From: kmr4@po.CWRU.Edu (Keith M. Ryan)
Newsgroups: rec.audio.car
Subject: Re: CDs for car stereo
Date: 2 Oct 1992 04:37:14 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH (USA)
Reply-To: kmr4@po.CWRU.Edu (Keith M. Ryan)
NNTP-Posting-Host: thor.ins.cwru.edu


In a previous article, miles@ms.uky.edu (Stephen D. Grant) says:

>wwein@scott.skidmore.edu (warren wein) writes:
>
>
>>	Car Stereo Reveiw once had a listing of the best cds to listen
>>to to test the range of your car stereo.   I was wondering if anyone
>>had any personal favorites of their own.
>>							- Warren
>
> Do you remember the CDs on the list? Do you have the list?
>If so, could you post it, or any part of it you may have?
>thanks.
>

	Well, I do not remember their exact list. However, here are
a few of choice cuts. Note, these are more for the audiophile's and
nuetrality.


Enya, _Enya_, Atlantic 1986, 

	Absolutely sonically stunning. Very precise staging, excellent 
deep bass, and a wonderful voice. Some highlights:

	_Aldebaran_ The harp is great for testing the midrange/tweeter
		crossover point. 

 	_Deireadh An Tuath_ Very deep sustained organ notes. They should
		not be muddled and distinct. Do not be suprised that the
		lowest is inaudiable to some. Also, ported speakers beware!
		It can easily unload your woofers! Since it is sustained,
		its also great for testing your power supply, the notes
		should not waiver, but remain strong.
	
	_Triad: St. Patrick Cu Chulainn Oisin_ : A mutiple feast of organ
		notes. All should sound different, and be of the same loud-
		ness. Great for testing resonances and non-linearities.

	_Boardicea_: Excellent for testing interference between deep bass
		and midrange. Her humming should not be muddled by the
		organs. 

	_Bard Dance_: Extreme dynamic range on the drums. On my home system,	
		the dynamics of them are over 50 dB's! ( meaning that on 
		my home system, my McIntosh amp goes from ~0.005 watts, 
		peaks near 500 watts, and back down in a fraction of a 
		second. Are you woofers as fast? They should slam you,
		and slam you hard, yet for only the briefest of moments.

Enya's other two works have had the deep bass turned down a bit. However,
	they are both very well recorded, and very airy. They are "Water
	mark" [ best known for _Orinoco Flow_ ] and "Shepherd Moons"


Pink Floyd: "Dark Side of the Moon" preferable on Mobil Fidelity.
	"THE" king of deep bass. Almost 20 years after the release, DSM
	is still hailed by many as being THE test album. The sonics and
	staging are stunning. The bass is extremely deep and very very
	clean. It'll give you a serious back massage. The quality alone
	allows it to be ranked in the top albums every of both TAS and
	Stereophile. Quite frankly, most systems do not do justice to
	the album. I can count the number of systems that I have heard
	that even approach being merely adaquate to reproduct it in its
	entirety on one hand! ( sadly, none were mine )

	_Speak to Me_ 
		Bass so deep and so hard. This is not the whimpy pseudo-
		bass found on most hard-core rap or rock. It should hit
		HARD while at the same time not being boomy. 

	_On the Run_ The psycodelic synthasisor work is mesmerizing. And
		the staging should be very sharp and focasing. This reveal
		how much depth, heigh and width your staging is. Waters 
		should sound likes he's running a marathon!

	_Time_ Each and every alarm, grandfather and coo-coo clock should
		sound distinct, and occupy a different space. I've counted
		at least 12 different clocks in it, and have been told there	
		were 15. The "pendulum" should sound as if its sweeping 
		acrost your stage, from left to right and back, its about
		five times a second. 

Pink Floyd: "Meddle", preferraly on Mobile Fidelity.

		The main attraction with Meddle is the last song, _Echoes_
		It'll test your noise level out. The "echoes" should sound
		as if they are slowly receding into the distance. In between
		pings should be silence. ( many systems exhibit silence )
		The organ works is excellent. One note gave me so much trouble
		in my best system. It was the right note that it vibrated the
		heck out of my windshield! I certainly could not put dynamat
		on the window! Again, these notes ought to remain distinctly
		different. And, they too are in the "flap your ears" variety!

Pink Floyd: "The Wall" , again preferraly on Mobile Fidelity.

		A stunning work. Some highligts:

	_The Happiest Days of our Lives_ 
		That kick drum should be
		HARD and fast. No over hang, none what so ever. It ought to
		feel like you are a punching bag! And the drum rolls ought
		to remain clear and unmuddled. As it progresses into 
	_Another Brick in the Wall ( Part II )_, 
		that kick drum  should remain the same when the organ notes
		come on, ~5 seconds into it. This will test how well your 
		subwoofers can reproduce two seperate bass notes, without 
		interference.

	_Mother_ 
		that guitar better be crisp with a metalic edge to it!

	_Empty Spaces_ 
		again, excellent deep organ notes. If you can	
		find it, the Laser disk of the movie, _The Wall_ has major
		subsonical bass, ~10-20 hz! Its a pity that is not found in
		the CD's. ( likewise for several movie "sound track" CD's )

	I could go on, there are many excellent tracks with great
	kick drums, and guitar plucking.

You might as well include on the list many of the Pink Floyd/
Roger Waters albums. 

Other works that'll test your system :

John Williams: "The Planet Krypton"

Straus: "Also Sprach Zarathustra"   ( when 2001 came out, there is an 
	apocraphal tale that one audiophie ran down the aisles to the
	screen screaming "It's God"!  ;-)

Excerts from these and other excellent ones can be found on Telarc's
digital series "Time Warp", and "Star Tracks I, II, III" 

	Heed the warnings, trust me on this. They can and have blown 
	many many speakers. 

Mike Oldsfield: "Tubular Bells"



argh, 5mw. I'll get back on this list.	
-- 

	" It's time for Congress to tell the president to shove his 
	veto pen up his deficit! "  
					- Rep. Jim Traficant.