[Odin412]

What's the most common boring audiophile demo track that you encounter Odin?

 
​Your question got me thinking and it deserves a proper answer. I guess what bothers me is when exhibitors play only one music genre as part of their demo. Female vocal jazz would be my exhibit A. I've heard Diana Krall's 'Live in Paris' at more demos than I can remember. Now don't get me wrong - Diana Krall has a great voice (and she's hot), but there is other music to show off your system. Besides, knowing that a system sounds great with near-perfect jazz recordings tells me very little of how it will sound with less-than-perfect recordings (of which I have many). I think Andrew Jones does a great job with his Elac speaker demos - he plays everything from Count Basie to deadmau5.
 
Now, I have my share of audiophile classics that I enjoys as well. Keith Don't Go, Fly Me to The Moon and Hotel California come to mind. The benefit there is that I can hear how the same track sounds across different systems.
 
One of my favorite things about THE Show and other audio and headphone shows is to discover new music. We have a thread for gear impressions after each show - maybe we should add the new music that we discovered to that thread as well? For what it's worth (and this is a totally and completely subjective list), here's a list of the new music that I discovered at THE Show this year. The format is track - artist (album):
 
Hometown Glory - Adele (19)
Famous Blue Raincoat, Bird on a Wire - Jennifer Warnes (Famous Blue Raincoat)
Coming to Town - John Lee Hooker (The Hot Spot Soundtrack)
It Ain't All Flowers - Sturgill Simpson (Metamodern Sounds in Country)
Space Oddity - David Bowie (Live Santa Monica 72)
6 inches - Beyonce (Lemonade)
When I Fall in Love - Chris Botti (When I Fall in Love)
Alexandra Leaving - Leonard Cohen (Ten New Songs)
Get Here - Oleta Adams (Circle of One)
Leisure Suite - Feist (Let It Die)
Sara Lee - The Evens (The Evens)
Ode to Billy Joe, A Taste of Honey - Patricia Barber (Café Blue)
Bye Bye Love, Bird on the Wire - Madeleine Peyroux (The Blue Room)
Dance Me to the End of Love - Madeleine Peyroux (Queer as Folk - The Final Season)
Tin Pan Alley - Stevie Ray Vaughan (Couldn't Stand the Weather)
Safe Like You - Airbag (Identity)
Good Vibrations (live 1966) - Beach Boys
Robbed Blind - Keith Richards (Crosseyed Heart)
Embraceable Moon, Claire Cadillac - Malia (Convergence)
 
Thanks to the folks at the Elac, Peachtree, Zu Audio, Schiit, Vinnie Rossi, McIntosh, AudioEngine, Focal, Naim, Woo Audio, Mr Speakers and others that I forgot that helped me discover this music. Extra special thanks to Mike at Woo Audio and Dan at MrSpeakers for taking the time to personally recommend some of their favorite tracks for me to listen to. This is what makes audio shows fun!

 

[crazychile]

No Patricia Barber, Famous Blue Raincoat, Dianna Krall...AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH !
those are my MKULTRA triggers to kill, kill kill, .......

Seriously, I own all that crap and they just got played waaaay too much in the 80s and 90s at every frigging show, every flipping audio store.... please make irt stop! Nice ladies with pretty voices, but boooooooooring *****!

 

[soundman414]

  Hey guys, by now you've probably figured out I'm late with this week's chapter. Things got pretty busy around here as we're getting the second power amp prototype running (and working on a few new surprises as well.) Expect a new chapter next week. 

 

[Thad-E-Ginathom]

I used to quite like Hotel California  until I spent some time with audiophiles. Now I detest it and run screaming from any room where it is played. It's a good thing I don't hang out with them audiophiles much any longer!
 
(For goodness sake... it's a pretty decent pop song, with a catchy tune and one line everybody knows even if they can't sing it, but audiophile demo track? Oh. PU-LEASE!)

 

[ScottFree]

I used to quite like Hotel California  until I spent some time with audiophiles. Now I detest it and run screaming from any room where it is played. It's a good thing I don't hang out with them audiophiles much any longer!
 
(For goodness sake... it's a pretty decent pop song, with a catchy tune and one line everybody knows even if they can't sing it, but audiophile demo track? Oh. PU-LEASE!)

I'm sorry but I have to. I hope you can forgive me.



[VIDEO]https://youtu.be/lrfhf1Gv4Tw[/VIDEO]

 

[Ableza]

As much as I dislike Hotel California, at least it is nice to know some audio show demo rooms use REAL MUSIC that someone might actually listen to.

 

[GearMe]

I used to quite like Hotel California  until I spent some time with audiophiles. Now I detest it and run screaming from any room where it is played.

Well, you know...you can check out any time you like but you can never leave!

 

[crazychile]

I used to quite like Hotel California  until I spent some time with audiophiles. Now I detest it and run screaming from any room where it is played. It's a good thing I don't hang out with them audiophiles much any longer!

(For goodness sake... it's a pretty decent pop song, with a catchy tune and one line everybody knows even if they can't sing it, but audiophile demo track? Oh. PU-LEASE!)

Yup. Back in the pre-DVD days, the store I worked at had Hell Freezes Over on Laserdisc. Hotel California was cool the first couple of plays and that was it. Most customrs wanted to hear/watch it so it got old real fast. I think we eventually played frisbee with the disc in the parking lot until it went out into traffic.

 

[crazychile]

...and I don't recommend playing frisbee with Laserdiscs. They hurt.

 

[aamefford]

...and I don't recommend playing frisbee with Laserdiscs. They hurt.

And for some reason, I know you actually know this....

 

[johnjen]

  I used to quite like Hotel California  until I spent some time with audiophiles. Now I detest it and run screaming from any room where it is played. It's a good thing I don't hang out with them audiophiles much any longer!
 
(For goodness sake... it's a pretty decent pop song, with a catchy tune and one line everybody knows even if they can't sing it, but audiophile demo track? Oh. PU-LEASE!)

If you have it in you to try just one more version…
I'd highly recommend you listen to the Hell Freezes Over version.
In fact I never really thought it was all that great a track until I heard the Hell Freezes Over album.
 
The intro is, or can be sublime and then when the bass thump hits at ≈ 32 seconds in, will, if your system can properly present it, be most impressive, not to mention the presence of the audience and the background guitars and vocals…
 
JJ

 

[AudioMan612]

Hotel California is one of the stand-out tracks that I hear too much at audiophile shows.  To be honest, I think it's an overrated song in-general that doesn't justify its length very well.  Part of it is probably the fact that I just don't listen to classic rock much anymore.  Unlike most of my generation, my parents didn't listen to much classic rock, so I spent pretty much all of my high school years discovering and exploring the genre.  Since then though, I've moved much more into "indie" music (or more specifically, music that doesn't sound like it follows that formula to get on the radio).  I also found myself getting much more into shorter songs (at least with rock and pop) (this especially happened as I began to appreciate punk, not only as music, but especially for its attitude and ethos).  I don't mind long songs, but they need to justify their length.  I don't need 4-5 minutes of basically the same thing, and I don't need instrumental solos that drag on forever without once in a while changing things up, getting back into the groove, or something else along those lines.

That said, I generally try to stick to positive opinions more than negative with music.  When someone says "I don't like such and such," it doesn't encourage those listening to go and explore anything, but if you stick to talking about things you do like, even if you mix some stuff that you're not a big fan of in there, you're opinion now might encourage others to explore, and therefore, you've made yourself productive.  Not only that, you're far less likely to hurt someone's feelings.
 
I would definitely love to see a bigger variety of music at audiophile events.  I wouldn't mind seeing a bit more rock and pop as well.  Sure, much of it does not show what a stereo system is capable of, but it's what many people spend much of their time listening to, and it's a nice change of pace.  This is not to say that I don't love jazz, classical, and other genres that can really push a system.  I live for variety in most things I do, and music is no exception to this.  There's a reason my music library and record collection are quite large.  Heck, one of my favorite records that's come out this year has been King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard's Nonagon Infinity, which is a psychedelic garage rock record.  It's loud, distorted, and does not show off a stereo system very much, and most of the songs are on the longer side of things, but it's a great rock record that I'm really enjoying  Are there more "hi-fi" sounding records from this year that I love?  Of course, David Bowie's Black Star is probably going to end up being my favorite record of the year, but man, I would go bored listening to only that album and others that sound like it, despite how much I love it.  Everyone needs a bit of attitude, volume, distortion, etc. in their lives!

 

[ThePianoMan]

I personally could do with a lot more soundtrack music. Always high production values (higher than pretty much any music nowadays) usually though not always excellently mastered. A good variety of things and fun orchestral music. Pushes a system. Video game soundtracks are A+ for attracting young folks. Moar soundtracks!

 

[Thad-E-Ginathom]

I'm sorry but I have to. I hope you can forgive me.
 

 
I can, because I don't have to click on that red pay button!
 

  As much as I dislike Hotel California, at least it is nice to know some audio show demo rooms use REAL MUSIC that someone might actually listen to.

 
What? People listen to it when they are not demoing hifi? Shock! Horror!
 
Well, ok, if I hadn'e got fed up by overexposure, I might listen to it once in a while. There is much "worse" pop music that I like an occasional dose of.
 

Well, you know...you can check out any time you like but you can never leave!

And if you do get out the door, you get a device clamped to your head, like one of those house-arrest tracking devices, that plays the song on permanent loop.
 

...and I don't recommend playing frisbee with Laserdiscs. They hurt.

 
eek!
 

  If you have it in you to try just one more version…
I'd highly recommend you listen to the Hell Freezes Over version.
In fact I never really thought it was all that great a track until I heard the Hell Freezes Over album.
 
The intro is, or can be sublime and then when the bass thump hits at ≈ 32 seconds in, will, if your system can properly present it, be most impressive, not to mention the presence of the audience and the background guitars and vocals…
 
JJ

 
I'll pass... although it is true that I have, now, not heard it for a while, so my reaction might not be quite so extreme, Perhaps I'll try a small shot of Tequila Sunrise, and see how I get on with that!

  Hotel California is one of the stand-out tracks that I hear too much at audiophile shows.  To be honest, I think it's an overrated song in-general that doesn't justify its length very well.  Part of it is probably the fact that I just don't listen to classic rock much anymore.  Unlike most of my generation, my parents didn't listen to much classic rock, so I spent pretty much all of my high school years discovering and exploring the genre.  s!

 
Very probably I am in your parents' generation! I continue, after nearly forty years, to be something of a deadhead; the other evening I had a youtube Doors session. Now that's classic rock!
 
If people want to listen to a bass thump, they could always just edit that out. Actually, it raises another suggestion: that a lot of people don't actually want hifi, they want bass thumps. And they like to spend a lot of money on audio equipment. NB: hifi is not compulsory, people are entitled to choose whatever colouration they prefer to listen to. It's their house, their music. They are also entitled to spend their money however they like. I only complain if they start calling it hifi!
 
Certainly we should audition audio gear with the music, good, bad or indifferent, that we are going to play on it. It would be stupid not to. But, for showing off audio gear, assuming that the listener can stand to listen to it, nothing beats heavy-weight classical orchestral music. It has a proper dynamic range; it goes low and high (I think the picolo is about the highest on the frequency charts); it presents the challenge of resolving the details in hugely complex masses of combined instruments.
 
I get my biggest hifi thrills (but mostly a huge amount of pleasure) from Mahler.
 
Or... bagpipes, anyone?

 

[Ableza]

 
 
Or... bagpipes, anyone?

One of the most amazing demos I ever heard was a full-blown MBL Ultimate setup.  Two of the most astoundingly "real" tracks were Taiko drumming from Japan and then the Royal Scots Dragoons.  Bagpipes are great when played well and when reproduced at live dbSPL.