Alright, I originally typed this all for a thread in Beginners Discussion, but may as well make a new post here considering how much I wrote! Not everyone wants to use the AutoSound2000 Disc, so here are some more commercially available tracks that have served me well.



Kick-Bass:
Limp Bizkit - Rollin' (Urban Assault Vehicle)
*The Bass drum in the opening set should be firm, without there being any blur - each individual hit, even though there are as many as 10 beats per second, should be clear and distinct. The subwoofer shouldn't be struggling, there should be definite clarity and distinction. Often this is very difficult to achieve in a ported box. This will highlight the strength of your subwoofer installation - there is only so much the front speakers can help here.*


Mid-High Range - Guitar Work, Cymbals:
Dire Straits - Once Upon A Time In The West
*The guitar should be crisp and clear. At 24 seconds in, the cymbal should be clearly heard behind the drum roll. The image of the drum should be firm, and it will move - from the centre, to the far right, then to the far left. Each source should be clearly identified and image correctly.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Funky Monks
*The opening guitar riff, and the cymbals that follow throughout, should be extremely crisp, sharp and distinct.


Mood (ambience) and Imaging:
Red Hot Chili Peppers - My Friends
*There are two distinct guitarists playing here, one on the far left and one on the far right. They are playing almost the same thing, yet there are subtle differences. There should be no doubt as to the existence of two people on the stage. The singer should be clearly focussed in the centre of the stage. At the 2 minute mark, a third guitarist enters the stage dead in the centre - all three guitarists should be distinct from one another. Can you focus on them all separately? (there are actually only two guitarists, but lets not make it confusing, this is the effect you should experience)*
*Related to this, the opening minute should sound like you are sitting in front of an informal jam session - a guitarist, on your right, a guitarist on your left, a singer in the centre, and drummer just slightly behind him.*


All-Round, specifically drums, guitar and vocals:
Dire Straits - Water Of Love
*One guitar slightly right of centre, quite faint. It's only playing soft chords, but it should be distinct. One lead guitar playing slightly left of centre, which should be very clear. You should be able to hear the fingers rubbing along the strings on this lead guitar, the slight touches that are unintentional. Between these two guitars is the lead singer, his voice should be clear, and distinctly between the two guitars. During the chorus' and even during some of the later verses, you will here a second singer, softer. He should be distinct from the lead singer. Like two people standing next to each other, but one is louder than the other. The main drum beat is usually in the centre, but sometimes wanders to the left, then to the right, then back to the centre. You should be able to follow this. This should also sound like you are actually sitting in front of the group here - it is a very clear, life-like recording. Basically, it should sound "real".


Left-Right Imaging - Fades:
The Crystal Method - Vapor Trail
*The sound opens on the right, washes over to the left very briefly, immediately rolls back to the right, fades, before finally re-emerging on the far left. Then a strong clear mid-bass beat will come in, which should be clearly focussed in the centre.*

Propellerheads - 360 Degrees (Oh Yeah?)
*Starting on the left, the tape effect fades consistently from left to right, to left, to right.... and keeps doing so. The music comes in at 25 seconds - can you still hear the tape effect rolling from side to side? You should be able to focus on it and follow its movements until 38 seconds in, when it disappears.*


Front-Woofer and Sub-Woofer Integration:
Often this is the toughest balance to achieve - a point where there is no frequency overlap, the subwoofer is not distinct, and all the bass is up the front, without there being a lack of sub-bass.
The Prodigy - Baby's Got A Temper
*The sub-bass comes in at 23 seconds. Throughout this tracks, it rolls from higher frequencies to very low frequencies. The subwoofer should not be noticeable, but rather blend with the front stage - all the bass should be up the front.*

The Prodigy - Voodoo People
*There are two bass hits, one at 1:10, and another slightly stretched out one at 1:16. Both start at a mid-bass frequency and roll down very deep. There should be no inconsistency of strength of the subwoofer at any point. The intensity of this note is the SAME - it does not get louder or softer! There should be no audible "gap" as the subwoofer comes in and the fronts fade out. Similarly, there should be no "overlap", in that the bass increases at some point in the centre. This is a great way of testing your sub-bass balance - If the sub-bass is too high, the sound will get noticeably louder as it gets deeper. If your sub-bass is too low, the sound will appear to "die" as it gets lower - in actuality, it maintains its strength all the way until it reaches it's lowest note, THEN fades. There are many more of this longer second bass roll off, specifically: 3:48, 3:54, 4:01, 4:14, 4:20. The shorter first bass hit is also heard at 3:42 and 4:08. At 5:54, there is a regular bass beat that lasts for 10 seconds. Once again, the subwoofer should NOT be distinct - all the bass should sound up the front, and image as if it was all coming from the front speakers.*



Hopefully this helps someone!

Awesome choice with the prodigy tracks, IMO Not enough Eagles though

But they will all point out flaws in systems, so they are all worth while auditioning.

awesome thanks for that!!

yeah, great effort in researching and writing that stazed. one addition i would highly recommend for the left/right imaging & fades would be Bjork - Komid (Medulla - Bonus Track (Japan) )
this is a multi-layered track of just vocals, and although i didnt go through it as thoroughly as you may have stazed, there are at least 10 different positions the vocals should come from throughout the track.

for kick-bass also try tool - aenema, at about 5:35
also check out the album tool - lateralus, lots of detail in the songs and the album is beautifully recorded

I dont have the CD with me, but I seem to remember Tears for Fears had some nicely engineered tunes. "Woman in Chains" springs to mind.

i just use the "my disc" thats for sale on here

can tune your stereo to perfection!

Bought the My Disc #103 from this site a few weeks back, it's without doubt the best $47 I've spent on audio hardware so far.

I tried to buy something simliar for a long time now, but none of the audio shops I've been in Perth nor JB Hi Fi stock such discs. Some car audio shops even wonder why I even ask for such testing discs, makes me wonder how they tune/evaluate their systems.

Some of the tracks enables you to evaluate the quality of the DAC and noise floor of the system very easily; along with the usual selection of test tones of all freq ranges and tracks that judging staging and imaging much easier and repeatable.

so a great tool and a must have tool for anyone half serious about audio!

Completely agree, it's the primary disc I use

but as I said at the start, " Not everyone wants to use the AutoSound2000 Disc, so here are some more commercially available tracks that have served me well. "

in other words, some tracks people might have laying around so they don't have to shell out to buy a new CD

All of the tracks you've suggested are commercial/mixed recordings.

You really should take a listen to some true audiophile recordings, laid down unmixed with minimal mic techniques.

Phil

I'll second Tool's Lateralus, its an incredible recording and stunning music too.

Could you give us some examples, and where to find these Phil?

Thanks,
Valk.

I'll say it for the last time:
THAT'S THE POINT.

Not everyone cares that much about SQ to buy specifically high-quality recordings of music they don't like, just to see how it sounds.

I own both My Disc and Alpine's First Encounter (real copies) as test discs. When would you like me to listen to "some true Audiophile recordings" Phil?

With your points in mind stazed, this is an excellent guide for "real world" performance tuning, i guess you could say.

Good write-up, and choice track selection. Cheers.

add also to your list - hell freezes over - eagles - hotel califorina.

in the live recording there is amplifier hum in the background on the first few seconds of it. I use that track to tune a few things that you mentioned above.

good choice of commercial music ( and yes I have the CAN/highway one Alpine disc. as well as a back up I have the TDK one.) which most of us listen to on a daily basis and know what to look for.

Definitely!!!!!!!

All the little detail of the guitar is there.

hotel california, i wonder is there any sq car outhere, that never play this song

The Eagles DVD is really good too.

Phil

while we're going offtopic, that interesting link in your sigs broken, phil.

If only CAA would remain constant.

Phil

I do not allow Hotel California to be played in my car. Its a rule I have. Money for Nothing, well, thats a different story....

Did anyone here actually like the Eagles before Hotel California became some sort of holy grail of SQ songs?

I purchase my JL audio X or T or V or VT series of 6" splits lol from JB tomorow and once installed i am going to make a CD with all the listed songs above and test it out but at the same time changing the freq on my amp

Ok thanks alot, very good write up, will give feedback of if it worked for my system consiting of -

.JL Audio 6" Splits (vt or v or X series ) [approx $390]
.JBL 12" Gt4 series 1000w in PORTED BOX [Should be a good test since its ported ]
.Pioneer 3-way 6x9's
.4 " stockies under dash
.4 " kenwoods next to parcel shelf
.4ch Jaycar 05 amp


Regards
eddie

i know you've been told, but i'll do it again.
and heres a great way to show you why.

Disconnect the 6x9"s, and all the 4" speakers

Find out for yourself, do a test with them all running, and then with them disconnected. see what sounds better.

I bought it on vinyl when it was first released many, many years ago.

i tend to use dire straits and michael jackson to tune to

I'll second that. I have Renault stockies in the rear. Now remember, this is a brand new '05 car I have. They still sound like crape. They were disconnected when I put my Focal splits in. As Liquidity said, do yourself a favour and unplug those Pioneers and all 4" speakers. And let your JL's really sing. At the moment with that mix of excellent and very poor speakers in there, it probably does sound fully sik...

This is one of the best threads i have to say personally

Im downloading all the tracks now and im about to head off to purchase my splits after a few hours of auditioning

I also bring mates in the car and someitmes have a full car load lol i cant leave the people in the back with no music :S.....Anyhow i will be fading the volume into the front splits upon purchase ...

Will leave feedback!

"I bought it on vinyl when it was first released many, many years ago"

Hehe my grandma has the vinyl player and all the vinyls and also has hotel california the original and i saw the devil on the front cover in the window pretty freaky stuff..

Thanks alot

regards
eddie

Glad to see I'm not the only one here that doesnt have a sub purely for the techno trance stuff (I'm only kidding )

Err, download? Um, not a good idea, even if you can get them at a good bitrate. For SQ tuning, I would recommend you get the ORIGINAL CD's, burn ones MAY just be burnt off the MP3's or AAC's or whatever, so try and get the originals.

I'm not bagging MP3's, my entire collection is on my ipod ripped at 320 VBR, so no flames please.

Cheers,
Valk.

Hypothetical situation: I'm not doubting that the original CD's sound better (to some people anyway). But if you listen to say 320 VBR music and you tune your system using these, well your going to be listening to them so tuning on something that is better quality kinda defeats the purpose doesn't it?

Another thing, apart from setting the gains and crossovers most of us dont have fancy eq's so how much tuning is there really involved where having super high quality material is required?

Depends on how far you want to go but you have to be realistic. I listen to a mix of MP3's (for the conviencience factor) and original CD's. I know someone who swears by only listenening to CD's because of the quality factor yet he says he doesnt want to waste money on deadening on his doors. I would rather listen to high bitrate MP3's with deadening in my doors than CD's without it.

I'm not having a go at anyone just throwing some thoughts around.

Yeah for sure! I'd never "tune" my system with MP3's, because I would do it with the best quality material available (material suggested in this thread). But for listening, and the "convienience" that you mention, MP3's are great.

If I only listened to MP3's, and didn't much care for comps etc, then I wouldn't bother tuning with anything else, but if quality is what you're after, then may as well have the highest base-line (no not baSS-line LOL) to measure up against.

Cheers,
Valk.

Damn this thread, and my non-eventful Saturday night!

I just went and put on my 'The Very Best of the Eagles' CD and sat in the dark in the garage and listened to hotel cali 3 times

did you hear the hum? ( hang on that was hell freezes over..)

Your non-eventful Saturday night? I sound-deadened my front doors tonight...yeah I have no life.
(Sorry O/T)

Phil Im not entirely sure I understand what your trying to say here because I know of no SQ tracks that are "unmixed" and use minimal mic techniques.

I would agree that most audiophile SQ tracks are incompressed/gated/digitally altered before mixdown though

On the topic of Hotel Califonia, has anyone else heard the tapping of a guitar body towards the beginning of the song?

I am refering to the DVD DTS track. I am pretty sure that it is the bassist Timothy B Schmidt accidently tapping his guitar on something. It could just be my home theater (Marantz DVD and Yamaha amp/speakers.). I have heard it on two different disc's from two totally different pressings.

Just curious if anyone else has come across this. Sorry to hijack.

The new Eagles DVD has some great kick drum work on the second disc too, the whole concert has a great sound to it. Awesome concert to see live too.

Apologies for hijacking

Gotta go try those tracks now, thanks stazed

While SQ recordings are a great way to get a feel for your system i dont think setting your system to play these reference tracks is all that important.

If you asked me that same queation a year or so ago i would have agreed BUT i like my music to be fun.
So if that 10db of boost at 30hz sounds cool, go 4 it