[eyeteeth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ipodstudio Hey, eyeteeth, you know you're getting old when you spell Britney Spears wrong...

Hey!

I copy exactly from the quote, without correcting spelling.

Actually isn't 'Britney' spelling her own name wrong!

 

[john_jcb]

Very interesting question and the responses you got were great. What amazed me is the diversity of recordings that everyone uses when evaluating a system. Many of those listed I have but a far greater number I have not heard. I think I will go back through the list and compile a shopping list. Seems as though I can never remember artists or titles when I am at a store or shopping on line.

 

[chadbang]

Wow, that was an excellent read. Thanks!

Seems that quite a few stick to math and measurements: they don't try and "tune" their gear at all. I guess that's honest enough. Einstein would be proud. I mean, how can you honestly "tune" gear. To what, your own ears? Isn't that a bit egotistical? I'm sorta with the purists - they want the cleanest most accurate transducers they can build - which is what AKG responded with. What an interesting read.


"1962" Hmmm. Wasn't that tantalizing?
We must find this out!

 

[eyeteeth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by chadbang they don't try and "tune" their gear at all. I guess that's honest enough.

Yes, I knew the word "tune" was not ideal and many of them took exception. I struggled to think of the right word to use. The word "develop" seemed wrong to me as their present products would be based on previous products. I gave up and chose "tune" from my ATC manual where it says the speakers were "tuned with grills on". So I knew "tune" was going to affect the electronics guys more. But it also occured to me that this might induce in them the need to correct me, which would provide more information. An itch they had to sctratch!!! Yes, I can be a conniving bugger, (but for a worthy cause).

 

[ipodstudio]

Quote:

Originally Posted by john_jcb Very interesting question and the responses you got were great. What amazed me is the diversity of recordings that everyone uses when evaluating a system. Many of those listed I have but a far greater number I have not heard. I think I will go back through the list and compile a shopping list. Seems as though I can never remember artists or titles when I am at a store or shopping on line.

John, I was thinking the exact same thing so I've made a list of all the tunes and artists that were recommended by the manufacturers. This way it's easy to print it off for reference to carry with you to the store. I'm certainly going to 'cause I've always forgotten the artists I had in my head by the time I stumble across a record shop over here...

I'm going to have the list on my desk when I go online shopping next time, too..

Here's the list:

Rage Against the Machine
Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach
Sade
James Taylor
Jack Johnson, Brush Fire Fairytales
Rickie Lee Jones, It's Like This
Jewel
Keb Mo
Tracy Chapman
Junior Wells (Telarc SACD/CD hybrid is best)
Pure Moods (a compilation- I, II, III, IV)
Diane Krall, Live in Paris.
Kruder & Dorfmeister, Sessions.
Bobo Stenson Quartet, War Orphans (ECM).
Janis Ian, Breaking Silence.
Doreen Smith, Still of the Night (our production).
Shirley Horn, You Won't Forget Me.
Charles Mingus. Mingus Moves.
Radka Toneff, Fairy Tales.
Sheila Jordan, Songs from Within.
Viladimir Ashkenazy, Racmaninov Pionmo Conc # 2, 3.
Anne Sophie Mutter, Sibelius Violin Concerto.
Shostakovich, Leningrad Symphony.
Clash, London Calling.
Mezzanine, Massive Attack.
Kip Hanrahan, Exotica/ Coup de Tet.
Sinead O'Connor, Universal Mother.
Dollar Brand, Journey.
Chesky Records Monty Alexander disc “Carribean Circle”
Jon Faddis “Remembrances”
John Basile Quartet “The Desmond Project”
Patty Larkin
Allison Kraus
Jennifer Warrens
Norah Jones
Holly Cole
Lyle Lovett
Jack Johnson
Sam McCain
Dave Mathews
Symphony pieces conducted by John Williams
Metallic
AC/DC
Blue Man Group
Evanescence
Dianna Krall
Aaron Neville
Grace Jones (Trevor Horn produced) "Slave to the rhythm"
Thomas Dolby (Bill Bottrell produced) "Aliens ate my Buick" also Hawaiian Slack key guitar Masters Series CD
Frank Sinatra "Only the Lonely" remaster CD
Eric Bibb
Ray Montford
Monteverdi
Madonna
Patricia Barber SACD Hybrid cd: Album "Companion" Track seven
Eagles XRCD2 Album "Hell Freezes over" Track 6
Burmaster Sampling CD2
Stevie Ray Vaughan: Album Texas Flood Track 12
Stereophile Test Cd's
The "Chiller" Sound track
Jessica Simpson
Madonna
Britney Spears
Rebecca Pidgin " Spanish Harlem"
Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band "Swing'n for the Fences"
Gram Nash "Soul survivor"
Claptons "Riding with the King"
Diana Krall's "Peel me Grape"
Dark side of the Moon
Stevie Ray Vaugh's "Can't stand the weather"
Steve Strauss "Powder House Road"
Alison Krause
Union Station "New Favorite"
Henrix at albert hall
Joan Baez Diamonds and Rust
New World Symphony on Argus
Bill Henderson Live on Classic records singing "Send in the Clowns"
Dire Straits "Love Over Gold"
Supertramp "Breakfast in America"
Ella Fitzgerald "Let no Man Write My Epitath"
Louis Armstrong - Stachmo Plays King Oliver
John Rutter requiem (ref recordings)
Mahler Sym #1 (florida symph, Judd)
Aimee Mann - whatever
Eva Cassidy
Patricia Barber
Free
Led Zep
Stones
Pink Floyd
Bad Company
Diana Krall
Steely Dan
No Doubt
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Jacintha - Autumn Leaves
Diana Krall - A few of her CDs
Stan Getz & The Oscar Peterson Trio
Sonny Rollins - Saxophone Colossus
Vivaldi - Four Seasons
Diana Krall
Patricia Barber
Blood Sweat & Tears
Eric Clapton
HDCD Sampler with jazz, classical, choir music
Jerry Douglas
Frank Sinatra
Dire Straights - Sultans of Swing
Sam McClain
Joe Cocker
Mozart
Blenders
Christy Baron
Ronnie Earl
to name a few.
Sincerely, Don Hoglund
Artist: The Fairfield Four Album: I Couldn't Hear Nobody Pray Track: There Must Be A City
Artist: Ray Montford, Album: Shed Your Skin, Song: One Witness
Artist: Holly Cole, Song: Tango Till They’re Sore
Artist: Marcus Miller, Album: M2 (M Squared), Track: Cousin John
Artist: Bela Fleck, Album: Flight of the Cosmic Hippo, Song: Flight of the Cosmic Hippo
Artist: Yim Hok-Man, Album: Poems of Thunder, Song: Poem of Chinese Drum
Claire Martin - Too Darn Hot!
Barb Jungr - Chanson
Barb Jungr - Every Grain of Sand
Magnificat - The Victoria Requiem
SCO - Brahms Violin Concerto
Zigeunerweisen op. 20 from Carmen Fantasy, Anne-Sophie Muter Wiener-Philharmoniker James Levine.
Mozart 21 Lieder Laser Light 15-876 "Mitsuko Shirai".
Angela Gheorghiu Diva EMI Classic
Eva Cassidy's "Live At Blues Alley"
"Le temps passe" Michel Jonaz (french singer)
" Tango" Julio Eglesias
" La Damnation de Faust" Berlioz by Sir Colin Davis
" The Organ Workof JC Bach" by Jean Guillou
" Repuiem op.89 of DUORAK" by the Prague philarmonic orchestra
" Audio Florida Bella" Monteverdi by Rene Jacobs
" Symphonia N°3" Saltsaens by the Philadelphia Orchestra
Dee Carstensen – Regarding the Soul (1st cut)
NYC EXIT 9001 2
David Wilcox – Nightshift Watchman (3rd cut)
Song of the Wood 7921
Jim Messina – Watching the River Run
A&M 161175
Dire Straits – On Every Street
Warner Brothers 2-26680
Keb’ Mo’ – Keb’ Mo’ (2nd cut)
OKeh/550/Epic
Karla Bonoff – New World
Music Masters 65138
Robbie Dupree – Walking on Water (1st cut)
Miramar 23033
Kim Bracken – Gotta Road
CueGee Rec. (801-278-0623)
Susan Ashton – Wakened by the Wind
Sparrow SPD-1259
Diana Krall – Love Scenes (2nd cut)
Impulse 233
Holy Cole – Temptation (9th cut)
Blue Note 31653
James Taylor – Live (2nd & 13th cuts)
Columbia 47056
Pierce Pettis – While the Serpent Lies Sleeping
Windham Hill 1087
Janis Ian – Breaking Silence (Gold)
Analogue Productions 27
Mary Black - By the Time It Gets Dark
Gifthorse 10013.
Mary Black – The Holy Ground
Gifthorse G2-10010
The Story – Grace in Gravity
Elektra 61321
Patricia Barber – A Distortion of Love (9th cut)
Antilles 314-512235-2
Take Six – So Much 2 Say (7th cut)
Warner Alliance 25892
Cassandra Wilson – Dance to the Drums Again (10th cut)
DIW/Columbia 53451
Crosby Pevar and Raymond – CPR
Gold Circle 0145
Rachelle Ferrell – Individuality (Can I Be Me?) – (2nd cut)
Capital CDP 7243 4 94980 2
Randy Thorderson – Mons Ganau
randy@thorderson.com
Graham Nash – Songs for Survivors
Artemis 751130-2
Tina Malia – Shores of Avalon (1st cut)
Higher Octave OMCD 11797
Classical
Berlioz – Symphonie Fantastique (5th cut 2:20)
Reference Recordings RR-11
The Turtle Creek Chorale – Psalms (10th cut)
Reference Recordings RR-86HDCD
Songs My Mother Taught Me – Delmoni (Gold)
John Marks Records (jmrcds.com)
Sacred Feast – Gaudeamus (SACD)
DMP SACD-09
IsoMike CES 2004 Sampler
John Bonamassa
Al DiMiola – Tour DeForce
Peggy Lee – Fever
Elanor McEvoy – Portrait of a Songwriter
Sarah McLachlan – The Freedom Sessions
Sister Machine Gun – The Torture Technique
Laibach – WAT
NIN – Downward spiral
Frank Sinatra - Witchcarft
Willie Nelson - Ponco and Lefty, Stardust
Charles Gerhardt - The Thing
Steve and Edie - Language of Love
The Hunt For Red October
Any Capitol Nat King Cole original
Most Ansermet Decca's
Most Reiners RCA's
Bernstein- most Berlioz
Backstreet Boys
Madonna
Conan the Barbarian
Celene Dion
Dire Straights
Cantate Domino
Rebecca Pidgeon
Mozart
Lyle Lovett
Tom Waits
Natalie Merchant
Jack Johnson
Dead Can Dance
Greg Brown
Ben Harper
Cowboy Junkies
Chris Isaak
Diana
Krall's "Peel Me a Grape
BB King/Heavy D and the Boyz
"Pie Jesu" on Reference
Recordings recording of John Rutter's "Requiem"
Chet Atkins
Mark Knofler, Neck and Neck, Rebecca Pigeon
The Raven, Mary Black
No Frontiers, Margie Gibson
Say it with Music, Stephen Stills
Stills Alone, and Jacques Loussier
Play Bach Now "Keep it Coming."

There are some repeats as some manufacturers had similar lists and I have copied and pasted their lists one after the other..

 

[eyeteeth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ipodstudio Here's the list:

LOL-Thats the spirit!

I Just received an e-mail from Mark Levinson Co:

"I was anxiously awaiting your reply, I am fascinated to know your thoughts. I also am interested in what you might suggest we try for our listening? Any specific recording?"
Andrew M Ward
Mark Levinson Audio

I feel under qualified to reply but I must out of courtesy.

Maybe I'll just copy ipodstudio's list, headbanging mohican included

Or send the list of a direct rival

Actually I'll just call him. (no angelic smile to apply)

 

[mojoman]

My favorite one:

JOLIDA
"Backstreet Boys, Madonna, Conan the Barbarian, Celene Dion.
That is to make sure of smoothness and that poorly recorded
material can sound musical."

No wonder this player sounds so good. If they can crappy cds like this sound good, pretty much takes care of the rest.

 

[ipodstudio]

Quote:

Originally Posted by eyeteeth LOL-Thats the spirit! I Just received an e-mail from Mark Levinson Co: "I was anxiously awaiting your reply, I am fascinated to know your thoughts. I also am interested in what you might suggest we try for our listening? Any specific recording?" Andrew M Ward Mark Levinson Audio I feel under qualified to reply but I must out of courtesy. Maybe I'll just copy ipodstudio's list, headbanging mohican included Or send the list of a direct rival Actually I'll just call him. (no angelic smile to apply)

I think you should reply:

Ok - but don't tell anyone. I will give you a clue. 1962...

 

[eyeteeth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ipodstudio I think you should reply:

I did, and rather lengthily I might add.

 

[Mr.PD]

Lots of great answers there.
eyeteeth you are my hero for asking for and sharing all this information.
Very cool.

 

[halcyon]

Actually even AKG said they "tune" (or verify - another word for the same thing) by ear. And no wonder, because all transducer based system must be tuned by ear in the end.

There is absolutely no set of formulae in the scientific literature about headphones that tells you how to design headphones by measurements alone.

Such universally accepted benchmark measurements guidelines do not exist.

Once you get out of the realm of electronics and transfer into acoustics, you must make big compromises and then the decision are best made by a several pairs of trained ears AND of course, lot of engineering skill.

If you disagree, point me to the literature in headphone research that shows me an accepted and universally held belief of how headphones should measure OR even a 1:1 mapping with headphone measurements and subjective headphone sound rankings (under blind conditions).

Neither of those exist.

Such things don't even exist for loudspeakers and they are even easier to design to be listener independent.

Designing by measurements only is much easier for cd players, amplifiers and other components that stay purely in the real of electronics (and optics in case of cd players).

 

[eyeteeth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mr.PD Very cool.

Thanks Mr.PD

& BTW BW&BK is very informative, I picked up a copy.

 

[Old Pa]

Good idea and nice execution. From the "list" it looks like there are no few standout choices (frequency counts might have helped), but female (and male) voice, orchestral performance, acoustic instruments, and recordings representing speed seem to have been considered universally essential. Especially enjoyed the reference to "bright, overproduced recordings" and the artists this included.

Seems to run to the old standby of listening to well recorded music with which you are intimately familiar. Consider this another call for the list of companies which did not respond. Should "Son of One Question" take form, maybe you could include AudioValve, Bowers & Wilkins, Bryston, Rega, Alesis, Njoe Tjoeb, and Meridian to those companies surveyed (how's that for selfishness?

)

 

[LobsterSan]

For those producers who tweak their equipment based on a large pool of samples, I wonder which group (i.e, low-fi crap pop VS. classical VS. electronica) gets more emphasis? To me, the mere fact that tweaking occurs at all is a great indicator that the products that are released have a great deal of subjectivity to them. Some of the manufacturers may be enamored with jazz, and leave pop music or heavy metal out of the equation. And regardless of genre preference, there's still the question of how people perceive "good" sound. This thread and list is fantastic, and it may provide people with a basis for trying gear which has been tested by people with similar musical listening tastes. Just as finding someone on Head-Fi with similar listening tastes is highly beneficial, I'd imagine that finding an audio company with similar tastes would be indespensible.

Anyone else think this thread deserves a sticky?

 

[eyeteeth]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ipodstudio But seriously, the info you got from those companies is invaluable and should not be just lost amongst the threads; the least we can do is to make sure it's preserved for others to enjoy.

You have a point. I don't think that information will be granted again soon by the companies who did respond. lobsterSan suggested a 'sticky' which is ok with me but I feel a little awkward asking the moderators for that. It's a strange thread though as it's not like a 'what are you listening to right now' thread that can always be added to. maybe all the posts would have to be removed and it gets locked? And the title changed or at least phrased correctly! How can a question ask?

I think I was to still follow up the original as I did still receive replies from more companies and had intended to add them to a second round of petitioning results. About 10 more audio companies replied after the deadline.