[Doc B.]

Pick a couple, guys. You don't want to be waiting for an hour while the guys ahead of you listen to six tracks. I'd suggest one massed orchestral piece and one pop female vocal with a good bass line. That would give you a pair of tools from which to evaluate a broad range of things. It doesn't have to be music you love, but it should be well recorded and dense enough to give you a lot of different sounds to listen for. I would suggest a two minute sample of each track, or 30 second samples of four very diverse tracks. If four, maybe add piano and I dunno, maybe electronica? Doo wop? A live recording?

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

Pete Belasco "Deeper"

For the bass head jazz lovers.

Say what?

 

[Oregonian]

Pete Belasco "Deeper"

For the bass head jazz lovers.

Say what?

Great, great choice for bass............that entire album is excellent by the way.

 

[curbfeeler]

  @Curbfeeler: What were the classical pieces that you were using for listening evaluation? Could you post or PM me a list. I want to add those to my library.
 

Stravinsky: Pulcinella Suite, ASMF, Marriner; from Dolby B open reel tape Argo ZRG 575 ripped to 24/192
Das Lied von der Erde, for alto (or baritone), tenor & orchestra: No. 2, "Der Einsame im Herbst" (The Solitary Autumn): "Herbstnebel wallen blaulich uberm See", Otto Klemperer; Fritz Wunderlich; Christa Ludwig; New Philharmonia Orchestra; Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus, EMI CD
Ravel: Pavane pour une infante défunte - Orchestral version, Dutoit, Decca CD
Debussy: String Quartet, L. 85 (Op. 10): 1. Animé et très decide, Guarneri String Quartet from DVD-A ripped to 24/192
Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E flat major ("Symphony of a Thousand"): Part I. Gloria Patri Domino, Solti, Vienna Boys Choir, from Decca CD
Rameau: Zais: Overture, Les Musiciens du Louvre, Marc Minkowski, HD tracks 24/88 download
Pergolesi: Magnificat, Willcocks, Choir of King's College, Cambridge, ASMF, Argo LP ZRG-505 ripped to 24/192 using Decca EQ curve

 

[atomicbob]

Thank-you curbfeeler for the list. Will be adding to library! Except the ones that you ripped from tape of course.

 

[atomicbob]

Here is the playlist I use for my listening evaluation. The excerpts are typically the one minute of a particular attribute for which I listen, such as Victor Wooten's bass solo on Flight of the Cosmic Hippo. I now listen for four types of bass:
 
1. Acoustic upright
2. Electric
3. Large acoustic drum in a space
4. TR808/TR909 electronic drum machine
 
Then I listen for complexity across the spectrum using Bird on a Wire which also doubles for female vocals
Church gives a male vocal along with hand clapping which is similar to impulse response
When the Saints Go Marching In is a binaural of Wycliffe Gordon's jazz group in a large, reverberant acoustic space for soundstage
Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen for a 70s rock and roll sound
Daft Punk and Distance for techno
Plenty of jazz representation each with it's particular challenge
Missing the classical representation - will fix very soon (thanks curbfeeler)
 
44 - Chesky Records - Bass Resonance Test
Flight of the Cosmic Hippo - excerpt
01 - Stank [Binaural] - excerpt
02 - Jennifer Warnes - Bird on a Wire - excerpt
01 - When the Saints Go Marching In - excerpt
Lyle Lovett - Church - excerpt
01 - Mannheim Steamroller - Hallelujah (From 'The Messiah') - excerpt
04 - Suite Sandrine, Part III - excerpt
09 - Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra - UnderWorld (binaural)
02 - Jennifer Warnes - Bird on a Wire
01 - Sara K. - Sara K - Miles Away
06 - Paquito D'Rivera - Paquito D'Rivera - Havana Cafe
When the Saints Go Marching In
Suite Sandrine, Part III
Lyle Lovett - Church
02 - Dominick Farinacci - Libertango
01 - Christian McBride - Afirika (Featuring Angelique Kidjo)
03 - Diana Krall - I Remember You
11 - Steve Treseler Group featuring Ingrid Jensen - Cold Hammered
Flight of the Cosmic Hippo
Stank [Binaural]
43 - Chesky Records - Dynamic Drum Test
Black Magic Woman / Gypsy Queen
Oye Como Va
01 - Mannheim Steamroller - Hallelujah (From 'The Messiah')
Instant Crush (feat. Julian Casablancas)
Give Life Back to Music
02 - Distance - My Demons

 

[gefski]

Two corrections I'll make for next time are:

1) A simple playlist as you've been discussing, that any listener can easily sample through. I wasted a lot of my and the listeners' time trying to find the "right" music. I'll use 16/44 flac rips.

2) "Y" RCAs so I can keep two amps running. I wasted more time plugging & unplugging between Stax rig and Valhalla.

 

[palmfish]

We are all grown ups and I think we should be able to trust people to respect others and keep their sessions brief. A little reminder before the meet and maybe a polite little cardboard notice on the table should suffice.

When we RSVP, a little blurb about your source(s) will allow people to be prepared with the proper media.

 

[BIG POPPA]

We are all grown ups and I think we should be able to trust people to respect others and keep their sessions brief. A little reminder before the meet and maybe a polite little cardboard notice on the table should suffice.

When we RSVP, a little blurb about your source(s) will allow people to be prepared with the proper media.

We can do that... Im going to make a simple list of guidelines for the meet that I will print out. Just to make it easy for everyone. Most of us know what they are.... Just to keep things smooth 

 

[johnjen]

Love the list idea. Most people could handle it, even if we have some hold outs.

Base heavy: Something off that Daft Punk hi-res album for a nice bass heavy track.
Male Vocals: the Head-Fi test disk at HDTracks has one.
Female Vocals: sounds like Krall is out. How about Emily Barker? There's hires tracks at Linn. I at least saw that Peter had this album.
Classical: I'm out of my league now
Jazz: ???
Rock: the Van Halen 24x96 is great. You can hear each track floating at exact points in space.

Bob and John had a pile of test tracks...hopefully they'll pipe up.

Anyone else care to suggest a few?

(New thread?)

I brought along 4GB of 'interesting' albums, all of which have a 4-5 star rating.  Most of these are HD albums and most are available from HD Tracks  The Sheffield CD Steps is the only Sheffield recording I know of that is available on CD. I wish there were more.  I have a Romeo and Juliet vinyl disc that makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, but it doesn't seem to be available in a digital format.
 
For classical, there are a few that standout.
Gustavo Dudamel Discoveries album is wonderful.  The performance, the depth of the auditory image, the thunder of the drums, its all there.
And the Telarc CD Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture is also quite nice with howitzers, mass chorus, and depth.
And the Rossini Overtures is delightful as well with familiar 'tunes' and plenty of dynamics.
 
For techno, I really like OVERWERK.  http://overwerk.com/
He has 3 albums The Nth, After Hours, Conquer.  I like them because it is music, with bass, and intonation, and is not just special sound effects.
 
For bass and dynamic tracks, there are a few candidates.
Flim and the BB's Tricycle and Big Notes are but 2 of several of their albums.
Pat Coil Steps (a sheffield CD) has impact, slam, low bass, and enough lightening quick dynamics to make you involuntarily blink.
 
For Jazz, Lee Ritenour Rhythm Sessions has several really nice tracks.
Weather Report Heavy Weather also has some impressive tracks.
And the HRx HD Sampler has both Jazz and classical tracks that are impressive.
 
For male vocal, I like Steely Dan Gaucho, his lisp is most pronounced and adds some interesting 'texture'.
I also like Dire Straits Dire Straits, Brothers In Arms, On Every Street, as a vocal intelligibility 'test'.
 
That ought to be enough to help fill in the list. 

 
JJ

 

[Fork]

The meet was fantastic.  I give a lot of credit to Big Poppa & Co. and the Frye for enabling such a great event.  There was a lot of people who came through during the day.  I'm definitely going back there to check out the rest of the museum when I have the opportunity. 
 
I was so busy chatting up the HeadFiles I barely had a chance to listen to any of the gear except for the Eddy Current, Bottlehead and Stax, which were all outstanding.  I was pleased that everyone seemed to enjoy the Burson / Bakoon setup I put together.  Ideally I'd have liked to have had a more sophisticated DAC on hand for the Bakoon.  The Burson is stellar and seemed to synergize well, but it's kind of like putting a BMW engine in a Ferrari, which is not going to yield the ultimate performance from the latter.  In a perfect world I'd have the upcoming battery-powered Bakoon DAC or the upcoming PS Audio Perfect Wave DAC.  I spoke with Paul McGowan and RMAF and he said the new PS Audio DAC is coming this summer (same with the Bakoon) and according to his son Scott, it's not going to be just a DSD tweak, but a full-blown redesign.  I told them I want a couple units as soon as they're ready, plus one for our reference system.  If all goes as planned my summer meet setup could be the PS Audio DAC, the Bakoon HPA (or an ALO Studio Six would be nice), the new Jaguar server and maybe a pair of Senn HD800.  In the short term I might bring out the new server to team up with someone at a table.
 
For those of you who asked about the Jaguar Realtime Audio Operating System, you can download the OS and instruction manual from my Blog page below.  It's free, works on Windows and Mac machines and the player and everything is already in the OS, but you'll have to use a DAC that doesn't require installation of a special Windows or OSX USB driver (I did install an M2Tech driver that should work for their newer products).  The advantage, in theory, is that a realtime audio kernel will preempt all non-audio functions in the kernel (except those essential to system stability) and give first priority to transmission of the audio datastream; by not interrupting the audio transfer we achieve lower variability in latency, therefore less jitter and better sound.  It will blow any stock Windows or Mac setup out of the water.
 
http://jaguaraudiodesign.com/blog/2013/07/the-jaguaraudiodesign-com-free-realtime-audio-operating-system/

 

[gefski]

For those of you who asked about the Jaguar Realtime Audio Operating System, you can download the OS and instruction manual from my Blog page below.  It's free, works on Windows and Mac machines and the player and everything is already in the OS, but you'll have to use a DAC that doesn't require installation of a special Windows or OSX USB driver (I did install an M2Tech driver that should work for their newer products).  The advantage, in theory, is that a realtime audio kernel will preempt all non-audio functions in the kernel (except those essential to system stability) and give first priority to transmission of the audio datastream; by not interrupting the audio transfer we achieve lower variability in latency, therefore less jitter and better sound.  It will blow any stock Windows or Mac setup out of the water.

http://jaguaraudiodesign.com/blog/2013/07/the-jaguaraudiodesign-com-free-realtime-audio-operating-system/

The description of RealTime here and on your blog sounds very similar (preempting non-audio functions) to JPlay, which I purchased a couple years ago, preferred to foobar and Jriver, and have been very happy with. And yours is free! Terrific!

Can't believe I didn't get a few minutes to listen to your Burson, maybe next time I'll be more organized (this being my first meet) and do so if you're there with it again.

 

[Fork]

The description of RealTime here and on your blog sounds very similar (preempting non-audio functions) to JPlay, which I purchased a couple years ago, preferred to foobar and Jriver, and have been very happy with. And yours is free! Terrific!

 
JPlay is a player for Windows, while the Jaguar RTOS is a full operating system with it's own iTunes-style player.  We're not talking about a realtime player, but rather a realtime audio kernel (the core of the OS).  Windows and Mac/OSX operating systems do not have realtime kernels (and the kernels cannot be modified).
 
I wasn't using the Jaguar RTOS at the show, because the Burson requires it's own Windows USB driver.  The OS I brought that day was my modified Win 7 OS.  I was experiencing some player freeze issues, because I had put the drive into a new machine the night before without any time to test and optimize the OS for that hardware, but fortunately it just meant a few of you had to wait for a reboot.  The server product I'm working on now will include both a highly modified Windows 8.1 OS and a new Realtime Linux OS, so the user can choose which OS to use, based on the performance with their particular DAC.

 

[gefski]

JPlay is a player for Windows, while the Jaguar RTOS is a full operating system with it's own iTunes-style player. 

Thanks for the clear explanation.

Hopefully I will get a chance to hear it at some point.

 

[Peter_S]

Re Post by MiceBlue: "I never did get back to you Peter_S about the external battery pack for the binaural microphones. You basically plug-in the microphones into this hip-belt/battery pack and connect that to your recording device to record louder sounds. http://www.soundprofessionals.com/cgi-bin/gold/item/MS-TFB-2"
 
Thanks MiceBlue.  I did make it to the soundprofessionals website and order sets of both binaural and cardoid mini mic's to play with, along with the Tascam idevice mic preamp you showed me.  It should be fun to record a few concerts once I get everything set up.  I don't think I'll need the battery pack, per soundprofessional advice... sounds like it mostly pertains to headbanger concerts (not my type).  I guess I'll find out for amplified but not too loud performances.
 
Best, Peter