Favourite CDs to test a new player

[mikeweil]

The CD-30 is back in the living room after we rearranged some furniture. I surprised my wife by turing the new sofa we got this summer by 90 degrees, and she surprised me by confessing that she loved rearranging rooms every now and then. So i moved the Focal speakers to face the sofa and brought the micromega player back in. The Lou Rawls Xmas disc sounds fabulous.

[mjzee]

2 hours ago, mikeweil said:

The CD-30 is back in the living room after we rearranged some furniture. I surprised my wife by turing the new sofa we got this summer by 90 degrees, and she surprised me by confessing that she loved rearranging rooms every now and then. So i moved the Focal speakers to face the sofa and brought the micromega player back in. The Lou Rawls Xmas disc sounds fabulous.

Do you like your Focal speakers?  Houston currently has a dearth of audio dealers, but Focal has opened a store showcasing its products.

[mikeweil]

32 minutes ago, mjzee said:

Do you like your Focal speakers?  Houston currently has a dearth of audio dealers, but Focal has opened a store showcasing its products.

Go and have a listen. I would buy them again without hesitation and have a smaller size pair in my bedroom. CJ Shearn is another board member loving Focal speakers.

[Gheorghe]

On 4/6/2022 at 2:35 PM, bresna said:

 

 

You should have a few CDs that you know every note - for me it would CDs like "Kind of Blue", "Blue Train" or "Soul Station". I would use something like this.

That´s it ! 

In my case mostly "Blues Train" and "Soul Station". 
I can´t say I´m an audiophile since my hearing is not so good any more and the most important thing for me is to hear the full drum set. On records I sometimes have difficulties to hear the cybals properly, it can be may ears which don´t get higher frequencies as good as it might have been, and very good it never was. That´s why I like the cymbals really loud (I think this was also the reason why Blakey played them really lound in later years). It also may be the fault of the recording engineers who sometimes drown the cymbals (maybe other listeners who are not drum addicts like I am). 
So if I hear Philly Joe Jones drum set as clear as possible, it will be okay for me.

And "Soul-Station" for a fully captured tenor sound. And oh yeah, I think the piano is also very very fine recorded on this. 

[mikeweil]

5 hours ago, Gheorghe said:

That´s it ! 

In my case mostly "Blues Train" and "Soul Station". 
I can´t say I´m an audiophile since my hearing is not so good any more and the most important thing for me is to hear the full drum set. On records I sometimes have difficulties to hear the cybals properly, it can be may ears which don´t get higher frequencies as good as it might have been, and very good it never was. That´s why I like the cymbals really loud (I think this was also the reason why Blakey played them really lound in later years). It also may be the fault of the recording engineers who sometimes drown the cymbals (maybe other listeners who are not drum addicts like I am). 
So if I hear Philly Joe Jones drum set as clear as possible, it will be okay for me.

And "Soul-Station" for a fully captured tenor sound. And oh yeah, I think the piano is also very very fine recorded on this. 

In the meantime I got the XRCD issue of Soul Station and it sounds really fine. 

I have the same problem with hearing loss in the higher frequency range. I know what sounds should be there, and on a good set of headphone it is not as evident, but with speakers it sounds as if they ste the drumset volume much too low (which they often do, I always thought). Do an ear examination, and the results will show you the frequency range that's beyond repair, regrettably. Even cranking uo the treble will not help.

Edited January 2, 2023 by mikeweil

[Gheorghe]

16 hours ago, mikeweil said:

 

 

Do an ear examination, and the results will show you the frequency range that's beyond repair, regrettably. Even cranking uo the treble will not help.

I did it of course ! Some years ago. In the left ear 70% is missing, in the right ear 50%. But I don´t have any problems when playing live or listening to live music. 
I would have problems if there was instruments like piccolo or high notes of let´s say a vibe or a celeste, or very high notes from the piano. 

Headphones would be a solution for listening records, but I feel so isolated if I use headphones. No headphones, and I never do what others do while riding the bus or the subway, listening to music with hadphones. What I do is "cut out" what´s around me and "hear music in my head". Well, sometimes it is to the astonishment of peoples around me, since I seem to be "off" because I figure out musical things in my head, memorizing tunes, comping or soloin imaginationed solo lines and stuff. 

But there are enough modern recorded albums especially live albums where I hear my beloved cymbals very well. I´m just a drums addict and my favourite drummer here in Viena,  sometimes if I´m off I just go and listen to him when he plays with other personnel and seat next to the drums to hear and feel it. 

But it´s interesting there are old studio recordings where you hear the drums right. Take "Tranes Blues" on one of those Prestige Albums Miles did, you really hear the wonderful cymbal sound of Philly J.J., and BN also did a good job with it. It seems that some recording engeneers think "jazz" and think drums, and others think non jazz and don´t understand the drums. That´s a big point. And I heard that even among jazz listeners there are some who don´t want to hear too much drums.....