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[tubesaregood]

1) Two channel music performance - Opeth - Windowpane
2) Mulichannel music performance - don't know about that, don't do home theater
3) Mulichannel effects separation - I would use a scene from a movie where helicopters are flying around
4) LFE (Low Frequency Effects) - A Perfect Circle - Lullaby/Nine Inch Nails - Into the Void
5) Other (list any/all auditory criteria (things you listen for) you consider when evaluating equipment) - I look for transparency, balance across frequency spectrum, crystal clear treble, solid bass, and present upper bass, and whether I can hear everything in the music. Windowpane is an EXCELLENT track for these things.

 

[Mr. Lamb Fries]

1) Two channel music performance
Billy Thorpe-Children of the Sun

2) Multichannel music performance
The movie-The Incredibles

3) Mulichannel effects separation
Any DTS Movie

4) LFE (Low Frequency Effects)
DTS test disk #9 and #10

5) Other (list any/all auditory criteria (things you listen for) you consider when evaluating equipment)
Just a WIDE range of things I like
_________________

 

[supervij]

Just a caveat: I won't always use a very well recorded source to test equipment. Very well produced music might make any speaker sound good, so sometimes I'll go with something that's not all that well recorded.

1) Two-channel music performance
Case in point with my caveat, Oasis' "Better Man" (last few minutes).

2) Multichannel music performance
Blue Man Group's The Complex DVD-A, specifically "Sing Along", but a lot of their instrumentals as well. Not to mention Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.

3) Multichannel effects separation
Again, Pink Floyd's DSotM. Also, Spider-Man 2 and The Matrix.

4) LFE (Low Frequency Effects)
A track on Peter Gabriel's DVD Play called "Don't Give Up" has some bass that sometimes sounds boomy in my room. I use that track to make sure it's not overly loud/boomy. I would also use Titan AE and Finding Nemo -- those have some very cool bass as well.

5) Other
Any piece of music that I know extremely well: Oasis, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Marillion, The Beatles, etc.

cheers,
supervij

 

[10010011]

I don't bother with things like this because it' not like I have several HTS systems on hand to compare, but for the contests sake I will copy somone elses answers that I wound not mind watching or listneing to.

1) Two channel music performance
Billy Thorpe-Children of the Sun

2) Multichannel music performance
The movie-The Incredibles

3) Mulichannel effects separation
Any DTS Movie

4) LFE (Low Frequency Effects)
DTS test disk #9 and #10

5) Other (list any/all auditory criteria (things you listen for) you consider when evaluating equipment)
Just a WIDE range of things I like
_________________

 

[samandnoah]

1) Two channel music performance
- Chesky "Ultimate Demonstration Disc "
- Robbie Robertson's "Robbie Robertson" and in particular the first 3 songs -- Fallen Angel, Showdown At Big Sky, Broken Arrow -- as well as Somewhere Down the Crazy River.

2) Multichannel music performance
- Experience limited to music performances on standard DVDs in DD/DTS. Blue Man Group is always good.

3) Multichannel effects separation
- Saving Private Ryan (opening)
- The Matrix (Lobby Scene and Saving Morpheus)
- Star Wars I (Race Pod Scene)

4) LFE (Low Frequency Effects)
- Nemo (Doreen tapping the tank)
- Titan A.E. (Ice fields)
- U571 (Depth Charges)

5) Other (list any/all auditory criteria (things you listen for) you consider when evaluating equipment)
- Fatigue. It's important to me to be able to audition for a long enough period to get past being enamored by the novel sound of a new speaker, and really tell if I can actually stand living with it.
- Timbre, and how it matches the rest of the system if used in HT
- What it sounds like In Situ. It may sound great on paper, or even in another environment, but if I need to pull the speaker out 5 feet from the back wall to sound good, I may not be able to live with that.

 

[808htfan]

1) Two channel music performance
2) Mulichannel music performance
3) Mulichannel effects separation
4) LFE (Low Frequency Effects)
5) Other (list any/all auditory criteria (things you listen for) you consider when evaluating equipment)

First of all, I'm no audiophile or expert...
1)a local group called Lawai'a, song Tell Me Why
2)don't have much, maybe The Eagles Hell Freezes Over DTS
3)Pearl Harbor attack sequence
4)probably LOTR...FOTR, the Cave Troll and Balrog, and ROTK Oliphants...or however you spell it. Star Wars AOTC opening scene of the ship flying by and the next scene when it blows up.
5)don't know

 

[KLS]

1) Two channel music performance
Lyle Lovett (Joshua Judges Ruth)
2) Mulichannel music performance
Steve Stevens (Flamingo a go go DTS)
3) Mulichannel effects separation
Black Hawk Down (SuperBit)
4) LFE (Low Frequency Effects)
War of the Worlds (CH 5)
5) Other (list any/all auditory criteria (things you listen for) you consider when evaluating equipment)
Has to sound good to me!

 

[WmAx]

Contest Question: List your favorite track/scene to evaluate a speaker/component’s on each of the following criteria:

1) Two channel music performance
2) Mulichannel music performance
3) Mulichannel effects separation
4) LFE (Low Frequency Effects)
5) Other (list any/all auditory criteria (things you listen for) you consider when evaluating equipment)

1) Douglas Allenbrook's Ethan Frome, Track 5, Disc 1, Mapleshade Records (This is an excellent recording (in sound quality) and it has extreme dynamics(around 30dB) with certain parts of the singing, that can easily make a clipping circuit in an audio system audible.)

2) I don't use multi-channel at this time.

3) I don't use mult-channel at this time.

4) I don't use multi-channel(which uses LFE channel) at this time.

5) I go to live unamplified performances and listen with eyes closed to get the best reference possible, along with listening to musicians play in music stores with no amplification, when such opportunity presents itself. Using such loose references, I usually try different products by using a compilation of tracks that I have used for years[for consistent reference], that are excellent representations of purist recordings of various non amplified instruments and voices of which I am familiar.

-Chris

 

[Bryce_H]

1) Two channel music performance
Don't really listen to 2 channel on my system

2) Mulichannel music performance
Sting, Pink Floyd DSOTM, 3 Doors Down

3) Mulichannel effects separation
Matrix lobby segment; Goldeneye opening scene

4) LFE (Low Frequency Effects)
U-571

5) Other (list any/all auditory criteria (things you listen for) you consider when evaluating equipment)
Any good action movie

 

[Josuah]

1) Two channel music performance: BT - This Binary Universe

2) Mulichannel music performance: Moulin Rouge's first sequence with the diamond dogs

3) Mulichannel effects separation: Blue Man Group's Audio

4) LFE (Low Frequency Effects): Black Hawk Down's Irene - 5-7Hz with multiples

5) Other: even frequency response, clarity of sound reproduction with multiple sounds, quick transitions, cabinet resonance, distortion

 

[WeAreSurrounded]

1) Two channel music performance
- Peter Gabriel: "US" and "So" 2-ch SACDs
- Pink Floyd: "TDSOTM" hybrid SACD
- Diana Krall: several hybrid SACDs
- Jean Michel Jarre "Aero" SuperCD

2) Multichannel music performance
- Porcupine Tree: "In Absentia" DVD-A
- Pink Floyd: "TDSOTM" hybrid SACD
- Roxy Music: "Avalon" SACD
- Jean Michel Jarre: "Aero" DVD (DTS)
- Alan Parson's Project: " The Turn of the Friendly Card" HDCD
- The Beatles: "Love" DVD-A
- Steely Dan: "Gaucho" DVD-A
- Yes: "Magnification" DVD-A
- Peter Gabriel: "Up" SACD
- Blue Man Group: "Audio" and "Complex" DVD-As
- Miles Davis: "Tutu" DVD-A

3) Multichannel effects separation
- "Dr. Chesky's Magnificent .... 5.1 Surround Show" DVD-A
- Porcupine Tree: "In Absentia" DVD-A
- Porcupine Tree: Gavin Harrison's "Cymbal Song" (bonus on the "Arriving somewhere" DVD)
- Jean Michel Jarre: "Aero" DVD (DTS)
- Alan Parson's Project: " The Turn of the Friendly Card" HDCD
- Peter Gabriel: "Up" SACD
- Blue Man Group: "Audio" and "Complex" DVD-As
- "TLOTR - Fellowship of the Ring" DVD (the scene whene the Fellowship is created and Gandalf speaks in weird language, the Nazgul horse-chasing hobbits to the boat dock)

4) LFE (Low Frequency Effects)
- "Das Boot" DVD (depth charges)
- "TLOTR" trilogy DVDs (all the battle scenes, all scenes in the Mines of Moria)
- "Dr. Chesky's Magnificent .... 5.1 Surround Show" DVD-A

5) Other
- Connectivity (easiness of thereof) with other components
- Soundstage
- Appealing look
- Universalism (player has to play all the audio formats)
- Iddle time when opening/closing tray and loading disc
- Using for testing the music I am very familiar with, esp. from the prog.rock and new age genres;' war movies or SF/fantasy for DVD

 

[redcaps]

Contest 2

1) Two channel music performance:
Artist-Phish - ALbum-Junta - Tack- Fluffhead

2) Mulichannel music performance:
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon - SACD

3) Mulichannel effects separation -
Peral Harbor - The bombing scene

4) LFE (Low Frequency Effects):
APOLLO 13 - the Take off scene
Reply With Quote

 

[squire.10@osu.e]

1) Two channel music performance

The first thing that always goes in my CD/DVD player when any new component is added to my system is Track 8 of the Deutsche Grammophon recording of Leonard Bernstein leading the New York Philharmonic in Gustav Mahler's 3rd Symphony. This is the last eight-ish minutes of the first movement, and it begins with quiet cellos and basses. The track gets louder and louder to the end and highlights each section of the orchestra individually. High sounds (snare drums, triangle, piccolos, high brass and strings), midrange sounds (woodwinds, low brass, strings, tympani) and low sounds (low brass, double basses, tuba, bass drums) are each heard soft then loud, in solos and in full orchestration. I can think of absolutely no other track of less than 10 minutes that is so demanding of a system. This performance is beautifully recorded and reveals virtually everything I want to know about a component very quickly. This is my go-to audition CD. If I'm going to an audio store it's what I take with me every single time.



2) Mulichannel music performance

U2 Vertigo Tour Live from Chicago; Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 "Organ" with Christoph Eschenbach conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra for Ondine (SACD, Track 12); Claudio Abbado leading the Lucerne Festival Orchestra in Mahler 2, last movement on EuroArts DVD; Verdi Requiem, Dies Irae (Track 4?) with Claudio Abbado/Berlin Phil Orch on EMI DVD; all the new Eschenbach/Philadelphia/Ondine CD/SACD's, really



3) Mulichannel effects separation

Master and Commander initial battle (Chapter 4), Zhang Yimou's Hero--the whole film



4) LFE (Low Frequency Effects)

Master and Commander Chapter 4 cannon blasts, etc.; Finding Nemo Whale chapter and Darla fingertapping chapter; War of the Worlds machine emerges chapter



5) Other (list any/all auditory criteria (things you listen for) you consider when evaluating equipment)

My primary listening material is classical music on CD and DVD. I truly enjoy live concerts on DVD, so multichannel music playback is of the utmost importance to me. I want a system that sounds balanced moreso than one that is simply impressive. Dynamic range and power are very important as well for the music of composers such as Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss. A system that is fantastic for music will be more than satisfying for me when it comes to movies. Thanks for reading this far!

 

[BobBart]

1.Peter gabriel: sledgehammer
2. Haven't heard any
3.Matrix: Elevator shooting scene
4.Haunting dts
5.I listen for seperation and clarity.

 

[dennisdxl32]

1) Two channel music performance: "The Planets" by Holst, conducted by Charles Dutoit with the Montreal symphony
2) Mulichannel music performance: dont' have any SACD's or DVD-A's
3) Mulichannel effects separation: THX "Tex" Trailer, pod race in Star Wars Ep I
4) LFE (Low Frequency Effects): opening space battle in Star Wars Ep III
5) Other (list any/all auditory criteria (things you listen for) you consider when evaluating equipment): clarity of sound, timbre matching between fronts and surrounds, tight bass without "belching"

 

[Davemcc]

1) Two channel music performance - Some Metallica, like "Through the Never" to test the bass response, some Spyro Gyra to check for clarity and high end shrillness and something old, like Sam and Dave "A Place Nobody can Find" to see how they handle less than perfect sources.
2) Mulichannel music performance - Whatever concert is on HDNet, my only source.
3) Mulichannel effects separation - Saving Private Ryan beach scene or T2
4) LFE (Low Frequency Effects) - Saving Private Ryan
5) Other (list any/all auditory criteria (things you listen for) you consider when evaluating equipment) - I want a speaker that can drive bass and guitar riffs, but still play jazz and older music accurately. Overly bright or harsh highs are a definite no-no for me.