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Old 25th Jan 2023, 1:51 pm   #1
PaulR
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Default Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

I recently acquired a copy of The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra playing The 1812 Overture (Telarc TEL0009). It makes an excellent record to test the whole system from cartridge to speakers. It has a huge dynamic range and certainly showed up the weakness in my poor little Leak Delta 30 trying to run modern speakers!

Does anyone else have a favourite test record?
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Old 25th Jan 2023, 2:14 pm   #2
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

I have the Decca 'Journey into Stereo Sound' & also The BBC Stereo Test disc, both of which I now know so well that I can gauge the overall quality of a system fairly quickly.

David.
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Old 25th Jan 2023, 3:54 pm   #3
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

Victims of the Fury - Robin Trower. Original run, not the reissue. Excellent recording, pressing etc, sounds brilliant on the Thorens, Leak & Quad ESL’s.
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Old 25th Jan 2023, 4:02 pm   #4
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

Dunno what they did on the reissue of Victims of the Fury,, but they managed to turn one of the best recordings / pressings into a sludgy muffled mess. Criminal really. Also the Polydor pressing of Electric Ladyland is a great test record particularly of image from a decent valve system. The digital remasters on vinyl sadly are really flat by comparison.
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Old 25th Jan 2023, 4:30 pm   #5
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

Al Stewart's, "Year Of The Cat" is my usual test record and Joni Mitchell's, "Court and Spark" is the CD test disc.

Cheers

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Old 25th Jan 2023, 4:41 pm   #6
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vintage Engr View Post
I have the Decca 'Journey into Stereo Sound' & also The BBC Stereo Test disc, both of which I now know so well that I can gauge the overall quality of a system fairly quickly.

David.
Have had a copy of the Decca for many years. An excellent selection. "Who goes there - the keys..."
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Old 25th Jan 2023, 5:00 pm   #7
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

I guess there's a degree of content-preference going to be present in any definition of "favourite" test content.

I was never into Vinyl, but for several decades my go-to CDs for audio system testing were "A Walk Across the Rooftops" by The Blue Nile, and "Behind the Sun" by Chicane. Ripped losslessly to FLAC and stored on a USB stick they were still my test-material for boadroom/lecture-theatre-scale videoconferencing systems up until I quit the game in 2015.

Along with "Hyper! Hyper!" by Scooter.

There again I make no claims whatsoever to owning 'golden ears', and happily recommended Bose amp/speaker installations for videoconference systems [never had any complaints about the audio quality!]
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Old 25th Jan 2023, 6:49 pm   #8
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

Quote:
Originally Posted by Vintage Engr View Post
I have the Decca 'Journey into Stereo Sound' & also The BBC Stereo Test disc, both of which I now know so well that I can gauge the overall quality of a system fairly quickly.

David.
I have the Decca recording and the EMI Test / Demo disc SDD1; they are both superb examples of early stereo both the EMI Blumlein crossed figure or eight microphones and the Decca slightly different system.
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Old 25th Jan 2023, 7:07 pm   #9
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

I think I will get a copy of the Decca record
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Old 25th Jan 2023, 7:41 pm   #10
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

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Originally Posted by PaulR View Post
I recently acquired a copy of The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra playing The 1812 Overture (Telarc TEL0009). It makes an excellent record to test the whole system from cartridge to speakers. It has a huge dynamic range and certainly showed up the weakness in my poor little Leak Delta 30 trying to run modern speakers!

Does anyone else have a favourite test record?
Not a record, but CD. But it does include this track and I believe the same recording. It was actually produced for, and given to me by Alpine who were sponsoring the CAN awards back in the 90s (x Audio Nationals).

A great variety of tracks and styles. Famous Blue Raincoat. Bird on a Wire. Little Brown Jug. Fugue in D Minor. Plus many more (does that sound like K-Tel?). Also has a Sine sweep which shows up resonant rattles, and pink noise if you have access to a sound meter with the relevant weighting filters. Zero audio, 0dB 1kHz. September Rain. Faure's requiem Opus 48. Four Seasons: winter. And on.

I remember that we took it when we went to Frank Harvey HiFi in Coventry to buy a new Amp and Speakers. It showed up the difference nicely in what we listened to, and still use the same model Mission speakers, though the Pioneer amp lives in the loft right now. I think the staff were impressed with the range of stuff the CD demonstrated!

EDIT: no that CD doesn't contain the 1812, but I do have it somewhere!
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Old 25th Jan 2023, 10:33 pm   #11
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

Quote:
Originally Posted by G6Tanuki View Post
I guess there's a degree of content-preference going to be present in any definition of "favourite" test content.

I was never into Vinyl, but for several decades my go-to CDs for audio system testing were "A Walk Across the Rooftops" by The Blue Nile, and "Behind the Sun" by Chicane. Ripped losslessly to FLAC and stored on a USB stick they were still my test-material for boadroom/lecture-theatre-scale videoconferencing systems up until I quit the game in 2015.

Along with "Hyper! Hyper!" by Scooter.

There again I make no claims whatsoever to owning 'golden ears', and happily recommended Bose amp/speaker installations for videoconference systems [never had any complaints about the audio quality!]
The LP of "A walk across the rooftops" is superbly well recorded and pressed. Linn records and I think,but am not 100% sure, that my original pressing is all analogue in keeping with Linns ethos at the time.
It helps of course that I think the musical content is good too.....................

I have a fairly well used and sometimes crackly Hi Fi News test disc, produced by Len Gregory "The Cartridge man" which I use just to make sure any major changes to the turntable/arm/cartridge system are correct,and nothing more.

Then I make a coffee, pull any old LP I fancy off the shelves, and enjoy music.
I enjoy messing about with DIY amplifiers and over a lifetime have assembled what I think is a very good audio system. However, unless there's a really compelling reason to make a substantial capital investment in hardware, I'd rather spend a fiver on the return rail fare into Carlisle and have a coffee and scone in the Vinyl cafe, swap a yarn with the knowledgeable proprietor and spend my pocket money on some old familar LPs repressed or used, or, quite often he will demo a new act or artist and if I like it,I'll buy it.
You really can't beat that old fashioned experience of browsing, discussing and perhaps buying a piece of music.
That's way better than tweaking and fiddling and listening to test records and the sound of your system surely?

Andy.
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Old 25th Jan 2023, 10:40 pm   #12
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

Perhaps I should have made it clear, I was intimating that rather than succumb to the upgrade bug, invest your cash in music media, be it LP, CD or other.

Andy
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Old 25th Jan 2023, 11:02 pm   #13
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

I am used to play the old and well known "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel on some 1970s Telefunken vinyl. Good enough for my battered ears (ex underground miner, ears damaged by years of daily blasting) to judge my turntables, amps and so on. Has quite impressive dynamics!

"Tales of mystery and imagination" by Alan Parsons, vinyl 1976. The lightning storm is great. Listen to that album in darkness and be aware the "best sounding" configuration of your audio system does not necessary have to have the most linear reproduction or use the most expensive components. It's up to you!

Joe
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Old 25th Jan 2023, 11:27 pm   #14
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

I'm really not sure what disc I'd choose for testing an audio system, but if anyone asks me, I usually suggest playing Radio 4 as a test. Sure, it won't dazzle you with dynamic range, but the unadorned human voice is something our ears are naturally very sensitive to.

The one and only time in my life I've actually been fooled that an electronic reproduction was the real thing was when I went in to a hi-fi shop (remember those?) on Burleigh Street in Cambridge to buy a DVD player. As I was talking to the staff there I actually stopped mid-sentence because I thought I was interrupting someone else. But there was no one else there. The voice was Radio 4 playing on a system (from Linn, I think) being demonstrated. That made quite an impression on me!

Chris
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Old 26th Jan 2023, 12:20 am   #15
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

Erik Satie, Jarrett or other piano music will show up any flutter/instability. I also use test discs with tones (Hi Fi sound, the one Stereolab used for their 'Transient random noise bursts...' album) to check for any wow. For dynamic range I have some Henry Mancini and John Barry albums, or Stevie Wonder's Innervisions.
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Old 26th Jan 2023, 1:11 am   #16
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

I've always used "Alan Parsons & Stephen Court – Sound Check" CD for listening tests and evaluation. I've had the CD for decades and know it so well.

https://www.discogs.com/release/1778...rt-Sound-Check
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Old 26th Jan 2023, 9:53 am   #17
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

I have two half speed remastered LP's from Abbey Road studios, Sgt Pepper, and Free's Fire and Water. The quality is top notch. Otherwise for the purpose of fine tuning the deck, arm and cartridge I use the Ortofon test record.
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Old 26th Jan 2023, 10:03 am   #18
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

Back in the 1980s, when the Telarc 1812 was released, Telarc's Marcom department made a lot of fuss about the 'digital cannon' (a real digital recording played into the mix), and how that led to 'sonic purity' or some such. At the time I had a senior colleague who had a record cutting lathe as a side business, and there wa a lot of discussion in our unit about whether the recording was suitable as a test disc. Peter's view was that the cannon section was probably un-trackable. Later someone put a microscope on a copy of the disc: indeed the excursion of the cannon had a groove angle (w.r.t. the main spiral) that was greater than 45 degrees. The "superbly realistic" noise that reviewers claimed to hear was most likely the stylus jumping the groove wall at that point.

Point being that the master could be cut perfectly (because the cutter head could be driven), but not played back. I believe Telarc modified the master at some point so as to make the cannon trackable (a low-pass filter would do it, obviously, or simply dropping the level of the cannon a bit). If you have a later version of the disc that might be the case.

Obviouly, too, the CD version has no such limitation, so if the sample doesn't exceed FFFF (hex), there will be no distortion from the CD itself (that's not to say it won't clip in the chain somewhere!).

A couple of years ago the Telarc 1812 came up in conversation, causing me to do a little internety searching. There's at least one YouTube channel that has looked at the cannon section with a microscope, and it seemst to be likely untrackable, just as speculated in the 1980s. I don't have a link, but I think I searched for "Telarc 1812". it wasn't hard to find.

That said, I was part of a very interesting experiment on a BBC course at Evesham in the early 1980s that seemed to contradict the idea that record (LP) deficiencies as a medium are overwhelming. A group of about ten of us, all audio engineers, auditioned a direct cut disc (Thelma Houston) and a studio-made tape recording of same, with a sound level meter also present. We were instructed to agree amongst ourselves the maximum loudness we were comfortable with for each copy of the music. We couldn't see the level meter, but the values were recorded.

To our surprise there was a significant difference - we tolerated the direct-cut disc at a much louder level than the tape. I can't remember the actual numbers, but the peaks of the direct-cut disk were above the official threshold of pain, at 125dB(A), and the tape was quite a lot lower. None of us felt the disc was too loud, despite the risk of hearing damage monitoring at that level.

The conclusions were that the brain detects perceived distortion and tape hiss and uses that in part to assess loudness, and that the direct cut disc was considerably cleaner. Also that, as young balance engineers, we needed to be quite careful, especially in the control room, as we wouldn't necessarily know when were monitoring at damaging levels, especially when it wasn't tape playback but a live mix.

Prior to that I'd always thought discs to be considerably inferior in quality, but it taught me that's mostly down to the mass production process (and the 'industrial' grade playback of BBC kit!) rather than the medium itself.

Regarding the original question, I have the Decca test record, and one of the consumer BBC ones, and some calibration disks (spot tones and squeaks). I think the Decca is my favourite, even though it's more than 50 years old now. The steam train is particularly good!
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Old 26th Jan 2023, 10:15 am   #19
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

Very interesting. I had read that the canon shots had been reduced to make the record easier to track, particularly to reduce subsonic frequencies. Mine is a fairly new copy so this is probably the case with it. It comes with a warning about ensuring the cartridge is set up correctly and not overloading the amp or speakers. I doubt that it would damage the amp as such but distortion arising might damage the speakers.

I am definitely going to acquire that Decca LP.
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Old 26th Jan 2023, 10:26 am   #20
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Default Re: Favourite Hi-Fi system test LP

Another great test track on vinyl is The Vanilla Queen from Moontan by Golden Earring. Great stereo effects & frequency range.
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