What Are Your Reference Discs? or Specific Reference Tracks

There is a difference between a Demo and a Reference track.

One of my reference tracks is a nostalgic favourite of mine but sounds lousy on most systems, even very expensive ones. 10CC's I'm not in love. Great performance but just seems to have a high noise floor with poor dynamics. When I hear it rendered in a way that makes it at least passable soundwise then I know the system is working.

Another reference is the album from Christina Pluhar, Los Imposibles. One of the best recordings I own. It's a beautiful recording capturing the size of the acoustic space and revealing great purity of tone.

I do not bother with the above for demo, my weird friends have different tastes. When I ask someone what they would like to hear they mostly say ' just play anything' so I put on Patricia Barber and play a couple of tracks, certainly not the whole album, she wears thin very quickly.

Reference and Demo, is it possible? YesChuck Mangione: Children of Sanchez (explosive dynamics, outstanding performance) Play loud
Mighty Sam McClain: Give it up to love, track 2, too proud ( won many awards such as blues album of the month) Play louder
Osamu Kitajima: I don't think this album has a name but the track of interest is called 'yesterday and karma'  When I first heard it I thought I was hearing a synthesizer but it turned out to be Minnie Ripperton's incredible voice, WOW! When the tune was written Osamu could not find a Japanese girl who could hit these notes so Ms Ripperton was called upon. This is serious goosebumps territory and if you do not react/respond to this then perhaps your system is wanting. All his stuff is interesting

Hotel California, Mark Knopfler, Pink Floyd Pulse

So the OP just asked for some reference recordings. I observe more than I post, but seems like  every thread that Millercarbon participates in become first of all a lecture series from MC, and then a bunch of snarky comments back and forth between MC and various other members. It really is tiresome.


I hope at least one person finds a new favorite in the list below

Rosanne Cash "10 Song Demo"
Kruger Brothers "Remembering Doc Watson"..
Leonard Cohen "Ten New Songs"
John Hiatt "Crossing Muddy Waters"
Alan Jackson "Like Red on a Rose"
Mark Knopfler " Sailing to Philadelphia"
Tim and Mollie O’Brien "Away Out on the Mountain"
Jamie Saft "You Don’t Know the Life"
Dave Holland "Good Hope"
Till Bronner "Nightfall"

I do find it interesting that several people have posted comments along the lines of..... I love this song but it is a poor recording (too bright or muffled or whatever) so if your system makes it sound OK then your system is working properly. I don’t follow. A good system IMHO should reveal a poor recording for what it is, not mask it’s faults. If a recording that really is too bright sounds OK isn't the system too dull?

Which leads me to the second thing I find interesting. How many people choose some recordings early on in their quest that perhaps aren’t really great recordings, and then tune their system to make those particular recordings sound good? Example.. They work at it until the bass on recording X sounds great, but how do you know that the bass on recording X is recorded all that well? Just because a reviewer declares it to be a great recording doesn’t make it so. Maybe it just happens to sound really good on his system

I may have missed something, but I'm surprised no one has mentioned any chamber music recordings.  I often listen to chamber music, and many systems which are really great on "big music" don't quite let you hear the wood in a pizzicato passage of a small ensemble.  When I go to listen to a system, I bring chamber pieces where texture really matters.  (Which is most chamber music, really, but for some works failure in this dimension really stands out.)  Schubert is good for this, especially the C major quintet, esp esp the 2nd movement.  Also the Eb major trio.  Also, Shostakovitch's violin and viola sonatas.  The problem with the viola sonata for this purpose is that it is in some ways painful, and so engrossing that even a mediocre system disappears and the music just takes over.  Maybe that's a criteria for reference recordings - if the purpose is to find a few pieces to listen to that display the qualities of a system you are listening to for the first time, or just for evaluation, you should choose music that is not too involving, of a genre that you listen to, but pieces you can stand away from a bit.  For showing off my own system, I just tell people to bring over what they like.  I learn more about its flaws that way.