What s Your Frame of Reference?

An interesting question. Gregm's suggestion of the Chesky disc is a good one. The Stereophile recordings have detailed notes as to what they think the recording sounds like, those are also helpful. Otherwise, I try to play well-recorded recordings, and a good number of them, from a cross-section of labels (Reference/Harmonia Mundi/Telarc/Delos/Decca, for example), to see if the component in question is consistent in its reproduction of the same instrument/vocal range, etc. from recording to recording and label to label. Not an exact science, of course. Some of the Delos recordings are of performances of the NJ Symphony I attended in the NJ Performing Arts Center, those are a good reference for me.

I play a broad selection of CD's (some of them not being quality recordings at all). I focus on specific instruments (and even notes) but also on how the music sounds as a whole. I prefer that our system sound good on a variety of material instead of just sounding great on great recordings and not so great on run of the mill productions. Like I have said before "if Mitch Ryder doesn't sound half way decent, then it's not for me".

Hi hwy61; Are you trying to "unscrute the unscrutable"? I also do as Rcprince and Dekay do, ie play a broad variety of music that I am especially familiar with. For me, it's the timbre and character of vocals-- both male and female that are my references. If vocals don't sound natural, It's been my experience that instruments don't sound right either, eg piano and acoustic guitar.

I like Holly Cole, Margo Timmins, Diana Krall, Shirley Horn, Melissa Ethridge, JJ Cale, J. Cash, Buddy Guy, Koko Taylor and others as references-- real as opposed to "reference recordings". And I reserve the right to decide what is "natural". BTW, I've played both acoustic and electric guitars for 40 years, and am very familiar with what they sound like, including guitar amps.

But then, I don't think I'm after absolute accuracy. Like Dekay, I want my system to sound good with a broad variety of music. So I'm always asking "does this sound natural"? rather than "does this sound accurate"? I may use 10-20 well recorded CDs to make decisions regarding system changes. As I can never know what the original recording actually sounded like, I'm content to go with what sounds "natural" to me, even though it may not be closest to absolute "accuracy". This may just be semantics though? Craig.

I do the use the Chesky disc. It's very good for it's intended purpose. In practice I following what Garfish does, but I wonder if I could be boxing myself in. My background is that I've assembled a system that gets the basics done. Obviously, it doesn't sound exactly like live music, but it's very high quality reproduced sound. It's comparable to what you would hear at a well done dealer demo of high quality equipment. Any changes to the system I would now make are fine tuning, but I wonder if I'm just making my record collection (both vinyl and CD) sound nice, as opposed to getting at what is actually on the records. Part of what got me thinking of this is my recent acquisition of a 5-band, parametric equalizer which affords me an enormous ability to vary the tonal quality of the music. Maybe I'm getting too hung-up on this accuracy thing.

Thanks for the replies. Rcprince, I envy your situation.

as several others have already mentioned, you ought to play a wide array of recordings to judge how a component changes (or doesn't change) the sound of your system. i think it's most helpful to have in your "test bin" several recordings you've heard on your system as well as a number of other systems, be they your friends', dealer's or those you encounter at audio shows and the like. i find test discs, such as those put out by ortofon, chesky, stereophile, etc. to be helpful in only the most rudimentary ways. they can tell you, for example, whether you've plugged in all your left/right ic's correctly or whether the cartridge azimuth is optimal; they are rarely helpful, however, at least to me, in determining the sonic "character" your system imparts.

as a real world example, i offer this: yesterday, i had a fellow 'phile and his wife come to my home to hear my turntable/tone arm setup to decide whether to purchase it. these are among the lp's we played to "test" the sound quality of my analogue setup: csn&y, "deja vu"; thomas dolby, "aliens ate my buick"; gary karr, "adagio d' albioni"; laurie anderson, "mister heartbreak"; paul simon, "there goes rhymin' simon"; prokofieff, "lt. kije; pink floyd, "the final cut." these were each recordings very familiar to both my potential buyer and me. we could have picked , perhaps, 20 or 30 more that would fit this description. the point is: we had "points of reference" as to these recordings. neither of us could judge if any one of them was more accurate on my system than that of "mr. x," but we could judge where the differences lay and which of those differences we preferred. that, i think,