Topic: What is on your Reference Disc ?

[Chris K]

I'm am looking for ideas to compile a reference disc for audio playback gear. I'm looking at getting some upgraded speakers and receiver, and I'm just trying to get a feel for what some of you may be using, and what format...16bit, 24bit, 5.1, SACD etc.

Here is what I was thinking of putting together, all 16bit from cd's I already have:

Breath - Pink Floyd
Tom Sawyer - Rush
Jupiter, & Mars - Holtz Plantes by London Symphony Orchestra
I Feel Free - Cream
The Wheel - Jerry Garcia

[George]

I'd recommend the following:

Full albums, pick a favorite track:

dmb: crash
Keb Mo: Just like you
Paula Cole: This fire
Sarah Mclachlan : Surfacing
Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms

Specifically: Toad the Wet Sprocket, "Throw it all away" from there "Coil" album.  The song "Rings" from Coil is also an excellent track to reference with.

I'm drawing a blank, but I'm sure there's tons of reference recordings that I'm missing out in listing.

Best thing to do is pick material you are very familiar with, so its engrained in your memory.  That's the easiest way to pick out flaws in speaker rigs.

[bhadella]

I have normally used:

1.  Zappa - Waka/Jawaka - Can you overwelm the speakers? Lose image?
2.  Coltrane - Blue Train - Do I enjoy the tone of tweeters?  Are the cross-overs seemless?
3.  Muddy AUD - How revealing are the speakers?
4.  Dicks Picks 3 - Is this the sound I want?

[jpschust]

i use miles davis kinda blue a lot- i know that disc end to end.

also i really like using puccini arias since they tend to test out vocals so well.

[BobW]

DVD-A of American Beauty   - bass in Sugar Magnolia
Brubeck  Take Five    -Imaging
Kentucky Colonels    - extremes of imaging
Stanley Turrentine  Ballads   - tone of a spitty, spitty saxophone
opera with vocals which transit the crossover frequencies of the speakers
any of the Stereophile magazine test disks with bass warbles, imaging tests, and excellent two mic live recordings

I vary in what I use to test so that I don't "burn in" an expectated result

good luck !

[BC]

Last week I went to listen to the Gallo Ref 3's on Musical Fidelity gear and brought:

Herbie Hancock Headhunters to test for low end bumpin and funkability. 

Vivaldi concerto for strings (Dorian), transparency on more delicate tracks and imaging.

My Phish 2/20/03 allstate FOB: DPA4022(ORTF)>V3 to see how well the live sound and big bass of a PA system translates to playback.

Dead 5/8/77II just because I am very familiar with this disc, love the fat round low end and Jer's vocals.

Beethoven symphony #5, Benjamin Zander conducting, Telarc records.

Delos records has some cool CD's called "engineer's choice" with a variety of very high fidelity tracks from a variety of sources.
http://www.delosmus.com/

As well as some classical piano, violin, and vocal recordings I have made recently. All DPA4022(ORTF)>V3>VXpocket (24/44.1)>Waves L2 dither for CDR.

[Nick Culbreth]

1.  Radiohead - Kid A - Kid A:  Treble Extension/Sparkle, Stringed Instrument Tone
2.  Chris Thile - Not All Who Wonder Are Lost - Big Sam Thompson:  Instrument Separation, Coherency
3.  Norah Jones - Come Away with Me SACD - Come Away with Me:  Female Vocals
4.  Ryan Adams - Hearbreaker SACD - Call Me on Your Way Back Home:  Male Vocals
5.  John Coltrane - A Love Supreme - A Love Supreme - Brass Instrument Tone
6.  Yo-Yo Ma - Silk Road Journeys SACD - Legend of Herleen:  Bass Extension/Impact/Texture
7.  Eliot Smith - Either/Or - Between the Bars:  Forgiveness
8.  Led Zeppelin - How the West Was Won - Blackdog:  Immediacy, Electric Guitar, Ability to Rock

[cshepherd]

David Grisman-Dawgwood (rhythm & pace)
Tori Amos-Beekeeper (female vocals)
Rachel Z Trio-Moon at the Window (piano)

Chris

[cdevs]

Nice suggestions... I've been bringing Further In by Greg Brown with me when I audition gear and it's a great one if you like natural music. It's one of those recordings that is deceptively simple (recorded here: www.pachydermstudio.com), and features a wide range of tones from lap slide guitar (Kelly Joe Phelps) and beautiful backing vocals (Kate McKenzie) down to acoustic bass and Greg's incomparably deep voice. This is my litmus test disc. If this doesn't sound like 'real music', then it's on to the next piece.

 It tends to shut people up, too, which is nice.

[Chuck]

10,000 Maniacs - In My Tribe
Like the Weather

COIL - Toad the Wet Sprocket
Whatever I Fear

Ingenue - k.d. lang
Constant Craving

Court and Spark - Joni Mitchell
Court and Spark

Kind Of Blue - Miles Davis
Blue In Green

Come Dance With Me - Frank Sinatra w/ Billy May and His Orchestra
Day In Day Out

Rachminanoff: The Bells - Robert Shaw Atlanta Sympony Orchestra & Chorus
III. Presto

Nocturnes of John Field - John O'Conor, piano
Nocturne in F major: Andante


All these recordings show various things about a playback system and cover all the ground I need to evaluate one at this point.

[Chuck]

Now add:

The Derek Trucks Band - Songlines

I'm not sure which track yet, but Mike Mattison's voice is so centered and stable I thought it was coming out of my center channel speaker.

[mmmatt]

What?  no Flim and the BB's?

Matt

[cshepherd]

What?  no Flim and the BB's?

Matt

 

[Chuck]

What?  no Flim and the BB's?

Matt

Flim and the BB's were among the first jazz artists to release a compact disc. Not reference quality stuff however.

[mmmatt]

What?  no Flim and the BB's?

Matt

Flim and the BB's were among the first jazz artists to release a compact disc. Not reference quality stuff however.

I worked as a salesman for medium-end a/v equiptment in the 80's when cd's were first starting to get mainstream.  The big thing in thoes days was a designation on the disk that was ADA, AAD or DDD, which if I remember right was recorded in - mastered in - and the final format as the last letter.  Flim and the BB's were among the first to be produced as DDD or direct to digital cd's.  Flim and the BB's were on the "recomended demo list" for speaker manufacture's like Advent, and Cerwin Vega.  Not highend stuff and certainly not referance material by current audiophile standards I'm sure.  More than anything else I wondered if anyone remembered them.

Matt