What album do you test stereos with?
 

Whenever I need to test a stereo system I fall back to one album... Children of the Sun By Billy Thorpe. If the young folks here never heard of him, its only because his record company failed right after releasing his album. I've seen his name in credits for television music by outside of that... nothing. Anyway what albums do you use to make speakers pop?

For accuracy of voice: Brian Eno "Before and After Science".

For slam: Flim & the BBs "Big Notes" (CD).

For acoustic piano: DG pressing of Bach "Wohltemperierte Klavier".

I've only ever bought one stereo. I remember using the Billy Joel song "River of Dreams" to decide between the two or three different options that I was choosing between. It's not a huge entertainment system, just a stereo that I bought when I was 15, so I didn't go all out testing them all - I just bought the one I preferred the sound of.

By the way, Griff, Billy Thorpe is still kind of big in Australia. (I'm assuming you don't live there.) A year or so ago he got banned from playing at Crown Casino (a tacky, glitzy, oversized piece of crap) for playing too loud. Proves you're never too old to rock, huh?

cool
 

Glad to hear he's still making waves!

Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon, especially Time, Money, and Great Gig in the Sky. They all have really deep bass and thick layering, so if you here everything, its good speakers.

Good answer. The last time I did a stereo test with vinyl was upon moving into my first house, as serious stereo testing in the previous apartment would have been dangerous to my lease.

My copy of Dark Side was rather worn by then--it had been purchased *before* the Dark Side tour. I had the good fortune to see Floyd in Philly twice: once at the Spectrum for the Dark Side tour, and once before that at the Tower for the Meddle tour--up close and personal !

So I used "Wish You Were Here" instead. Mucho dynamic range. Serious bass. Appreciable high-end.

There was a time when tracks that had bass lines near the resonant frequency of my laser reflector got a lot of play. The reflector was a first-surface mirror glued to a latex sheet stretched loosely on an embroidery hoop. Rick Wakeman's "Six Wives" worked pretty well on that. Any random vis plugin for XMMS/WinAmp gives you a better light show these days. But that was then, this is now.

Also good as test data are some of the tracks on Beaver and Krause albums "Gandharva" and "In a Wild Sanctuary".

"By Your Grace" from Ghandarva will give the stereo imaging a good workout. Gerry Mulligan--baritone sax, Bud Shank --flute and tenor sax, Gail Laughton--harps (two harps at once!), Howard Roberts-guitar, Paul Beaver--pipe organ and Bernard Krause--Moog synth, recorded in Grace Catherdral--a space 150 feet long and 90 feet high, with a seven-second decay time. 12 mikes fed a 16-track recorder; heady stuff for 1971. The musicians having hand-held instrumens walked though the space while recording.

Serious nostalgia/trivia points to those who know what B&C's *first* album was.

Peter Gabriel - Peter Gabriel

Ahhh ... which ONE you ask? The one that has Rhythm of the Heat as the first cut on side one (yes, I am that old that I think of things as having two sides).

I've scared stereo salesmen with the volume level I select (these go to 11 ...)

It's a GREAT test album, IMHO.

And something that I am guaranteed to listen to a lot on any equipment that I buy ...

I agree...... I have a microgroove needle so I can really hear if stuff sounds bad with this needle...... (If it doesnt sound good to me on this needle than it would only be worse on a reg tip)

On my Crosley player I cant really tell anything as it is just a basic player... (No bass/treble controls)

My main player is a 1968 Micromatic.......

Top Gun is a good one for testing speakers.