Viewing 36 posts - 1 through 36 (of 36 total)
  • Audioperv Thread – Reference Music
  • Torminalis
    Free Member

    I know that there are quite a few on here who love their hifi’s and I assume that it is not purely tech fetishism that drives us all, at the end of the day it is all about the music.

    So which are your all time favourite albums and tunes. Which are the ones that keep you coming back time and time again because of that magical combination of musicianship and production quality.

    Which records do you use to audition new kit, show off to the doubters and generally make the hairs on the back of your neck stand up.

    There are loads on my list but if I had to choose a few favourites I would have to go for:

    Spirit – Spirit of ’76
    Morcheeba – Big Calm
    Holger Czukay – Movies
    RATM – Rage Against The Machine

    So, what are your all time favourites?

    wallace1492
    Free Member

    Thought the title was Autoperve, put some sort of robotic devience device thoughts in my head. 😯

    Torminalis
    Free Member

    robotic devience device

    and that reminds me:

    Frank Zappa – Joe’s Garage.

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middling Edition

    Fresh Goods Friday 696: The Middlin...
    Latest Singletrack Videos
    billyblackheart
    Free Member

    Slayer – Reign in Blood
    Vaugh Williams – Fantasia of a them by Thomas Tallis (1970’s Pittsburgh symphony LP recording)
    Entombed cover of a Dead Horse track – Scottish Hell
    The **** Buttons – Tarot Sport —-(How can you censor a band name you frigging nazi’s?)

    Oh and Probably The Downward Spiral – NIN

    Torminalis
    Free Member

    The Downward Spiral – NIN

    Also on the list, but nasty. Love it. will have a listen to the others.

    Moar!

    bigjim
    Full Member

    sine sweep from 20 – 20000Hz

    TurnerGuy
    Free Member

    For assessing hifi I always use:

    Never too much – Luther Vandross – for Marcus Millar on bass
    Feel the Need – Anita Baker
    The Blues come over me – BB King

    That’s enough to tell if the component is a contender.

    finishthat
    Free Member

    Christy Moore – Live at the Point

    If your system does not make you feel like you are sitting in the front row then you need new cables 😉

    ojom
    Free Member

    Zappa – Roxy and Elsewhere.

    dirtydog
    Free Member

    Al Di Meola – Soaring Through a Dream
    Stanley Clarke – School Days
    Simon Philips – Another Lifetime

    marsdenman
    Free Member

    you need new cables

    i stopped doing that when I bought those little pylons you put on the floor ,lifting the cable into the air thus stopping the bad vibrations the cables picked up from the floor having a negative impact on sonic performance 😉

    Seriously though – in the days when I did audition kit, I only ever took along what I was listening too at the time. Those days are gone now – left the speaker cable at the house we just sold (one channel routed under the floor, CBA to drag it back), Quad 12l’s and Attacama’s just this morning put in the attic – too big for the new place…

    onewheelgood
    Full Member

    Frank Zappa – Joe’s Garage

    Particularly ‘Watermelon in Easterhay’. Just beautiful.

    Torminalis
    Free Member

    i stopped doing that when I bought those little pylons

    I always wondered who bought those!

    TurnerGuy
    Free Member

    These are what you need:

    Every Audiophile Review Ever

    DezB
    Free Member

    Ah, I get it. You know a hi-fi is good if it makes shit music sound ok?

    Torminalis
    Free Member

    You know a hi-fi is good if it makes shit music sound ok?

    Quite the opposite Dez. You know your hifi is the bomb if makes most music sound shit. 😆

    MrWoppit
    Free Member

    AlexSimon
    Full Member

    Interestingly I was just sent an HDD full of high resolution music (SACD rips, 24/192 studio masters and so on).
    Most of them were off albums labelled ‘Audiophile’. Most of them were unlistenably bad.
    Lots have musical crimes have been committed in the name of audiophiles 🙂
    Some really soulless covers of incredible songs (Joni Mitchell, Janis Ian, etc).

    Anyway – when auditioning, I find as well as a few favourites that it has to be able to deal with, it’s worth listening to something you’ve never ever heard before. Something that is a great recording of live music. Something where the musicians are really trying to make a connection to the audience.
    (my last one was a Bridgewater Hall performance of Abdullah Ibrahim).

    Some of my standard ones are:
    Joan Armatrading: Show Some Emotion
    Joni Mitchell: Anything really – some systems make her sound like a boy! Many have very complex arrangements
    Tom Waits: I’ve been using his more recent ones.
    Herbie Hancock – late 70s era

    TurnerGuy
    Free Member

    Ah, I get it. You know a hi-fi is good if it makes shit music sound ok?

    I noticed this accidentally when playing Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley “I’ve had the time of my life”, but I am not taking this into a hifi shop with me…

    Hobster
    Free Member

    Last time I bought any kit I took in:

    Pixies: Debaser – Live at Brixton
    Aphex Twin: Polynominal G
    Portishead: Roads Roseland NYC
    Handel: Messiah

    Hohum
    Free Member

    Radiohead – Karma Police
    Hybrid – True to Form
    William Orbit – Water From A Vine Leaf (Acid Bath Mix)
    Passengers – Miss Sarajevo

    slimjim78
    Free Member

    Sonic Youth – Murray Street
    Faith No More – The Real Thing
    Judas Priest – Sad Wings of Destiny
    Rolling Stones – Exile on Main Street / Sticky Fingers
    Type O Negative – Dead Again
    Beck – Sea Change
    Steel Panther – Feel the Steel!

    joolsburger
    Free Member

    The The – Infected

    Lou Donaldson – Alligator Bogaloo

    Public Enemy – Yo bum rush the show.

    vinnyeh
    Full Member

    I noticed this accidentally when playing Jennifer Warnes and Bill Medley “I’ve had the time of my life”, but I am not taking this into a hifi shop with me…

    Warnes’ Famous Blue Raincoat was one of the albums (the shop) played the first time I shopped for decent hifi, and it’s still the first album I pick up to listen to if I’m shopping for kit.

    CountZero
    Full Member

    Elbow – Asleep At The Back
    Paul Simon – Hearts And Bones
    Donald Fagan – The Nightfly
    I have a special vinyl copy of The Nightfly from B&W speakers. The boss was so impressed with the sound of the album he had a special batch made up with a new sleeve for dealers to demo their speakers with. outstanding recording, and a fabulous album.

    Torminalis
    Free Member

    On Vol 1 of B&W’s VA series, there was a track called Colour the Moon by Allan Taylor. Is a stunning track but I think I am allergic to compilation albums.

    Lifer
    Free Member

    Do I Move You by Nagual Sound Experiment has a drop that keeps going and going for a few bars. Is a great way to reference the relative bass handling of different speakers.

    yunki
    Free Member

    there’s a great pressing of Nancy Sinatra doing ‘boots’

    TiRed
    Full Member

    Sheffield Labs Stravinsky Firebird Suite

    followed by any decent female vocals such as Tracy Chapman’s Last Night (Behind the wall)

    MrNutt
    Free Member

    Radiohead – Kid A (Everything in its right place is excellent for ‘imaging’)
    Red Snapper – Our Aim is to Satisfy (great for setting Bass response)
    The Breeders – Pod (because its one of the best albums ever, and it’s badly recorded)
    The Doors – Horse Latitudes, New stereo mix (Because if its not terrifying then the stereo is shit)

    I could go on.

    If you’re using a mac as your source and your not using an Apogee One as your sound card you should have all your equipment taken away and crushed.

    CountZero
    Full Member

    If you’re using a mac as your source and your not using an Apogee One as your sound card you should have all your equipment taken away and crushed.

    I do, and I’m not. So there!
    Doesn’t stop me totally immersing myself in my music when I play it. As it happens, my Mini feeds into my Yamaha amp via an optical TOSLink.
    Eddie Reader has an album called Driftwood, which is a stunning recording, in particular a song called Old Soul.
    It has an acoustic drum on it, possibly a bodráin, which is very deep indeed, really low frequency, while not being especially loud, quite challenging for many systems.

    soundninjauk
    Full Member

    If you’re using a mac as your source and your not using an Apogee One as your sound card you should have all your equipment taken away and crushed.

    Focusrite Saffire into PMC active nearfield reference monitors. Do I win?

    Ulrich Schnauss – In All The Wrong Places
    BT – Kimosabe
    Imogen Heap – Hide and Seek
    Jon Hopkins – Wire
    Queen – Anything. I really love Queen.

    nedrapier
    Full Member

    Journeyman – Amon Tobin then the rest of ISAM, then Supermodified.

    roach
    Full Member

    **** me, Singletrack has turned into Pink Fish!

    saladdodger
    Free Member

    joolsburger

    The The infected

    Class pure class 😀

    saladdodger
    Free Member

    joolsburger

    The The infected

    Class pure class 😀

Viewing 36 posts - 1 through 36 (of 36 total)

The topic ‘Audioperv Thread – Reference Music’ is closed to new replies.