Music that shows speakers weakness

[T-Kern]

Now there's an irony.

Hm..what makes you say that?

 

[KLH9]

Anything with solo vibraphone or solo harpsichord.

If you can find an arm and cartridge to track it, most cone speakers sound like fuzz, they are just not responsive enough to reproduce those instruments accurately.

 

[motorstereo]

"Tank" by Emerson Lake and Palmer will exorcise a decent pair of speakers.

 

[superdog]

One time Pink Floyds"Welcome to the Machine" I felt was pushing my system at the time to the edge.

 

[bigaltx24]

The Package by A Perfect Circle off of the CD Thirteenth Step. I've brought some very highly touted speakers to their knees with the bass and dynamics of this track.

 

[skorpio]

The Telarc version of the 1812 Overture , if you have it fairly loud before the canon blasts you may hear the speakers or the amps limits. Not much compression in that recording.

Yea this one is pretty brutal, I have the vinyl version, you can just look at it see it's serious. The cannon shots look like they were carved into the vinyl with a chisel. This used to be my "demo" disk in my wreckless youth. It eventually got banned from most stereo stores. It would shutdown amps, cause ill adjusted tonearms to shake and hop, damage surrounds, even saw it once top out woofers to the point that they didn't go back in again (DLK 1 1/2s actually, all 4 in the pair). At mild volume it's a good test, at high volume it'll point out the flaws in the bottom ends, maybe more so then you'd care to.

It's real claim to fame was it was cut at a variable rate, so the grooves are not a consistant width. Linear tracking turntables didn't usually track it well at all.

 

[guiller]

You can also add any good recording of organ music (e.g. of works composed by Bach, Buxtehude, Franck, Messiaen). For example, the 2 cd set of organ music composed by Cesar Franck played by Michael Murray (Telarc ).

 

[Brett a]

Music that shows speakers weakness
(...) Can you recommend any particular pieces that are challenging to the equipment?

I think it's all about the quality of the recording. High quality recordings can be found in all types of music (well, almost)

And what challenges do you want to present to your speakers? sound-staging? bass response? speed?

The challenge I like to present to any speaker is the challenge of increasing my level of enjoyment delivering music I know and love. Perhaps not a very technical challenge, but an essential one.

To me, it all starts with imaging and soundstage. Then I'm interested in detail retrieval.

"A#1" on this list for years has been Lambchop's "Is a Woman" CD--any track really, but the first one is one of the best to use.

Another test I like to give speakers (or is it the whole system?) is can it reproduce Bonnie Prince Billy's "Master and Everyone" without mid-bass bloat. I think this is a pretty fine-pointed test as the toal bloat of his acoustic guitar on this album (CD or LP) teeters on the verge of muddying up the otherwise clear and open soundstage.

(Both these albums were engineered by Mark Nevers, BTW)

 

[solarol]

Thank you all for responses, some great tracks!!!

 

[Tom Brennan]

Hm..what makes you say that?

Because an MP3 of an orchestral work will challenge a system more in terms of clarity (the ability to dig into orchestral patterns and detail) and tone (strings, piano and woodwinds especially) than a Pop LP will.

 

[solarol]

I found Cassandra Wilson's voice is extremely demanding in lover midrange.

 

[JoeESP9]

Yea this one is pretty brutal, I have the vinyl version, you can just look at it see it's serious. The cannon shots look like they were carved into the vinyl with a chisel. This used to be my "demo" disk in my wreckless youth. It eventually got banned from most stereo stores. It would shutdown amps, cause ill adjusted tonearms to shake and hop, damage surrounds, even saw it once top out woofers to the point that they didn't go back in again (DLK 1 1/2s actually, all 4 in the pair). At mild volume it's a good test, at high volume it'll point out the flaws in the bottom ends, maybe more so then you'd care to.

It's real claim to fame was it was cut at a variable rate, so the grooves are not a consistant width. Linear tracking turntables didn't usually track it well at all.

One of the cannon shots on that LP snapped the stylus off the cantilever on a Shure V-15IV. I still have both.

 

[mhardy6647]

One of the cannon shots on that LP snapped the stylus off the cantilever on a Shure V-15IV. I still have both.

ahem sounds like the mass of the arm might've been a little higher than optimum?

 

[M Jarve]

The CD that seems to get the most speakers for me is NIN Ghosts. Only one set of speakers has made it through without revealing serious cabinet resonance issues. They were the IMF TLS-50.

 

[T-Kern]

Because an MP3 of an orchestral work will challenge a system more in terms of clarity (the ability to dig into orchestral patterns and detail) and tone (strings, piano and woodwinds especially) than a Pop LP will.

Ah that's an interesting point, but regardless of the music type in question I feel like if you are looking for details, you shouldn't be looking for it in an mp3. That's just how I feel.

 

[Tom Brennan]

One of the cannon shots on that LP snapped the stylus off the cantilever on a Shure V-15IV. I still have both.

I never broke a cartridge but the record did pop my ADC-XLM equipped Thorens arm up in the air. With the Thorens a V-15 tracked it well though.

So nobody got my canon joke? I'm the only guy here that went to Catholic school?

 

[audiodon]

There's lots of music that'll test speakers.
What do you want to test -
Soundstage depth? Using what media? Tests bass, image resolution, depth perception, soundstage width, height, and depth.

Classical:
Vinyl or CD - Robert Shaw & Atlanta Symphony
Berlioz Requiem.
Surround accuracy?
Norrington: Berlioz Requiem.
Designed to be multi-directional and was played from different parts of the stage.
2nd choice:
Chially - Mahler's 3rd (Hybrid SACD/CD)

Non-classical Album Oriented Material?

space between instruments and vocal accuracy?
Jennifer Warnes - The Ballad of the Runaway Horse
from Famous Blue Raincoat (20th anniversary edition only).

A different performance of this piece was also used in the Iron Chef Speaker Setup Protocol posting some years ago on Audio Asylum. The performance is by, I believe, Rob Wasserman and Jennifer Warnes. Rob Wasserman Two, I believe it's called.

 

[jas1203]

What's your main system. I'm driving my RF-7's with my Yamaha RX-797.

I've got the Optimus 2B's hooked up to the B speaker terminals of the RX-797. I occasionally switch between the RF-7 and the 2B just to see if I can hear the difference. --- This version of Tusk has been the song (in the bass drum) where I hear the most difference between the two speakers. Most other sound differences are more subtle.

My main receiver is an Onkyo TX-906 (80 WPC, from around 1992), speakers are two Polk Monitor 70s.

My shed system is a cheap Sherwood RX-4109 driving two large-ish Pioneer bookshelf speakers (can't remember the model)...I need some better speakers out there...those just don't hit the bass notes very well, and the midrange is very iffy.

 

[kirk57]

I find it interesting to hear very low level details that may be obscured on lesser gear

R.E.M.'s Radio Free Europe (Murmur) At the beginning of the song I'd always heard some noises before the drums start in, but on the Magnepans I heard a cavernous soundstage upon which those sounds are played out. Startling!

Postal Service - Such Great Heights towards the very end of the song a woman refrains "come down now" if the speakers can do it you can almost visualize her

there are many, many others.

 

[aabottom]

I find it interesting to hear very low level details that may be obscured on lesser gear

R.E.M.'s Radio Free Europe (Murmur) At the beginning of the song I'd always heard some noises before the drums start in, but on the Magnepans I heard a cavernous soundstage upon which those sounds are played out. Startling!

Postal Service - Such Great Heights towards the very end of the song a woman refrains "come down now" if the speakers can do it you can almost visualize her

there are many, many others.

Speaking of which, ... thy this. On Simon and Garfunkel- Parley, Sage, Rosemary and Thyme, "A Simple Desultory Philippic" see if you can hear Paul drop his harmoncia- twice.

I've been listening to this material for 30 years and I did not catch it until I played the CD through my Senn. HD-650 headphones. I hear it though my RF-7's also. I hear it with my Optimus 2B's, but it's not quite as clear. When I get my new stylus, I'll try my vinyl copy.