Speaker Testing CDs?

So yesterday I replaced my preamp and top-half amp (my woofers have their own amp) because, well, my old Nakamichi 410/420 set dates back to the 1970s. I wanted to see if newer equipment would make an improvement and I wanted a remote control and I found a Yamaha Natural Sound setup for really cheap.

So I spent last night previewing CDs in my collection, looking for anything that would really point up the difference. Found a few, but I'm always looking for recommendations on great recordings that have:

• Large well-defined recording space
  
• Ample natural low-end (big drums or acoustic bass)
  
• Tinkly sparkly high-end percussion (bells, bell-tree, shakers, triangle, etc,)
  
• Something in the midrange which is easily compared to real (grand piano, female vocal, horn of some sort)

I have many examples already, and have gone down the lists of a few magazines' recommendations online (without, umm, finding anything new) but I'm open to suggestions.

The best CDs I've had for testing speakers and amps are by -- wait for it -- Flim & The BB's, Yes, that's a real group. Not kidding.

Yeah yeah, Tricycle with the booming bass.  It's not my favorite.  The dynamic range seems artificial. (Incidentally Bill Berg of the BBs backed Leo Kottke on his "When Shrimps Learn to Whistle.")

I prefer the "Champagne Polka" which will leave your cones plastered to the opposite wall if you're not careful.

The members of Flim backed up a lot of groups. They were primarily studio musicians, with the group as a side job.

Their music is certainly not for everyone. It's esoteric, but really, really fun (imo).

I don't know what you mean by the dynamic range seeming artificial, But they produced CDs which took up all of the dynamic range the medium could provide. They used no analog recordings or over-dubbing on their music. A lot of equipment just couldn't accurately reproduce their recordings, so it made one feel good about his gear when he heard a crystal-clear triangle within a loud mid-range passage - something that's not going to be audible (or, at best, very muddy) with sub-par equipment. On one of their albums (probably "Big Notes"), there was a passage that included a very-low (15 Hertz) note at about 100db. You couldn't hear it, but you could feel sure feel it - if you had a good sub-woofer. Actually made me kind of nervous.

I haven't listened to them for many years, and several months ago I decided to break them out again. Couldn't find the damn things. None of them. I don't know if they were lost in moving or if I loaned them to someone years ago. Now that they are on my mind, I think I'll see if I can find them and buy new copies. Fun stuff. Thanks for posting this thread and reminding me. (God, I hate getting old and forgetting shit. What were we talking about?)

Let me know if you want a CD-R of Big Notes (or Tricycle).

Thank you so much for that kind offer, NoCo. And it's heartening to know that you have some Flim albums (puts you in a minority group, I'm sure). Almost makes me forgive you for all those Russell's Teapot remarks.

The mind is a strange thing (at least mine seems to be). After making my last post, I thought of one place I had not looked for the CDS. I wasn't thinking of looking for them; it just popped unbidden into my mind. So I looked there - expecting nothing - and found five of my Flim CDs, including "Big Notes."

Gonna fire up that 2700-watt RMS subwoofer and flake out. Oh, Yeah.

Wait a minute, "Oh, Yeah" is a Yello tune. Tell me you have Yello albums and I'll forgive you anything.

Does "The Green Album" by Eddie Jobson count? How about "Gelb" by Konrad Schnitzler?

I am not familiar with them.

Yello is known for German house music. Bits of their piece, "Oh, Yeah" has possibly been used in more movie, commercial, and TV sound tracks than any other tune. In fact, I heard a bit of this morning in a New Zealand tv show.

Yello may not be what one would call accomplished musicians, but most of their pieces are very entertaining and enjoyable. For me, music is all about fun. If it doesn't make me smile, I reject it. Yello makes me smile. But then so does Chet Baker. Go figure.

Is "Oh Yeah" sampled from Can's song of the same name?

I don't believe so.

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_Howard wrote:

On one of their albums (probably "Big Notes"), there was a passage that included a very-low (15 Hertz) note at about 100db.

Okay so if you located your Flim CDs can you please confirm which track and which album this is on? The only two I have are "Tricycle" and "Big Notes" so I really hope it's on "Big Notes" -- but the liner notes don't mention anything about it.

"Tricycle" is one that I didn't find. The CDs I found are all in cartridges for an old multi-disc player and I have no idea where the liner notes are. Sorry.

I have gone through a lot of CDs listening for the perfect demonstration disc. I have several which are contenders.

* Rickie Lee Jones debut -- really nice drum and bass recording, and some celeste, with Rickie's voice up close and personal. Nearly whispered in places. Great dynamics.

* Gryphon -- 1st and 2nd albums. Nothing like a crumhorn to tax a speaker.

* Holst's The Planets, with a big orchestra like Atlanta. Huge dynamics.

* Stravinsky Firebird, same story.

* People always rave about Aja by Steely Dan but it's just average, as far as I can tell. No real stage to it -- crap mixing.

So, after several weeks what do I think of my new headend? It's better -- marginally. More convenient is the biggest part. Sound wise it's maybe a little better defined on cluttered material, but the difference is real subtle.

After searching for a while, I found this forum where they are discussing deep bass.

One post caught my eye:

Quote :

The opening band of this album [Flim and the BB's "Neon"] is simply gorgeous! Whenever I want to
"tune myself into the system", I play it. There are some other cuts that
do have quite a low-end extension, but nothing on this CD approaches
F&TheBB's "Big Notes", on which the last cut, 'Born to Love You' has a
truly bottom-end series of low synth tones...somewhere around 16 hz. Can
definitely be hazardous to your woofers!

Thanks will go check it out right now!

Meh, it's okay. Nothing special.

The bass drum in Gryphon's "Pastime With Good Company" blows it out of the water.

Ha! I just picked up a used CD at Goodwill, Capella Girls' Chorus recorded at Pacific Lutheran University. The girls sound like they range in age from three up to about 12 -- their voices have not yet become trained. Their pitch and timing is anything but accurate.

This was recorded live in front of an audience -- the applause is louder than the singing. The wooden stage at PLU rattles and creaks as the girls apparently perform some pantomime or marching to accompany the songs. The audience is full of parents and younger siblings -- lots of coughing and the occasional toddler crying out, yelling incoherently.

It's charming and weird, like every school play you've ever endured.

Played an old CD last night that revealed an octave in the bass that I've never heard before, David Helpling's "Between Green and Blue." There's something going on between 15-30Hz that I've never heard before.

NoCoPilot wrote:

Meh, it's okay.  Nothing special.

What kind of sub woofer do you have? It takes a lot of power to reproduce frequencies that are, in effect, subsonic.

Dual JBL 124a's driven by 250 watts. They'll rattle your pants legs.

Are they ported?

Of course. The 124a is not an acoustic suspension woofer. The cabinet is my own asymmetrical 3.0 CF design, with tuned 4" PVC ports.

Ported enclosures are for girls.   (just kidding)
My subwoofer has two drivers (opposing: one active, one passive), is non-ported, and has a 2,700 watt RMS amp. The specs alone are meaningless, of course, but the damn thing can cause more damage than a 5.0 earthquake and can make stuff vibrate at such low frequencies that you can't hear anything, just feel it.

When we bought this house one of the draws for me was the big mancave in the basement on a concrete slab.

I think my retirement cabin will have the AV room above the garage. I miss the vibrations coming through the floor.

Question: Where is your passive radiator mounted? Is it on the rear of the cabinet?