Use this song if you are doing an A/B with Preamps
Sixty Years On by Elton John. A Demanding song with Orchestra, and a Lot of Head Room. Played loud, it reveals Intense Strings and Swells Whichever Preamp does That best, Wins ! The other one goes up for sale, period.
Streamed with Tidal Masters. It may not be up to Audiophile Standards, but - a lot of songs I like are not as well, and it's OK. For me, I want the system to do a good job rendering less than perfect recordings. The fact is, Diana Krall sounds good on All systems. After settling in with the same amp for the past year, I was surprised how differently the song sounded by changing only the Preamp. It was less noticeable on Diana Krall and Dire Straights material.
I'm an Elton John fan too,but find the recordings too compressed unfortunately:( I still enjoy them though.The other day I really wanted to hear some Blood Sweat and Tears tunes.Spinning Wheel is a very dynamic song!I'd sort of forgotten about them.Lots of brass,drums,bass,and that powerful voice of course:)
There are many recordings I use for evaluating gear, but I particularly like using Stevie Ray Vaughn's " Tin Pan Alley " to do any equipment evaluations ( studio version from the album " Couldn't Stand the Weather " ). Enjoy ! MrD.
I have the original 1986 West German DJM Records CD of Elton John's self-titled album with "Sixty Years On" on it. I have it ripped to FLAC and play it via Roon on my system and it sounds sublime!
Of course I have a Don Sachs Model 2 tube line stage and a Don Sachs tube amp so it should sound fantastic!
the absolute best sounding version of ‘60 years on’ is found on the Live in Australia recording. try ‘the king must die’ also. finally as a hard core fan that has witnessed the ups and downs it is my opinion that the ‘the diving board’ is very high on the list of his very best recordings of ANY era. sounds just ok w too much bass but what a deeper cut album from him.
If you want vinyl, try (for the 10,000th time on here) The LINCOLN MAYORGA Direct-to-Disk recordings or similar ones made that way.
Gosh, I am tired of typing that title. Are there really tons of current audiophiles that do NOT know about these recordings? If so, please do some research.
Even if you are a relatively new, say, teenage audiophile, I would guess you would know about the basics and about those items that help you make informed PERSONAL decisions about what YOU like in YOUR ROOM. If not, try that one.
To our younger, newer audiophiles: If there were a perfect system for everyone, there would be ONE manufacturer of every component. I can see by looking around that this is is NOT TRUE! (OH, MY!)
That tells me that people have personal opinions about what they like in their personal music listening area. Thank goodness! Now, go out there and find what YOU like in YOUR ROOM and enjoy the music!
@richopp Thank God you’re here to keep us all in line.
Truth is, the Mayorga recordings suffer from a common affliction typical for "audiophile" releases of the 80s of being great recordings of mediocre music. I know, I still have many of them.
And his masterpiece Tumbleweed Connection. Come down in time and so on. Elton was really great before he became too big...and lost Bernie. His voice often recorded a little to "hot". Not so much on his collaboration with Leon Russel.
Of course you should use recordings you know and love.Nothing wrong with enjoying something new and adding to your favorite evaluation tracks.
I saw EJ live twice and the recordings don't do him justice.He's an amazing piano player!He slurs his vocals so I can understand why he's recorded somewhat 'hot' to get more definition.I wish more time and care had been taken with the recordings,but it is pop music and they were cranking out album after album back in the day.
If you like an acoustic recording; guitar, piano and violin this is a fun song. Belle of Newcastle/Scruff Neck, on album Flying on Home. Streamed from Deezer.
I agree w the concept of evaluating a piece of gear with music you’re intimately familiar with. Listen for the transients and background artifacts and with piano, the decay of the keystrokes. But as others point out, it’s so hard to isolate sonic differences to 1 piece of equipment unless it’s on loan to you and swapped out with Everything else kept the same. Personally I d never base an equipment decision on the replay of 1 song. 5 of different genre, well maybe, all other things being perfectly equal
@jaybe4 Ha! I THOUGHT the objective was trying to find an accurate source for determining what accurately recorded music might sound like when listening to various components.
YOU and others may not like the songs on these albums, but the recording and manufacturing techniques give the listener as good of a vinyl recording as they can find today, although I am sure there are other direct-to-disk recordings out there somewhere. (I have a live 78 of my brother and 3 other pre-teens playing a drum show at Myer's Lake in Ohio in 1951 or so. Maybe I should use that since it is my brother and was recorded live even though it has terrible fidelity? I LIKE it.)
I like Elton John as well, and we sold TONS of Audio Research paired with Magneplanars back in the day using "Money" and "Midnight at the Oasis" and various Linda Ronstadt and Eagles recordings as well as the Mayorga stuff. Customers were encouraged to bring in their fav recordings to use when listening in the showroom.
The point elizabeth and others were making, I think, is to get the best possible recordings and take them and the gear home and see what YOU think. Of course you will listen to your fav stuff; the question is, "Is DIFFERENT equal to BETTER?" (more accurate or, probably closer to the truth in sales, more what you were convinced by others was "better").
We used to play our instruments in the shop and listen to someone playing a part live and then the recording. Still depends upon the listening room, however.
We really did not care what you listened to; we were SELLING. We simply wanted you to listen to the most accurate recordings in YOUR ROOM and then make a decision. Of course, we NEVER tried to sell you something...
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