Do you listen to these ?

[Togil]

1. Well recorded speech
2. Fast piano passages ( especially high notes , to see if they tumble over themselves )
3. Cymbals
4. Deep organ notes

to assess equipment ?

Or do you find they are unimportant to overall musicality ?

[Iain Sinclair]

1. Well recorded speech
2. Fast piano passages ( especially high notes , to see if they tumble over themselves )
3. Cymbals
4. Deep organ notes

to assess equipment ?

Or do you find they are unimportant to overall musicality ?

Piano, yes, t'others no.

[Filterlab]

I listen to my favourite tracks to assess equipment. I know the tracks well and I know what to expect from each one.

[Iain Sinclair]

I listen to my favourite tracks to assess equipment. I know the tracks well and I know what to expect from each one.

Well, so do I up to a point. I was thinking of when I was auditioning CD players for the first time; the thing that separated the good from the bad and the ugly to my ears was piano; the worse players made a piano sound like a 30 quid electronic keyboard from Argos; the good made a piano sound like, well, a piano. Reassuringly, or otherwise, the expensive ones sounded better than the cheap ones.

[tfarney]

I listen to cymbals and bells, for impact, shimmer and decay without splash or hiss.

I listen for the crack of a rimshot on a snare.

I listen to human voices, strings and horns.

I listen to stand-up bass, bass guitar and the palpable thunk of a kick drum.

As long as the transducers are up to the task, I continue to be amazed at how well even pretty modest equipment does at all of the above. It seems to me that the big money is in micro dynamics and the resolution of VERY fine detail.

Tim