:18 AM
-
All too often audiophiles brag that their expensive rig or headphone can play "Jazz at the Pawnshop" with superb dynamic, micro detail and much aplomb.
Well....sadly, that recording, as well as many other audiophile favorites tend to sound great out of almost every single system, rig, headphone and speaker out there. What's the use of demo'ing something that sounds relatively the same on every other system?
One way to really test your system is to use a bad recording. It doesn't have to be horrendous but a normal, mediocre recording will do nicely.
For vinyl folks, take for instance, a gray label pressing of Frank Sinatra's "Song's For Swingin' Lovers". A great record if there ever was one but the recording quality is good...not amazing. Play the second track. Can you hear Sinatra breathe a sigh of relief at the end? If not...your system is lacking detail and resolution!
For CD lovers and Digital Downloaders, try out a regular issue of Bill Evan's "Portrait In Jazz". Have you ever noticed all the high pitched noise in some of the tracks? How about them drop outs? If you have no idea what I am talking about....your system is lacking in resolution and detail.
While it never hurts to get your hearing checked by a professional audiologist, a simple, normal recording can do wonderful things for your system and for your benefit. I bet those $2,000 zebra wood headphones don't sound that amazing anymore...do they? ;)
-
Need more popcorn!
-
It feel the same way about Patricia Barber Modern Cool Track #7. The audio engineer behind it is awesome, but the techniques used on the track make it sound great on everything including a boom-box. The use of this track is basically a masturbation on "Wow, did you hear that awesome slammin' bass!"
Naive Melody from Talking Heads is good one for evaluation. It has a lot of resolution. And if something is off with your setup, you will definitely hear it as sibilance, muddyness, or worse.
-
A few albums I've noticed sound good no matter how a pair of my orthos are damped and so I've decided are bad for testing
Chris Isaak- San Francisco Days. Although it's good for testing whether a phone has enough treble and "air"
The National - all their albums sound great on just about everything, except Ultra Violet has some reverb which can get pronounced if phones have that kind of sound too
TV on the Radio- As long as the phones are in the ballpark, they sound good.
-
I've found Led Zeppelin fairly useful sometimes. The guitars are right on the edge, they're supposed to have bite but not be harsh, there's lots of treble energy in cymbals that can sound crashy or dull, and there ought to be a richness in the bass and guitar that can easily go missing on some phones that are light in the lower mids or bass.
-
Zeppelin is a really good as a test (and listening) tracks. Good resolution, but probably because it isn't overproduced and mixed over 100 times.
-
Zeppelin is a really good as a test (and listening) tracks. Good resolution, but probably because it isn't overproduced and mixed over 100 times.
Yup but it depends what mastering you are using...
-
Zeppelin is a really good as a test (and listening) tracks. Good resolution, but probably because it isn't overproduced and mixed over 100 times.
Yup but it depends what mastering you are using...
Some ancient CDs I bought in the early 90s. Are they any good?
-
Zeppelin is a really good as a test (and listening) tracks. Good resolution, but probably because it isn't overproduced and mixed over 100 times.
Yup but it depends what mastering you are using...
Some ancient CDs I bought in the early 90s. Are they any good?
Easy to check....
Look on the back of the CD case and look for the apologetic notice that is was mastered from analog tape and may contain imperfections and noise. If it says something to that effect, you have the good ones...the Barry Diament masters.
-
i know you guys like cd and vinyl, but ever tried tape? i don't listen to much of it but one tape in particular, the phantom of the opera with the original cast sounded really good to me. had good dynamics to it even if it had the typical background hiss of tapes. this was on a kenwood tape deck i found at goodwill too, hooked up to my 1972 Sansui 5000x receiver at the time. nothing too special. you can make fun of me. i like some tapes. i haven't tried 8-track though yet lol.
-
So true! For me ranking really high
-Norah Jones (Come away with me)
-Amy Whinehouse (All of her albums!)
-Johnny Cash (the American recordings, especially on beautiful recordings like 'Hurt', its a crime)
Ofcourse also Death Magnetic, but I just stopped listening to that album entirely.
-
I'm going to recommend a recording many consider good but I myself find bad in many ways. No where to run, nowhere to hide with some of those issues.
Hell Freezes Over-Eagles
-
I'm going to recommend a recording many consider good but I myself find bad in many ways. No where to run, nowhere to hide with some of those issues.
Hell Freezes Over-Eagles
???
-
Maybe put it this way. It's good recording w/ 'issues'.
Eg. Glenn Frey's trademark sibilance is just way over the top. Bass seems rather emphasized. Some minor niggles.
-
Well, at first listen Metallica's "Beyond Magentic" seems to capture some of the same recording magic that Death Magentic did... >:(
Ofcourse also Death Magnetic, but I just stopped listening to that album entirely.
-
As soon as the drums start...
The Bee Gees- 'New York Mining Disaster 1941'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCRqAzCevsY
-
Florence + The Machine, her first album is somewhat tolerable but if it wasn't for the musicianship on that album. The moment she sings though I just want to listen...
-
Not bad per se, but a good test for excessive treble: Aloe Blacc - I've Got The Blues... https://soundcloud.com/joelvand/ive-got-the-blues
-
Eagles Hell Freezes Over - Hotel CA - Original CD
- The track has lots of bass from the kick drum. A good test for bass volume.
- Glen Fry's voice should be slightly sibilant, but not painful or harsh.
- String articulation and attack on the intro.
- Delineation of loud and soft with the strings.
- Overall dynamics.
MJ Thriller - Billie Jean - LFF remaster
- Bass detail. There's a sawtooth wave sounding thing in the bass which isn't heard on systems with muddy or inarticulate bass.
- Overall balance of vocals to instruments. A subjective FR test so to speak, especially in the mids.
Rostropovich Bach Cello Suites
- Microdynamics
- Plankton
- Continuity in volume levels
Talking Heads Speaking in Tongues - This Must be the Place - Remaster, the original CD sounds very different
- This track has lots of bass, including low bass. Sub integration. Badly setup systems will sound muddy and mid-bassy as hell. 19 of 20 speaker rigs at THE SHOW failed this test. Rather badly.
- Possible sibilant vocals from David Byrne. It should never happen any any semi-balanced setup, but the HD700 manages to do it somehow.
- Snare drums, cymbals, percussion will sound harsh on a bad system. On a balanced system, it should be fine. On HD700 is was painful.
Radiohead The Bends - My Iron Lung - Original CD
- Will make upper midrange issues evident. K550 was an example of this.
Nirvana Nevermind - Lithium - Original CD
- Should be aggressive sounding, loud, etc. Upper midrange issues will make this track un-listenable / painful.
Pixies Surfer Rosa - Brick is Red - MFSL
- Macro-dynamics and attack, especially on the drums. Supposed to be aggressive sounding. Every sound should freaking explode. The Meridian Explorer blew monkey chunks on this track - made everything sound blunt, damped, and boring.
- Track is on the bright side. A bright setup will be evident.
Natalie Merchant Tigerlily - Wonder - Original CD
- Kind of a dark tilt to the FR. Sounds great on a HD800. Helpful to assess if the system is too dark sounding or recessed in the upper-mids
Just a few examples among many. The key is familiarity - and knowing how these recordings sound on excellent, good, mediocre, and shitty setups.
-
I dont know if it's incredibly bad or anything, but I like trying to track the piano-ish sound on the left channel of Hans Zimmer's Mombasa while it's interweaved with the constant bombardment of drums from 40s-1:03m Usually if the bass is bloated too much then it'll be completely covered.
-
I'd like to expand this idea slightly.
I was listening to a punk band called Black President yesterday on my commute. It was the only highlight of having to work on a Sunday. I've had the album for some time now and while it's grown on me it always falls a little short of great. The songs are catchy, the musicians are talented and the performance tight. I was thinking about what was holding this album back and it struck me that it was recorded too well for a punk album! For me a good punk album needs to be a little messy and rough. This was too clean, too precise. It's not "punk".
Another example would be a couple of old blues songs that I really love. One in particular has a really noisy background including the strong hum of what I assume is the guitar amp. That's one of the thing that brings this particular track to life for me. It's that noise that creates nostalgia, that amp hum that transports me to a dark smokey room with the performer, complete with a big scotch in hand! I have a clean studio version of the same song, and it does not have the same impact on me. It's because of this personal connection that I do use this track when comparing gear because I am so intimate with every detail.
I am often drawn to live tracks because I find them easier to connect with for this very reason. Many of them are not recorded well at all.
I think that a poor recording is not only good for testing your system, but sometimes important to add life to music. Perfect mastering and recording may end up being accurate, but it won't always be the best overall sound. IMHO music production remains more art than science, and I think that's a good thing.
-
I'd like to expand this idea slightly.
I was listening to a punk band called Black President yesterday on my commute. It was the only highlight of having to work on a Sunday. I've had the album for some time now and while it's grown on me it always falls a little short of great. The songs are catchy, the musicians are talented and the performance tight. I was thinking about what was holding this album back and it struck me that it was recorded too well for a punk album! For me a good punk album needs to be a little messy and rough. This was too clean, too precise. It's not "punk".
Another example would be a couple of old blues songs that I really love. One in particular has a really noisy background including the strong hum of what I assume is the guitar amp. That's one of the thing that brings this particular track to life for me. It's that noise that creates nostalgia, that amp hum that transports me to a dark smokey room with the performer, complete with a big scotch in hand! I have a clean studio version of the same song, and it does not have the same impact on me. It's because of this personal connection that I do use this track when comparing gear because I am so intimate with every detail.
I am often drawn to live tracks because I find them easier to connect with for this very reason. Many of them are not recorded well at all.
I think that a poor recording is not only good for testing your system, but sometimes important to add life to music. Perfect mastering and recording may end up being accurate, but it won't always be the best overall sound. IMHO music production remains more art than science, and I think that's a good thing.
Well said! :)p1 :money:
-
Yep, well-said shipsupt. That's one of the reasons a lot of these new Appalachian folk revival type bands (Avett Bros., Lumineers, Mumford, etc) haven't resonated with me either (although most of them have songs I dig). They tend to sound too "clean" and loses a bit of authenticity as a result.
-
So I often use the song F.M. off of Lab '75 from the NTSU One O'clock Lab Band. The whole album was written by Lyle Mays, and this track has a nice long Rhodes solo that has peaks that clip on the recording. The Rhodes was a little too hot on the recording, so I use it to test for harsh or rolled off highs. If there isn't any glare, then there's some roll-off. If it's painful, then the system is a little too bright. The song also has some funky bass and has a little flute feature that's good for judging that timbre.
I also like to use a couple of tracks off of Charlie Parker's One Night in Washington. The band on the recording is buried behind a good bit of hiss and was "down in the mix" anyway. Charlie Parker is forward and definitely the star of the show (straight out of rehab - a stellar performance). It's definitely not a great recording, but it's great music. On the right system, it's a great experience.
-
My vote easily goes to the "Battlefield Earth" of recordings.
Siberia by Lights.
Diabolically bad in every respect sounds like it was mastered on an old Bell Graphophone by a deaf mute.
-
Blues and Ragtime...
-
Interesting thread.
My favourite band is Electro Deluxe. A french Jazz-Funk Band. Recordings are not really bad but almost average at best. Those recordings are my favs for Ultimate testing. A "good" system" much let me enjoy those average recordings . An audio system who let me only enjoy perfect recordings would not be really useful too.
A "good" system must show me issues but let my enjoy almost any music despite recording/mastering issues.
My 2 cents.
-
As soon as the drums start...
The Bee Gees- 'New York Mining Disaster 1941'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCRqAzCevsY
Ultra, gosh you're right. I read your post just now and tried this.... and ripped the HPs right off my noggin when the drums started...ouch, I went back and lowered the volume after that...
-
Yup. Don't think I've hard a good recording of that particular song. Not that the song amaizing in itself, but still...
-
I found the following pretty bad as well: ELO's Don't Let me Down. If you can get some time to listen to it, let me know what you think. I may have a bad copy after all.
-
For me it was and still is almost anything by the rolling stones, especially their early stuff.
Ya know, the material that is over saturated and clipped and as a result is a horribly mangled mess of distortion.
That is one of my 'goals', to be able to listen to any of that and actually enjoy the experience.
I have partially met this 'goal'.
I need to re-visit those tracks, soon.
JJ
-
really testing the limits:
Oramics to Electronica: Revealing Histories of Electronic Music: http://bit.ly/1yMH36N
-
Boston SACD Smokin' what the hell happened, the rest of the SACD is fine but that song was going DSD to 128bit very strange any history on what happened?