What would be a great song to use while auditioning speakers?

its phillip

its phillip

Audioholic Ninja
I just assumed it was some kind of crazy weird typo where he hit m instead of a or f :D
 
B

Beatmatcher247

Full Audioholic
When considering what you are spending on speakers I think that it would be well worth the investment to purchase a couple of commercially produced cds for auditioning...? You would be guaranteed to not run in to the problem of the dealer not having a disc player that can play burned discs.
 
H

highfigh

Seriously, I have no life.
I want to use a well recorded song that has a variety of high's mid's and low's.

I was thinking of

Will you be there- Michael Jackson.

What other songs would be great?
I guess that would be a good song if that's all you'll ever listen to. One song is so far from being enough for auditioning speakers, it's hard to know where to begin in explaining why.
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
When considering what you are spending on speakers I think that it would be well worth the investment to purchase a couple of commercially produced cds for auditioning...? You would be guaranteed to not run in to the problem of the dealer not having a disc player that can play burned discs.
True.

I still have ~ 600 CDs I've bought from stores.:D


I bring 6 commercially produced CDs in my car just in case.:D
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
A compression system that will squeeze the crap out of any music you feed into it.

Yep, I wuz funnin' ya.
Gotcha, as in "flac" files.:D

Reminds me of that AFLAC duck commercials.:D
 
Pyrrho

Pyrrho

Audioholic Ninja
I agree with those who say that one ought to bring samples of all of the musical genres that one listens to, with examples of each with which one is familiar. Of course, if one's musical taste changes over the years, then it will have been good if one also listened to those other types of music as well.

If you like a genre, or think you are interested in getting into it, but don't have any examples with which you are familiar, you will still want to listen to samples of that genre, and compare with different speakers in your price range.

It is also a good idea to listen to as many different types of speakers (e.g., ribbons, horns, domes, whatever) as possible, and to listen to as many different brands as you can find in your area. Back in the 1980's, my willingness to audition speakers I had never heard of before got me a nice little gem in the Heybrook HB2 speaker, which was my main set of speakers for over a decade, and I still have them. They are a very rare piece of gear, as my wife asked me not to ever sell them, which she almost never says about my audio gear. (Incidentally, Heybrook reused the model number on a completely different speaker years later, so in order to judge the speakers I have, you would need to make sure you are looking at ones from the 1980's.)
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
Somebody already beat me to the AFLAC reference here.
Doh!

Damn, I'm a day late and a dollar short.:eek:

Okay, I'm sure the OP meant to say WAV & Flac files. There.

I know a lot of people who couldn't care less for classical music (Beethoven, Mozart, Bach, etc.), and they would never listen to classical music.

So I don't see the point of bringing along classical music for the sake of it.

I say bring along songs that you listen to all the time and know by hard.

A major weakness when auditioning is the lack of a subwoofer.

When I auditioned the B&W 800D, 802D, 803D, the dealer didn't even have a subwoofer!

When I auditioned the Paradigm Reference Studio 100, the dealer didn't even have a subwoofer.

If you will be using a subwoofer at home, I think it's important that the dealer hook up a subwoofer when auditioning.

It's not fair to compare a $24K B&W 800D to a $5K Def Tech BP7000SC in full-range without a dedicated subwoofer; the BP7000SC will kick the living daylights out of the 800D every time unless the 800D is mated with a subwoofer.

I know you just want to listen to the midrange and trebles, but a subwoofer makes a HUGE difference in your mind's eyes.
 
B

Beatmatcher247

Full Audioholic
If given the choice, with or without, I would rather audition without subwoofers. I want to hear what the speakers sound like without any supplemental LFE as that's how I prefer to listen to most of my music... with the exception of electronic and rap (the good underground kind not bet/mtv rims and hoes ****). I specifically look for speakers that are neutral, yet adept at accurately reproducing the low and mid frequencies of music without sounding like they need supplemental LFE. I don't want my ears to get fooled into liking a speaker pair that is way, way, too lean on the lows and mids for my tastes without a subwoofer.

Ideally, if your dealer is accomodating, you audition both with and without a subwoofer every speaker that you audition but that isn't always possible...
 
tattoo_Dan

tattoo_Dan

Banned
it's been suggested here at these forums to me,and I really like it for testing.

"Hotel California"(live)>>>The Eagles *Hell Freezes Over*
 
Pyrrho

Pyrrho

Audioholic Ninja
...
A major weakness when auditioning is the lack of a subwoofer.
...
It all depends on how the speakers are going to be used. But there would be a problem with trying to audition speakers with a subwoofer, because the subwoofer needs to be level matched to the individual pairs of speakers to sound right, and that would be quite a lot of bother to do well for auditioning a bunch of speakers.

I do, however, agree that if one is going to use the speakers with a subwoofer, then auditioning them without one is problematic. Perhaps an easier solution would be to put something in the signal path that simply filters out the bass below 80Hz (or whatever frequency one will be using), so that differences in lower bass performance will not affect your judgement of the speakers. Most AV receivers would work for doing this, by setting the main speakers to "Small," selecting the appropriate crossover frequency, and setting the subwoofer output to "On," but without actually having a subwoofer hooked up. That way, both would be without deep bass, regardless of whether they were capable of producing it or not.
 
AcuDefTechGuy

AcuDefTechGuy

Audioholic Jedi
it's been suggested here at these forums to me,and I really like it for testing.

"Hotel California"(live)>>>The Eagles *Hell Freezes Over*
That is one song I bring to every audition.

There's the acoustic guitars to play the trebles.

You have that powerful lower bass throughout the song.

You have the strong vocals.

You have the midrange bass guitar.

In a few speakers, the louder lower bass will drown out the midrange guitar bass. But in more accurate speakers, you hear both at the same time loud and clear.

But I think you have to ENJOY listening to the songs you audition. If you hate The Eagles and Hotel California, it takes away the fun.:D
 
M

markw

Audioholic Overlord
I never want a subwoofer in the equation when auditioning speakers, and music will always be my source, not movies.
 
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