What music is your benchmark?

[Beechwoods]

I did a comp for Scalford, which was stuff I really enjoyed, and which didn't fall into the cocktail bar end of vocal jazz (sorry )

Pink Floyd, 'Unknown Song' (aka 'Rain In The Country') from the Rhino extended issue of 'Zabrkiskie Point', 1969/2004



June Tabor, 'Scarecrow' from Abyssinians, 1983



John Martyn, 'May You Never' from Solid Air, 1973



Van Morrison, 'Enlightenment' from Enlightenment, 1990



Sonic Youth, 'I Dreamed I Dream' from Sonic Youth, 1982

[Pete The Cat]

Rush "Circumstances". Mainly because I know every inch of it, and an articulate bassline that needs to prove it's a Rickenbacker. Plus a bit of xylophone.

Massive Attack "Protection". For female vocal and a little piano, I've found that the better the system the more you can hear some soul in Tracey Thorn's voice.

Jack Johnson "Good People". Organic sounds. Is there a group in the corner of the room or just boxes and LEDs ?

Shirley Bassey "Goldfinger". Battle royal. Orchestra, electric bass and Ms. Bassey in a three way wrestling match for world domination. Always separates the men from the boys so to speak.

Pete

[Tim]

I reckon you'd love it too Tim. Seriously, must be at least 3 days since I got ya!

I'll check it out, but I've already bought 4 today

[magiccarpetride]

What do you use as a benchmark to judge your system and any improvements you might have made.

I first reach for classic piano music, and recordings of the Bach's Goldberg Variations come top of the list.

But this recording of the Goldbergs on the Harp is being pushed on Classic FM


Goldberg Variations

Johann Sebastian Bach

Catrin Finch

Record Label: DG

Catalogue Number: 4778165

Classic FM on a Squeezebox into my Beresford DAC with MOD21

Amazing Clarity- you can hear the pluck of the harp in every note!

What would the CD ripped to FLAC be like?

So what is your benchmark music?

Ian Brown "Time Is My Everything".

[Neil McCauley]

This album by Christine Collister > http://amzn.to/ihVSCB

Listened to this very intently for a couple of years and then went to see her to discuss how it was done, and why it was done that way. Spent no time thinking about or searching for image, depth, width and other irrelevances (within the context of this specific recording) but focused on as many tonal and musical nuances as I could handle at any one time. Followed it up by being in the front row for both live and acoustic renditions. Incidentally, those irrelevances stated above were irrelevant to the performer who, after all, is the final arbiter.

The nature of the fretless bass playing and the way it was recorded was the primary driver for the Stereonow Bass Test Tones & Textures CD which 47 AoS members received FOC earlier this year.

As a point of reference, the closest I ever achieved to reproducing her voice merely hours after being at an acoustic gig of hers was I my room was using the entry level Ayre pre/power into my very much missed Lumen White Silver Flame speakers. The source was a 25kg Micro-Seiki modified Marantz CD12 transport into a mighty valve-driven Stax DAC X1-T with Stereovox interconnects, Stereovox speaker cables and Damiel power cords.

[John]

http://open.spotify.com/user/gamalon...mIaopxUOoZlSyr
Ofeten use this to check out a system

[Yomanze]

Massive Attack - Dissolved Girl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYo_aYlfqC8&hd=1

Silky female vocals, deeeep bassline and a combination of delicacy, big beats, effects and electric guitar. It's tough to get all this right.

Joni Mitchell - The Last Time I Saw Richard http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=igj20M84hbo

If your system has ANY sibilance or unnaturalness at the top end Joni Mitchell's album "Blue" on CD will definitely expose this with the vocals! Using the vinyl version is cheating. It's this CD that forced me to ditch my DVD player as a transport & use the HagUSB exclusively.

Dead Can Dance - Spirit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MpCPe897zY

Just stunning vocals that serve as a good benchmark for naturalness. Additionally the sparse & minimal arrangement allows for me to make easy reference points and quickly spot differences between components.

[Yoga]

http://open.spotify.com/user/gamalon...mIaopxUOoZlSyr
Ofeten use this to check out a system

Some excellent stuff on there!