My Qobuz Audiophile Reference Track Playlist link is open.qobuz.com/playlist/12539391 I've have a bunch of other playlists too that focus on different genres and specific audiophile shows.
Some of the tracks i use is Black Shoes felix laband, Fink the trouples what you´re in, Malia magnetic lies, Gasolin This is my life and Trevor Morris - Hvitserk's choice just to name a few.
Very insightful video. In terms of piano realism, aren't loudspeakers that take into account Fletcher-Munson psychoacoustics with a gradually declining frequency response actually going to sound more realistic to human ears. My ears have attuned to such a speaker (Dynaudio Evoke 10 in near field set up) and the upper registers of many other speakers sound like highly unrealistic "breaking glass" to me. (I by the way played piano for many years as a child).
Thanks.. It depends on what volume you play. Fletcher Munson tuned speakers can be exceptional, but as you know the FM curve is variable based on volume, so they really can't address that perfectly at all volumes. Generally speaking, yes... At certain volumes and certain recordings...they will sound more accurate to real life. You often hear about the "magical" midrange from such speakers, but there are trade-offs. I play my system fairly loud such that it more closely resembles where a flat free field response under 1k sounds more right. Also, recording engineers are inherently either subliminally or intentionally factoring in Fletcher Munson to their EQ of a recording. They almost all do it by ear, so they are boosting and dipping either by tastes, effect, or perception which factor in Fletcher Munson. That's why over the long haul it's best to go mostly flat in your system under 1khz per accredited recording engineer curves designed by David Chesky & Bob Katz... Although Sean Olive starts with a 1db roll-off at the first octave. If you listen to a lot of acoustic music though at certain volumes, a Fletcher Munson "colored" speaker may be ideal for certain tastes.
I forgot to mention that my curve is based on Bob Katz (you get 6 options in the Bacch) which starts a roll-off at 1khz. You can play with the different options and even manually override the curve to taste if you want which is good for people with hearing loss.
How often have you heard this track at shows...other people's homes...mentioned in reviews? What's BS about a piano and female vocals that are unprocessed? I have 200 other tracks plus playlists of specific genre, but why don't you do a similar video of one track you prefer? That would be more helpful than emotionally vomiting about one artist that triggers you.
No it shouldn't have a lot of hiss.. The noise floor is actually another thing to test your system. You can hear her dress ruffle while playing the piano and the pedals very easily if the noise floor is good in your system... Plus many other details in terms of her breaths if your noise floor is great.
I am assuming you are using your Stax reference headphones to verify your speakers output? While what you do in the video is correct and the best approach in my opinion, it takes a lot of time and experience. While one can catch many issues with less than expected performance without phones , I find I need a state of the art headphone to be sure what I’m hearing is not on the recording itself. Which happens not infrequently. I only had one chance to hear the video with my wife complaining in the background but I don’t remember hearing what your reference is to validate what you expect to hear from the recording.
Yes...I have a video about the importance of headphones being a key reference tool. You're also right that it takes experience and skill, but everything in life worth doing usually requires a bit of investment in time and a learning curve. In most cases, this is a fun investment in time and experience because the results become tangible. It's like tweaking your car for better performance on the race track...you can't just do it the first time perfectly, but you can make progress that's rewarding. Also, once you learn to correlate measurements to what you hear, you can then trust tools like the Bacch much more to do it for you quickly and then you may just have a few settings you want to tweak to your exact taste.
@@AudiophileJunkie you are definitely a listener following a rational path to audiophile nirvana. A speaker output that actually maps out the input. Nice to know others take this hobby seriously without veering off into questionable, highly subjective self confirmation bias’s. It is possible to approach an objective standard for all practical purposes.
You mean there are reference tracks besides Liberty and Hey Now? lol..well you know my fav tracks as i have talked about them in the past. the bottom line is that i want to use songs or the type of music that i listen to because ultimately i am listening to the system with one question in mind "would i buy this". If i were doing an objective review for review sake then sure, i could see using a broader range of tracks to test the highs and mids (over my focus on bass). As for your point about "fixing" your lack of using jargon, i vote a HARD NO on that one! As i have said in the past, the things i like best about your reviews are that you use real world music and real world language...not that flowery bullshit lol.
I use the following tracks for evaluating systems mainly due to them highlighting certain audio aspects within the first minute of the track: Celestial Echo - Malia & Boris Blank Come Away With Me - Norah Jones Just A Little Lovin' - Shelby Lynne Antigravity - SOHN Robber - The Weather Station Lipstick On the Glass - Wolf Alice Earthly Elegance - Kalya Scintilla
Those are good options and I have some in my reference playlist. It's important to have classical stuff as well that is more Omni micd and has full range instruments with an acoustic reference.
@@AudiophileJunkie I also use the works of Stavros Lantsias, his 1999 album 'Return' in particular where he augments his jazz quartet with a string quartet and 'Diary of Dreams' (2023) where he is backed by a full orchestra.
