Is there a “best” test track?

[Spannko]

Harman International think so.

https://www.soundstageaccess.com/index ... f-fast-car

[tokenbrit]

Curious: haven't used it as test track, but have heard it *many* times in a variety of environments & systems, including just now on my mobile... Always enjoyed it, but never thought it sounded particularly different, or elicited a different level of musical connection depending on the situation to think that it would be a good ('best') test track... will have to try it, or do we wait for your next speaker clips, Spannko? ;) :)

[Rutger]

Harman International think so.

https://www.soundstageaccess.com/index ... f-fast-car

Tracy Chapmans ” Fast car ” is a good song .

Regarding good test music for judging musical quality using tunemethod , there are plenty of it . Patricia Barbers ” The beat goes on ” , The Police ” Walking in your footsteps ” and ” One world is enough ” are good tracks.

Tracy Chapmans ” thinking of you ” is another good track .

Alfred Brendel playing Mozart piano concertos are also good , what is the left hand playing and can you hear the articulation in a clear way ?

Those musicians are so good that its impossible to turn off the stereo while listening .

However, with bad loudspeaker placement and unmusical gear, this music sounds like the average ” muzak ” at shopping stores .

[lindsayt]

Harman International. The fount of all knowledge on hi-fi :)

Although I suppose, given the aquisitive nature of their business, in a few years time they might be the fount of all hi-fi products.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harman_International

[Spannko]

... will have to try it, or do we wait for your next speaker clips, Spannko? ;) :)

Good idea tokenbrit. I’ll see what I can do 🙂

[matthias]

Harman International think so.

https://www.soundstageaccess.com/index ... f-fast-car

IIRC, TC's first album was released in the same year as Linn's Ekos, so all Linn retailers did the Ekos/Ittok comparisons with this song, funny. But it was never on my test track shortlist like these albums:
https://open.spotify.com/album/0rv5tEPg ... MA3kxwV56g
https://open.spotify.com/album/6E2sz7aC ... iC03O0gwVA
https://open.spotify.com/album/4Es5UWdU ... raIAYn1ZVA

[John]

If doing A/B comparisons, I’d rather use a song I’m not too familiar with otherwise it’s too easy to fill in the missing bits because you’re so familiar with the piece.

[tokenbrit]

If doing A/B comparisons, I’d rather use a song I’m not too familiar with otherwise it’s too easy to fill in the missing bits because you’re so familiar with the piece.

Could argue the same in reverse against using a set test track: familiarity could lead to a more detail oriented assessment, listening for differences rather than (musical) communication & understanding...

[matthias]

If doing A/B comparisons, I’d rather use a song I’m not too familiar with otherwise it’s too easy to fill in the missing bits because you’re so familiar with the piece.

I get your point but if you want to evaluate a system on an audio show for example you need one or more reference tracks for comparison with your system at home.

[Rutger]

If doing A/B comparisons, I’d rather use a song I’m not too familiar with otherwise it’s too easy to fill in the missing bits because you’re so familiar with the piece.

I think most important is good musicians playing and singing - source first. This is more important than the recording quality. The worlds best streamer cant make bad musicians turn into great ones.

So, bad recordings with great musicians sometimes makes it easier to judge musical quality when comparing different streamers, amplifiers or speakers, than some audiophile recordings .

[Spannko]

Something like Tracy Chapman or Eva Cassidy can sound pleasant on almost anything but something like this https://spotify.link/tN3FAKyikDb can be really challenging on systems which struggle to play in tune. It’s not necessarily any better than a Tracy Chapman track for system evaluation, but it certainly offers a different view of a systems performance potential.

A point in favour of using a familiar track is that it helps us to understand changes in performance over time.

[lindsayt]

The Roches The Troubles is the sort of track that a good hi-fi system can get very close to making it sound like it's being performed live in your listening room.

Especially if you could get a hold of the master tape or a master tape copy.

[tpetsch]

Another that comes to mind for me just now -including Fast Car, classic track- is a song from Soul Coughing called Lazybones from their second studio album called Irresistible Bliss, 1996 that I sometimes listen to when I make a change, I was lucky to grab an original press back in the day. The interplay buildup between musicians on the track is hypnotic when things are in tune and it's easy to loose interest and simply dismiss the track as a whole when a system is off tune. Just listen to the track on YouTube in the link below to hear what a utter trainwreck it usually is, but believe me, when the system is right it all totally makes sense having many interesting layers for an otherwise seemingly simple song.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xICkR5IgO8g

[ThomasOK]

Well, I was going to lay off this thread as I'm not fond of the idea of a "best" test track, especially many of the ones I hear used (or was that overused) at Hi-Fi shows. But some interesting thoughts popped up from some of the music mentioned, including a couple of stories. One is about The Roches, an album produced by Robert Fripp and which we used a lot as a demo in the store. The manager where I worked was a good friend of a guy who ended up reviewing for the Absolute Sound. When the discussion came around to music and The Roches was mentioned this reviewer said he didn't like The Roches because they sang out of tune! My cohort replied that it was not out of tune you just had to play it on an LP12 (which the other was not using at the time). He was right as it was a great album to show how much better the LP12 was as it sounded out of tune on a Denon or a Rega but just fine on the LP12. I notice a live version on YouTube I just pulled up also sounds out of tune.

There is another difficult track I used all the time back then, Zoot Suite off the Jack DeJohnette album Special Edition on ECM. It was another that could easily sound out of tune but was quite good when everything was working together. Sometimes these tracks make it easier to hear when something is wrong.

When listening to tracks for setting up a system I tend to use whatever is at hand and I like to mix it up. I find listening to something new or unfamiliar often gets me to focus more on the music and how well it is played. But for LP12 setup I stay with a few tracks. This is because in doing the setups I am often making multiple comparisons, such as for platter orientation or tracking force and I find it easier using something I am very familiar with. I also find that the most useful tracks have very good vocals and very short intros so that a number of instruments are coming in at or close to the beginning. This helps when you are making a bunch of short comparisons. For a long time I used "If You Could Read My Mind" by Gordon Lightfoot. It got played so much at the store when I was doing setups that one of the salespeople came up to me and said he would give me $10 to use another track, any other track! I still use it at times and especially when I am having a hard time with setting anti-skating as his voice just focuses nicely when I have it right. But I did eventually switch to mostly using another album that we had a copy of hanging around in the service area: "Gaucho" by Steely Dan. I started out using "Hey Nineteen" as it worked well in terms of what I was looking for but switched to "Time Out Of Mind" as it works even better. So that is now the track I use for most setting up on turntables. I will also note that this copy is a little warped and relatively beat up but it still lets me hear how well the instruments are being played and how together they are. I find that when I have an LP12 completely dialed in that it just really sings and becomes very danceable pretty much regardless of what level LP12 it is (and even on Rega 3s, etc.).

[lindsayt]

If I used Steely Dan as a test track, I'd be too distracted by how grated I was by Fagen's vocals to be of any use when it came to evaluating the equipment. Too bad they didn't have Freddie Mercury as their lead singer.

[Tendaberry]

If I used Steely Dan as a test track, I'd be too distracted by how grated I was by Fagen's vocals to be of any use when it came to evaluating the equipment. Too bad they didn't have Freddie Mercury as their lead singer.

Thank god they didn't! I love Fagen's vocals...

[Spannko]

If I used Steely Dan as a test track, I'd be too distracted by how grated I was by Fagen's vocals to be of any use when it came to evaluating the equipment. Too bad they didn't have Freddie Mercury as their lead singer.

Have you got any recommendations? What do you usually use to evaluate a new component?

[FairPlayMotty]

Thank god they didn't! I love Fagen's vocals...

I love Fagen's vocals too (and Becker's on 11 Tracks of Whack). Gerry Rafferty is rumoured to have been considered as a vocalist for Steely Dan.

The Harman Reference track list includes many songs of varied styles including Morph the Cat. This is a subset of their full list of reference tracks:

https://artoflistening.harman.com/profe ... ence-songs

[lindsayt]

If I used Steely Dan as a test track, I'd be too distracted by how grated I was by Fagen's vocals to be of any use when it came to evaluating the equipment. Too bad they didn't have Freddie Mercury as their lead singer.

Have you got any recommendations? What do you usually use to evaluate a new component?

Just about anything and everything.

Well recorded solo piano music is good for stretching systems in certain ways.
Annoyingly dynamically compressed tracks can be OK, because if the system adds dynamic compression on top of what's there in the recording it can be particularly untuneful to listen to.

When doing listening tests involving other people's equipment I think it's polite to use a recording that has a good chance of showing the system / component in a good light. Therefore I try to use dark green DR rating recordings for those events.
https://dr.loudness-war.info/

I'm usually happy to use the host's choice of music for the primary test.

I'm mainly into late 1960's to 1980's rock and pop music. So something from that era and those genres tends to be used more often than not when I'm hosting the evaluation.

I've found that where there are large differences between components the first few seconds of the first test track have been sufficient to evaluate the 2 components / systems. And then the tracks after that merely confirm those original findings.

Where there's small differences or it's a swings and roundabouts as to which is better, a variety of music can help.
Where there's very small or no audible difference (eg interconnect cables in my system) I have at times found myself going crazy trying different stuff, going back and forth, trying to establish which was better. The sort of differences where if one is played slightly louder than the other, then that would win. When that happens I remind myself that the cheaper option wins.

There is the odd special circumstance. For evaluating digital amplification against analog, I would always look to use well recorded solo piano as at least one test track. Because I've heard digital amps sound untuneful with pianos, whilst sounding OK with electronic music.

For vinyl the record should be punched on centre and not warped.

But as a general guide I'll use whatever floats my boat or is easily to hand on the day of the listening test. EG something I've bought recently.