Ah right, thanks. I did try googling and didn't find that post. Been genuinely surprised at the low prices iFi has been offering on their latest products like the hip dac, Zen dac and Zen blue. If they go even lower with Drop, well, all I can say is it's a great time to get into audio.
That's one of the things I like about it. I have limited myself to IEMs so far, but have been eyeing headphones for ages. The main thing that is keeping me back is that (as a good little head-fier) I tend to escalate things in terms of cost rather quickly. This setup (Drop CAN + HD6xx) looks like it might well be a very attractive setup to consider starting out with while I try to fend off my more expensive tube amp urges (that Euterpe looks so good).
Curious to what tracks other folks will use to test gear this weekend. I know there will be a lot of variety due to personal preferences and tastes.
This weekend some of my favorite tracks I’ll be listening to include:
Phil Collins - In the Air Tonight (Live) from Face Value (Deluxe). The opening part of the track (first 1:35) with the audience gives a sense of space and direction, and then the drums. What more needs to be said about the famous drum sequence at 5:54, and the live version has several more terrific drum sequences from 6:16 on, almost every 10-12 seconds or so. Who doesn't do the "air drums" when listening
Hans Zimmer - Why So Serious from The Dark Knight soundtrack. Strong bass throughout the track, but it really kicks in at ~3:25.
Red Rider - Lunatic Fringe from As Far As Siam. At the 23 second mark there’s a very quiet phrase “See you on the other side” and I find that useful to measure separation.
Manu Katché - Unstatic from Unstatic. Terrific drums.
Fascinating Rhythm - Dave Grusin from The Gershwin Connection. Another track with great drums.
John Williams - Duel of the Fates from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. Some choir type vocals, drums and bass. I love soundtracks so this is a good test.
Martin O’Donnell and Michael Salvatore - Overture from Halo 3 Soundtrack. The opening 30 seconds with the rain will really help with determining soundstage.
Max Richter - Europe, After the Rain from Memoryhouse. Another track with an opening sequence of rain, and rain to close the track for the last 40 seconds or so.
Candy Dulfer - Lily Was Here from Candy Dulfer Live in Amsterdam. Great saxophone. At the 6-7 second mark something is dropped or the mike stand moves, and the someone in the audience coughs at the right, rear. Great for determining sense of direction I the soundstage.
For reference all the tracks/albums above are on the US version of Tidal except for Candy Dulfer Live in Amsterdam.
Looking forward to finding out what you’ll be listening to.
I have created a playlist "CanJam Favorites" on our ROON server which includes the above music. Feel free to add suggestions and when you are at the Benchmark booth and you hear something that you feel others will appreciate add it to the playlist during the show!@NovaFlyer, might I suggest adding Tears For Fears's Woman In Chains to your test track list? It's fantastically recorded and mastered. But also, both Manu Katché and Phil Collins played percussion on it.
Don't get me started. My "favorite songs" play list in Roon is presently 163 songs long. Lol
See ya Saturday & Sunday!
For the "CanJam Favorties" playlist: "Shelter Me" by Buddy Miller from "Universal United House of Prayer" (fantastic bass and available on Tidal)
You don't want to lose plausible deniability. Leave no evidence. HahaWhat happens in my AMA stays in my AMA.
So what’s everybody up to tonight? I’m considering a late supper while I wait for boarding to begin.
Start with different types of headphones and IEMs that you might not be familiar with, such closed back over ear headphones or planar magnetic headphones. Also check out both desktop and mobile amps and DACs. I would then check out a few "out of my price range" items and finally I would end with a few items that are in my price range and perhaps even treat myself to a new toy (or two). At least that's my plan but you know what they say about the best laid plans...
What happens in my AMA stays in my AMA.
So what’s everybody up to tonight? I’m considering a late supper while I wait for boarding to begin.
Don't get me started. My "favorite songs" play list in Roon is presently 163 songs long. Lol
Some of my "must listen to" songs however when evaluating gear that I'd love to find included on your playlist are:
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Title: Horizontal Blue
Artist: David Piltch, Aaron Davis
Album: Take One
Year: 1996
(Preferably:
Bitrate: 5343 Kbps
Sample rate: 192000 Hz
Resolution: 24-bit )
Hands down my favorite bass+piano+drum performance on this earth, recorded and mixed impeccably. Brought a tear to my eye the first time I heard it thru my HE-1000 driven by my MHA-100 amp using speaker taps (I forget which DAC so I won't call it out). I look for a similar visceral response produced by any other setup that I use.
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Title: Are 'Friends' Electric? (Andy Gray)
Artist: Gary Numan
Album: Hybrid
Year: 2003
Pure, hardcore Synth-pop. There are so many layers of guitar and synth melodies going on, and lesser dac+amp+headphone combos may turn it into a white noise crackly mush. Or, miss/mask critical melodies in the playback. Very good test of being able to recreate the 'cut's of sawtooth & square waves. Lol. Quick little anecdote: I own a very costly headphone that I loved the tonality of. But a primary 5 tone melody in the mid-bass region that underlies the entire song was completely lost/masked! (It is not the only headphone that this happens with.)
Imagine my dismay. "I love the tone of this headphone ... but it's missing a critical component of the song? Does that stop me from loving it? No. But ... " I mention this to the manufacturer one CanJam. He immediately knew what I was referring to just from my oral description without hearing it. He had a "tuning kit" the next CanJam. And sure enough, the masked melody was prominently reproduced. Genius at work.
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Title: Useless
Artist: Depeche Mode
Album: Ultra
Year: 1997
Also synth-pop. Also with a lot of laying of melodies that lesser systems won't reproduce distinctly (turns to mush) or sounds flat and unremarkable. But what makes it a test track starts near the top, when the guitar comes in. It needs to stand there in space just left of center. And have bite, depth, dynamics and a wide frequency spectrum (balance of bass & mid, not just one or the other).
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Title: Lust for Life
Artist: Iggy Pop
Album: Trainspotting [Original Soundtrack]
Year: 1996
It's the intro that serves as a test track to me to test reproduction of the treble. There are at least four (or is it five) distinct different sounding cymbals (well, one is a tamborine if I'm not mistaken). If any sound the same, it fails the test. Also, the clarity and tonality of the guitar as it enters the picture is also key.
Another anecdote: when the owner of Audio46 was gracious enough to let me have a seat back at their work table and took both an Audeze iSine 20 and i4 out of stock for me to listen to and compare, when I played this song on the i4 I said "oh, so THAT'S how this is supposed to sound!"
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Title 1: Stuck
Tirle 2: Even Though
Artist: Norah Jones
Album: The Fall
Year: 2009
24-bit preferably
That guitar. That bass. That voice. A favorite. Looking for everything to have a lively, dynamic, visceral, timbre-ful reproduction. (Well, isn't this the case with everything?)
157 songs to go ... but, I'll stop here.
Here's another one for the "CanJam Favorites" playlist: "Solstice" by Ralph Towner (the entire album and available on Tidal as 192kHz MQA) Great early ECM and some of best sounding cymbals ever recorded, also very open and airy so a great test for soundstage.
