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When I am invited to audition a playback system or a component I bring some of the CDs listed below. I don’t like to listen to ‘audiophile’ recordings on these sessions, it’s not what I would listen every day. Doug MacLeod is one exception in this list.
Grouping and naming is mine, totally conditional.
‘GOLDEN AGE’
• Miles Davis, Kind of Blue, Columbia Legacy CK 64935
• Gerry Mulligan and Paul Desmond Quartet, Blues in Time, Mobile Fidelity UDCD 648
• Les & Larry Elgart, Best of, CBS 466619
Warm lush sound of tubed Ampexes, good space rendering, horn instruments should tell you about detail extraction and colorations
String bass on ‘So what’ on some systems too ‘rounded’. Tube amp is the main suspect, if present. (Generally, tube recordings + tube amps not to my taste)
‘CLASSICAL’
• Richard Strauss, Der Rosenkavalier, Wiener Philharmoniker, von Karajan, DG 415 284
Usual DG perfection, should provide big and deep soundstage. If Annina screeches something’s wrong with your system. Also, on a system with really good timing you should be able to understand each word sung by each singer, even if you don’t speak German.
• Jerry Goldsmith, Basic Instinct soundtrack, Varese Sarabande 5360
Go to a classic music concert and listen this CD immediately afterwards. Strings sound just natural: not too silky, not too harsh.
‘GUITAR AND MALE VOICE’
• John Lee Hooker, Mr. Lucky, Silvertone ZD 75087
In addition to usual Silvertone intimacy, I use this CD to determine the overall speed of the system: listen to the guitar ‘bite’ on tracks with Albert Collins and Carlos Santana.
I always find planar speakers lacking in this department. I was pleasantly surprised how some tube amps (terribly expensive, though) can ‘bite’
• Doug MacLeod, Unmarked Road, Audioquest AQ 1048
This is a classic among audiophiles and great performance too. Almost all ingredients for equipment assessment are on this CD.
‘SMALL COMBOS, LIVE PERFORMANCES’
• Lou Reed/John Cale, Songs for Drella, Sire 7599-26140
• Ray Davies, The Storyteller, EMI 7243 4 94168
Excellent ambient cues, should provide ‘being there’ sensation. Some songs for Drella were actually recorded in studio, you should be able to hear significant difference.
‘JAZZ’
• Gary Burton and Makoto Ozone, Face to Face, GRP Records, GRD 9805
Beautiful music, beautiful sound of piano and vibraphone, testing the speed of the system to the limit. Sounds crystal clear but not tiring on best systems, less so on lesser chains
• Shirley Horn, You won’t Forget me, Verve 847 482
Here we are at last, a female vocal, and what a vocal it is. Her voice is caressing the audience, accompanying musicians are perfect, production is just right, mesmerizing. Sibilants should not hiss (see also note on Rosenkavalier)
‘ELECTRO POP’
• David Bowie, Black Tie White Noise, Arista/BMG 74321 13697
• Dire Straits, On Every Street, Vertigo 510 160
• Robbie Robertson, Geffen GFD 24160
• The Power Station, Living in Fear, Chrysalis 7243 8 53984
Seasoned (ab)users of studio arsenal. Testing for resolution abilities and overall dynamics. The trick is to hear as many details as possible before the music falls apart. On the very best systems it will not happen, except for Power Station: you will hear Robert Palmer overloading the mike and his vocal chords. This won’t happen to Bowie or Knopfler. For Bono on Robertson’s record I can not decide.
‘ODDITIES’
• Los Lobos, Colossal Head, WB 9362-46172
• The Smithereens, A date with, RCA 07863 66391
Production credits here. Mitch Froom/Tchad Blake experiments should make a coherent whole. On lesser systems Colossal Head sounds awful. (So does The Power Station, see above)
Similarly, Don Dixon’s LoFi masterpiece should sound like your high school band is playing again in good mood and on decent equipment. Everything is there, just some systems can not extract it.
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