Eagles DTS DVD demo replacement for A/B Speaker comparisons (e.g. Music Demo suggestions)

[scattershot]

For a decade I have used the "Eagles Hell Freezes over" DTS track onDVD at the store I use to work at for A/B speaker comparisons when I needed todemonstrate speaker quality/fidelity during the age where DVD's ruled.
ThisDVD wasn’t just one of the clearest DVD sound mixes, it was also ideal becausethe first 90 seconds of the song Hotel California isolated sound quality whichwas great for A/B speaker comparisons because 1 instrument at a time tended tokick in (e.g. drums, guitar, snares, etc. before the vocals) which made it veryeasy to highlight differences in speaker quality by demonstrating the fidelityof individual instruments as well as differences in sound stage. It’s easier for the layperson to comparesound quality between speakers if they only have to compare one instrument at atime!

JFor a decade I have used the "Eagles Hell Freezes over" DTS track onDVD at the store I use to work at for A/B speaker comparisons when I needed todemonstrate speaker quality/fidelity during the age where DVD's ruled.
ThisDVD wasn’t just one of the clearest DVD sound mixes, it was also ideal becausethe first 90 seconds of the song Hotel California isolated sound quality whichwas great for A/B speaker comparisons because 1 instrument at a time tended tokick in (e.g. drums, guitar, snares, etc. before the vocals) which made it veryeasy to highlight differences in speaker quality by demonstrating the fidelityof individual instruments as well as differences in sound stage. It’s easier for the layperson to comparesound quality between speakers if they only have to compare one instrument at atime!

Justas important, because all these isolated instruments (as well as vocals) tookplace in essentially a 2 minute segment of a single song, it was both a quickand effective way to isolate the sound quality of speakers when doing an A/Bcomparison. (This is very importantin a retail environment where you may have a big time constraint when doing A/BSpeaker comparisons).

I amlooking for an upgraded version of such a song both on Blu-ray and lossless HDAudio (HD Tracks?) so if anyone has a Blu-ray suggestion or HD Audio tracksuggestion they could recommend for this type of demo purposes that would beappreciated.


**This is the criteria I am looking for in this demo material:
-asingle song that isolates instruments, like one at a time (perhaps in theintro) for the purposes of doing an A/B speaker comparison to displaydifferences in sound quality / fidelity / sound stage.
-There is a time constraint for the demo, so I needit to be a single song (or perhaps 2 separate songs) since I need to have anaudio demo that is 2-3 minutes long (maximum) for each A/B comparison I do.
-Mediasuggestion: I need BOTH A Blu-ray suggestion (most convenient to setup) and aHD-Audio track suggestion. (Ideally Iwould use the HD-Audio track since it's best to do A/B speaker comparisons withno video source and have the listener exclusively focus on the sound quality /sound stage. Plus it's faster to not have to cue up a Blu-ray disc!).

 

[j_garcia]

I have the HFO DTS-CD and it sounds every bit as good as the DVD, queues up faster than the DVD or a BD I personally used Seven Bridges Road because it is a better mastered/recorded track than Hotel California and has no video even on the DVD.

I like the BD Dave Mathews and Tim Reynolds Live @ Radio City for demos, pretty much pick your track, they're all well done in DTS-HD. I like Eh Hee, track 10 because the vocals are excellent.

SACD - Patricia Barber, Cafe Blue - track: Nardis (stereo only)
SACD - Dave Brubeck, Concord on a Summer Night - track: Softly, William, Softly. (Stereo and multichannel)

A "layperson" should be using their OWN familiar material to audition speakers IMHO, though that level of auditioning does not always occur to said layperson ("What the public doesn't know is what makes them the public.")

 

[scattershot]

The Hell Freezes OVer DTS-CD is out of production and hella expensive Wish they would release it on Blu-ray.

Do any of those suggestions you made contain a single song that isolates instruments, like one at a time (perhaps in the intro) for the purposes of doing an A/B speaker comparison to display differences in sound quality / fidelity / sound stage? (Like Hotel California Live song does...)

thanks

 

[scattershot]

A "layperson" should be using their OWN familiar material to audition speakers IMHO, though that level of auditioning does not always occur to said layperson ("What the public doesn't know is what makes them the public.")

I agree that it can be useful for Joe Public to bring his/her own music material, the fact is when trying to quantify accurately the sound quality / fidelity differences / soundstage differences between Speaker A & B it's easier to demonstrate differences (or similiaries) with 1 sound at a time (e.g. 1 instrument or 1 vocal) since:
a) it's hard to compare accurately with many sounds at once
b) Speaker A may sound better with drums (in part due to lower frequency range) while Speaker B sounds clearer, but not as deep, with bigger sound range.

It's also better, for comparison sake, to compare the front left/right speakers only and nail down the best sounding one's first, before introducing center speaker (or even rear speakers).
If they are going to be buying a subwoofer, than pair the front left/right speakers with a similar subwoofer so that the customer doesn't focus too much on low frequency range and can focus on detecting differences in sound they require the speaker to reproduce.

 

[j_garcia]

The Hell Freezes OVer DTS-CD is out of production and hella expensive Wish they would release it on Blu-ray.

Me too. My DVD was stolen and I wanted to replace with a BD. Got lucky to get the DTS CD used for a great price.

The Dave & Tim disc is all unplugged and the audio is solid. Eh Hee:

Do any of those suggestions you made contain a single song that isolates instruments, like one at a time (perhaps in the intro) for the purposes of doing an A/B speaker comparison to display differences in sound quality / fidelity / sound stage? (Like Hotel California Live song does...)

thanks

Nardis on Cafe Blue has a wide range of instruments and rises and falls from subtle to very complex and back again. I feel it is an excellent track for that reason. It is a MoFi recording as well, so the master/mix are excellent. Even on CD it is quite good.

Softly, William Softly is just a stunning live recording and certainly features isolation and subtlety, though you may end up listening to the whole thing not 3 minutes worth.

The reason I say your own music is because you should be listening to something you're familiar with and have heard on a variety of speakers so you can hear the differences. I ALWAYS take Nardis with me because I know what it sounds like and I know what I'm listening for. In this case, you're focusing on something specific. What if someone listens to hard rock or classical instead of Eagles? Then they're not so vested in what they're listening to or don't know what to listen for, so it is a double edged sword.

 

[scattershot]

With all due respect J_Garcia none of the 3 clips you mentioned surpasses Hotel California (From the DTS track on Hell Freezes Over DVD) for a 150 second long demo for use in a retail environment where one is doing an A/B speaker test.


Here's the video, and let me explain how I demo this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tJ0I2J954A
[video=youtube;7tJ0I2J954A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tJ0I2J954A[/video]

Guitar solo (first 0-30 secs) ideal for comparing speakers fidelity in this range.
Drums kick in at 30 seconds (great for testing bass clarity and extension)
Maracas at 40 seconds (The placement of the maracas in this particular song is great for testing sound stage width - it really can highlight a speakers deficiency in this area while highlighting how some speakers can have an incredibly wide sound stage).

[Only 3 instruments maximum are playing between 0 seconds to 1:42 making it easier to highlight individual instruments for doing A/B speaker quality tests]


1:42 Base Guitar Kicks in .
2:09 Male Vocals kicks in.


My biggest regret was there wasn't a piano solo in this song, but I could always follow it up with Norah Jones - Come Away With Me for piano and female vocals example (I've linked this song in the next message)

The reason why the above 1994 Live version of Hotel California is so ideal is that it allows a casual listener to easily isolate a few different instruments and a single vocal to highlight differences between speakers - all accomplished in only 150 seconds! (Time is important in a retail environment)


I am eagerly looking for any other tracks with similar utility that can allow me to highlight differences as quickly and efficiently as this Hotel California version does.


J_Garcia in respect to the links you provided: Nardis on Cafe Blue is very useful for variety of instruments although you need to run it longer the 3 minutes. Same for Brubeck so I do thank you for sharing those 2 songs.

 

[scattershot]

When I am running a speaker demonstration in a retail environment, if after playing the above Hotel California sample for 150 seconds there is enough time left to do an additional demo I will do the following Norah Jones - Come Away With Me song.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKEuOO0lQPc
[video=youtube;QKEuOO0lQPc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKEuOO0lQPc[/video]

Only requiring 60 seconds of playback, I can easily highlight 2 isolated sounds that weren't available in Hotel California: a piano and a female voice.

In fact, I remember hearing this video when auditioning Focal Electra 1008 Be and I literally had goosebumps that her voice sounded so great on those speakers - it gave me chills!

 

[j_garcia]

See there's a good example for me. I HATE Norah Jones. If you put that in, I'd ask you to take it back out. Everyone has a personal preference, which is why I go back to the fact that people should be listening to things that they're familiar with and are actually going to listen to on the speakers as opposed to what's laying around in the shop. I go in armed, because I want to listen for specific details too. I use Dave Mathews because of his male vocals. For female, Sarah McLachlan, Diana Krall, Annie Lennox, etc... I don't tend to have one track or one part of one track that I use, because I need to hear many different things. Nardis answers a lot of that because it is all over the place, though I could do without her vocals actually.

Here's another thread that might be of some use:

http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/general-av-discussions/78328-high-quality-sound-albums.html

 

[scattershot]

For the short 3-4 minute demo’s, I explain to customers that I am only using Hotel California (and possibly following that up with Norah Jones) for the sake of widdling down speaker choices.
Once we get down to the final 2 or so, I welcome them to use their favourite choices, or I’d arm myself with other short selections like the quality choices you mentioned like Nardis, Diana Krall, Annie Lennox, Sarah McLaghlan, Dave Mathews (For male vocals). I thank you for these suggestions I will actually look at those artists more closely and try to locate HD tracks to throw into my demo folder.

Thanks for the thread link to “High quality sound albums” I will have to go through it with a fine tooth and comb:
http://forums.audioholics.com/forums/general-av-discussions/78328-high-quality-sound-albums.html

For the sake of this thread I ask contributors to please keep their suggestions to single songs that allow one to easily isolate 3 or more distinct sounds, like the live version of the Hotel California 1994 DTS track does.
For song snippets to use, let’s stick with the High quality sound albums which is more conducive to other suggestions.

Thanks everyone.

 

[beakergeek]

For Blu-ray demo I like Dave Matthews Live at Radio City Music Hall. It has an excellent 96/24 soundtrack. In addition its just him with his guitar plus or minus Tim Reynolds which should make it easy to compare speakers.

 

[ImcLoud]

I can't think of one single song that I would use to test speakers, going to high end hi fi shops is a hobby of mine when I am on the road and I have 3 discs I use, just burnt off the pc discs... I don't listen to all sacd quality music so I wouldn't use them to test something I am considering purchasing since it could be a let down when I get home and throw my ipad on, lol...
If I had to pick one short list of songs Cafe blue is on the list and it's a good song for test demoing, A few others I like to use are...
Fairfield Fours "these bones" the deep vocals {Isaac Freeman} in this song show how a speaker reacts reproducing to voice down in the basement, I am not sure how deep Isaac goes but I can tell you I have a system crossed rite under 80 and hes comes through the subs... This song is going to show you much in the way of instrumentals mind you but there are some decent ranges and smooth transitions so you can get a good idea how the speakers perform in the low to mid vocal areas..

Next would be https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYEDA3JcQqw "rolling in the deep" If I had to choose a single song, believe it or not this song would be in my top 3, its fast, slow, medium speed all over the place, her voice is special in the way its female but can dig a little here and there, while her back up is towards the top, the bass in this song {while your pc probably wont pick it up} shakes my house, I have seen many show room "guys" say "wow this song has some bass notes in it" they are hidden, lol but on the right system they are there... plus snapping and clapping is very revealing, some speakers just don't do it well...

Clapping brings us to Stealers wheel "stuck in the middle with you" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DohRa9lsx0Q with some speakers the clapping in this song sounds like drums, lol and with decent speakers you will get it all, you will hear them pulling the beer bottle over the strings, all the claps will be effortlessly noticed as being claps, ect... A lot of foot taps, claps, and other hidden sounds in this song, with good equipment it will be like hearing it for the first time, this is another one the showroom guys always take a note to put on their list, actually I have had numerous stores, copy the cd, lol...

And the last one I would put on my "must listen to know" list would be Roger Waters "What god wants", thiis on his album for the early 90's not pink floyd, sit in a decent speaker {2 or 3 way design} in the sweet spot and close your eyes, I know where the spots are so can sue to them pretty fast, but these 3 songs were recorded in Q-sound which was a 3d way of mixing used and this will reveal to you a speakers stage, if the speakers are done right, you will notice a center vocal localiaztion with almost every song you listen to, unless they mixed it to not have that effect, but with these Q sound songs, you will notice the sounds come from far beyond the speakers position, at some points they are behind you, with my system you swear there is a rear speaker... Pink floyds Pulse was also done with this technology another song on my list...

The rest of my songs are all stuff I am super familiar with, if you listen to a song that you hardly or never hear, than how can you compare them speakers to everything you heard in the past... You wont remember a certain sound but you will remember something new or something missing that you look for... Listening to music can be an art in itself... Don't get too hung up on having the "best" source material, sure have a nicely recorded cd, but keep in mind not everything you listen to is going to be sacd quality, and honestly there are only a few sources that make a difference to our ears, we just can not hear it all, I wish we could...

 

[BlwnAway]

Lol, I still use the DTS Hell-Freezes-Over LD.