What Are Your Reference Discs? or Specific Reference Tracks


Looking for new gems!  My reference discs are: Graceland, Paul Simon  Avalon, Roxy Music  Brothers in Arms, Dire Straits  So, Peter Gabriel  Ten Summoner's Tales, Sting 

What are yours?

wweiss
You are able to evaluate using only certain tracks? Fascinating!
- millercarbon

Rather than list tracks, I'd refer you to this video and comment:

"If you want to learn to evaluate sound equipment, the most important factor to start with is being comfortable with your stereo. Just take many hours, listening to a variety of music you like.

Do not use a limited number of records because they sound so good. That’s ear candy, used in every hifi demo room all over the world.

Simple jazz combo’s making impressive music will be impressive on a broad variety of equipment. That’s why on hifi shows you hear them in every room.

Pop and rock know their ear candy as well: Dire Straits, Kari Bremnes, Diana Krall and so on. Nothing wrong with the music by the way but it’s not too difficult to reproduce properly.

There is no need to play classical music if you don’t enjoy it but playing acoustically recorded performances might be a good idea. Think of folk music, Fado, flamenco and so on.

Again vary in genre for each genre will use its own difficult instruments.

Visiting shows and listening to all kinds of setups at that show can be very instructive if you are allowed to listen to music of your choice - and thus no ear candy."

https://youtu.be/lkgRzLygNrU
- hilde45


Pretty sure that is exactly what I said. ;)
- millercarbon

MC - It may have been heavily encoded in your first response mate, but I suspect what you said in your head, didn't make it to the keyboard brother!

I'm in a cheeky mood, but I'm going to call bovine excrement, and openly invite the same when I write such things; when, not if - I know I do it too. Have a great weekend, report ultrasonics please?

@wweis - Roxy Music, Bryan is a legend singer. One of my favs is Sonnet 18, it really shows off his excellent vibrato, accompanied by violin and piano only.


With Miller and Fuzztone. 

Focus on the basic / fundamental elements of music and instruments and how the whole comes together. 

Any music, any track serves the purpose, including music / tracks not heard prior to.
Ear candy is any disc put out by Analogue Productions.Also I want my not so well produced discs to be listenable.Greetings From the West - Fogelberg live has a little of everything.
Wow first hilde45 wants to pretend he doesn't understand the difference between liking a song and thinking it is a demo track, then Rick wants to pretend he doesn't know ;) is a wink and means, "kidding"! 

It’s merely good scientific method to reject the pretense that a test can pretend to be more than what it is. But that doesn’t mean such tests don’t have any value -- only that their value needs to be specified in a proportionate way relative to the overall experimental question.

It may have been heavily encoded 

I'll say! Can you run that one through your decoder ring, please? ;) 

While it's true you can tell a lot about a system from how it reproduces Howling Wolf's voice on a mono mid-60s Chess album, it ain't really demo material in my book...Here are some of my favorite music selections that also display the recording art and expose faulty reproduction:

Van Morrison; Virgo Clowns...from His Band and Street Choir - 1970 Warner LP...better than the 180gr. reissue.
NGDB; Tennessee Stud and Nine Pound Hammer...WTCBU...LP
Bruce Cockburn; Kit Carson...from Nothing But A Burning Light...CD
Ry Cooder; Face to Face That I Shall Meet Him...from Jazz...LP
Yuri Honig Trio; Walking on the Moon...from Star Tracks...Tidal
Norah Jones; I've Got To See You Again...from her 1st album...CD
Frank Zappa; Cleetus Awreetus Awrightus...from Grand Wazoo...LP
Mahavishnu Orch; Vision is a Naked Sword...from Apocalypse...LP
Grateful Dead; Uncle John's Band...Workingman's (45RPM MoFi)
NGDB; Tennessee Stud and Nine Pound Hammer...WTCBU...LP
Stravinsky; The Rite...Gergiev
Mahler's 6th...Zander, BYSO (I was at the concert).
Chopin; Piano Sonata #3...Gilels on DG LP