[Audio review] Music to evaluate audio systems, test tracks

A recent post on social medium FaceAche invited readers to think about what tracks we use for evaluation of audio gear. Tim wrote: "A client who is a partner in one of the top studio speakers/monitors companies of the moment here in the UK shared a playlist of the tracks they like to use. I've pulled a few for your listening pleasure and maybe to see how they play for you lot! While we're at it, what are your go to tracks for evaluating detail/bass/soundstage etc..

This prompted your Old Scribe to think about why we choose certain tracks for evaluating different parts of the audio chain. Presumably we fondly imagine, from long years of experience that each of our chosen pieces exemplifies demands on that part of the reproduction chain. One tune might sort the lambs from the goats among hi-res streamers while a completely different tune might be a killer test of bass resonances and resolution in a turntable-arm-cartridge. Another might illustrate bandwidth limitations anywhere in the audio chain.

The supplementary question is what makes us choose one particular album or piece of music for each of these duties. I suggest that it must be a familiar piece for 3 reasons:

Your Old Scribe also has a habit, when testing source components to switch to a different source from the test component, to re-calibrate those old ears to a familiar presentation. It may well be that as well as the minor electro-mechanical settling period (often called burn-in) argued about in the audio forum (just like its Roman predecessor), our ears adapt to any new experience. Tuning-in to a new component does need to be positioned contextually by checking back with the familiar.

So here are some ideas for starters. This first clutch of discs will be well known audiophile clichés for whole system evaluation, and why. The latter is at least as important as which recording. Regular readers will have seen that the Music Enjoyed in this Review boxout rarely includes more than a couple of the following among a diverse range of recordings. The sole reason for our audio gear should be to give us pleasure listening to music. That is it. The audio system is not there to bolster a fragile ego but to soothe our souls and stimulate our brains.

Mickey Hart, Airto & Flora Purim: Däfos, legendary Prof Johnson 45rpm Reference Recording of one of the Grateful Dead's percussionist's Latin American collaborations. A test of dynamics, soundstage, tonal accuracy, timing and a joy to listen to whether you're a Deadhead or latin lover. Reference Recordings RR-12

Arne Domnérous: Jazz at the Pawnshop, of which was said, "You're not going to play that bl**dy pawnshop record again" by one patient friend, sick of it being used to evaluate rhythm and soundstage accuracy. Proprius 7778-79

Arne Domnérous: Antiphone Blues, a minimalist recording of a saxophone and pipe organ duet which tests any system's capacity from turntable to listening room. The music is an acquired taste despite being familiar tunes but this record sounds flat as a flounder except on well optimised systems regardless of budget.

Billy Cobham: Spectrum, probably one of the most sampled albums because it is just so good, a relentless jazz-rock fusion showcase. Cobham tunes his drums very carefully and does not damp them heavily, so they show up a system's capacity to recover from the transient quickly enough to hold the note. Cobham's then unusual double bass drum, open handed playing style with unusual shells and cymbals make listeners sit up and take notice with a good system. Spectrum was Cobham's first solo outing so it's a showreel for everything he'd learned so far and it got him features in all the muso magazines of the time and even a recent Financial Times interview where he noted Spectrum was recorded in 3 days.

Miles Davis: Bitches Brew, Another Billy Cobham collaboration, loved and loathed in equal measure by Miles Davis fans. It has complexity that emerges in proportion to system resolution, and also demands PraT accuracy of the source, the amplifier power supplies and the loudspeaker low frequency alignment.

Little Feat: Sailing Shoes, because your Old Scribe loves this album and knows every note. There's plenty of low level detail to spot, without inaccurate frequency response emphases, which are often the culprits of A-B testing "I heard things for the first time" reviewer moments. This is another Prat showcase but in different parts of the bandwidth. The Mobile Fidelity disc is at least as good as the original but without the wear and tear.

Grateful Dead: Blues for Allah, is an example of the Dead's obsession with recording and reproduction quality. It is also one of the funkiest of the Dead albums so another fine PraT test. If it holds attention, the system is delivering all that information complexity to our ears, but if we drift off into a smokey haze of reminiscence, something is missing.

Toots and the Maytals: Bam Bam, on any format, compilation, dub plate or download. This track's original analogue mastertape has print-through and pre-echo that adds to a sense of being present in the studio. Depending what storage format is in use, it helps evaluate low level resolution (especially bass) in the presence of high level signals. Being pre-echo it has a weird quality compared with post-echo that can merely sound like clumsy use of Echoplex or WEM Copycat reverb.

Christopher Hogwood and the Academy of Ancient Music: Beethoven's 9th Symphony, is a glorious outing on original instruments. Any of this Beethoven symphony cycle is a great system test because they're all well researched, conducted and recorded. Hence, being smaller than the typical modern romantic ensemble, we can hear more of each player's contribution. Many domestic audio systems can manage, and even show off, simple microphone technique recordings of small ensembles but the complexity of this music makes different demands. Phase accuracy and tweeter accuracy really play an important part in getting this right.

Arvo Pärt: Beatus, especially the section O Adonai. This can raise the hairs on one's neck through a bedside radio but to hear it on a high resolution wide bandwidth system can be almost overwhelming. Many people react to Pärt's Alina but this has become such a cliché in isolation (even TV commercials) that it gathers too many irrelevant associations, so Beatus it has to be.

For Vinyl Front End Evaluations

Pink Floyd: Animals,
"What?" Demand plebs chorus, stage left, "Not Ye Darke Side of the Prune?"
DSOTM has too many alternative pressings, mixes and airtime at audio shows, and your Old Scribe's original SQ copy (for people with 4 ears) is too off-piste to be familiar to readers. Animals was bought on pre-order as soon as it was released. It has been a go to test of arm-cartridge resolution since that week, especially on side 2. There are recorded ambient clues of certain parts buried in the mix of Sheep, which bring the track alive with a chill. Different front ends (and different set up quality) misrepresent the mix due to different resonances (e.g. arm tube or vinyl tip resonance). It is unsurpassed as a quick and dirty insight into front end control and synergy. The subsequent remixes and pressings (e.g. 2018 package) seem to have evened this out, losing something in the process.

Little Feat: The Last Record Album was a popular choice by The Flat Response crew to demonstrate the clear superiority of their beloved Linn Sondek LP12 front ends. The heavily modulated bass in Long Distance Love and Day or Night are certainly a true test of bass handling and were indeed a showcase for the LP12/Ittok/Karma run by them and your Old Scribe in those days. A Source/Odyssey/Decca Supergold were equally impressive with this and an Orbe/Hadcock will do an even better job of maintaining composure in the vocals while rendering bass notes accurately. The old SME3009 needs the FD200 damper to achieve anything close, regardless of cartridge, demonstrating the context specific choices of test tunes to identify what part of the audio chain is doing what.

Tafelmusik (dir. Jean Lamon): Popular Masterworks of the Baroque, a Reference Recordings opus that contradicts your Old Scribe's expressed preference for longer pieces of greater complexity. Just 11 musicians comprise the full ensemble playing original 17th and 18th century originals or modern replica instruments. The simplicity of the recording technique, 45rpm pressing and familiarity of these of these pieces means that the slightest misalignment of turntable set up or mistracking or other distortion is clear.

Some recordings are too overproduced or over played at hifi shows to have any merit as test records because musical memory may distort the phenomenology of our encounters with them. Other favourites suffer wear so gradual that we do not notice their deteriorating treble content and rounded off transients.

Methodologies Using These and Other Tunes

Given the objective variations in ambient noise at different times of the day, we must be careful to factor this in to our evaluation. Equally, our subjective mood and attention fluctuates even more (especially before or after food, alcohol or recreational drugs, where applicable) which is why genuinely useful evaluation and reviewing must be an extended process requiring prolonged attentions to each condition under consideration. Some note taking and thematic analysis is especially useful here.

As a double check your Old Scribe also uses printed hard copies of his evaluation system. They're printed so that they can be marked up easily by my side without a screen saver switching in. The points based judging system merely allows for triangulation of the changes between A and B against the changes from B to A as a reliability test. It also enables triangulation between the exaggerated quick impression of A-B with the enduring experience of prolonged listening.

Ultimately the task of this aspect of reviewing is to be able to express in words the subjective experience of alternative audio equipment. At TNT-audio.com we insist that this is reliable as well as descriptive. Hence multiple approaches to each evaluation.

Conclusion

Key to any test recording is that we can endure hearing them time after time. There also has to be memorable content such that we can tell if we're experiencing different levels of pleasure.

Key to any reviewer's choice of test recordings is that these pieces help us to express what we hear, in language that is clear and unambiguous. Wine writers and audio reviewers are often equally guilty of pretentious purple prose that merely entertains with florid grandiloquent overwrought rhetorical flourishes. Innit?

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Music to evaluate audio systems, test tracks

Music to evaluate audio systems: part 1

For Vinyl Front End Evaluations

Methodologies Using These and Other Tunes

Conclusion