Headphone Heights

Would you use a Kanye West recording to test a $6500 setup?

172.14.49.253

jimbill

just saw this and thought it was funny.
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/23/garden/review-mcintosh-hea (Open in New Window)

Follow Ups:

RE: Would you use a Kanye West recording to test a $6500 setup? - colebearanimals 17:55:51 12/03/14 (0)
Nope. But then I don't like him or his music.
PaulB
I use Mountain Goats recordings! - Frihed89 11:14:41 11/04/14 (3)
Use the music you like, not the music to impress your neighbors.
Observe, before you think. Think before you open your yap. Act on the basis of experience.
- At least use a goat that challenges the headphones - jimbill 21:44:37 11/07/14 (2)
  A Kanye recording will cover the lower to middle octaves.
  
  When you review or audition a piece of equipment you would want to challenge the entire range of the audio spectrum.
  
  This is a very expensive setup so why would you use a limited recording to use in your review?
  - RE: At least use a goat that challenges the headphones - Frihed89 17:04:21 11/08/14 (1)
    Because I don't care about music i don't listen to. But i do use many other recordings, many classical.
    Observe, before you think. Think before you open your yap. Act on the basis of experience.
    - I agree with you - jimbill 19:08:19 11/09/14 (0)
      When I am auditioning a piece of equipment that I am thinking about buying for myself I would use music I like and would listen to on that piece of equipment.
      
      But when you are presenting "your published professional review" to the world to help others then you should use recordings that will test the piece of equipment.
      
      Vocals that go from the lows to the highs to test nuance, instrumentals that place the instruments within a sound stage, dense instrumentation to test resolution.
      
      Once again, this is a very expensive setup, not a Walmart special. It's a given that it should be able to handle basic recordings.
I do .. - Jon L 09:13:58 10/26/14 (0)
My critical listening playlist does include Kanye, but obviously there are many other tracks from many other genre's, including Mahler, Art Blakey, female vocals, Cohen, etc, etc.
Kanye tracks are almost ideal for testing if your setup has the desired balance between forgiveness and resolution. Unforgiving or unnaturally "detailed" setups will have Kanye torture your ears, but setups too round and forgiving will make Kanye sound incredibly boring and bland.
Try Kanye over Stax SR009 over unforgiving system (I tried), and re-learn the true emotion in expletives..

Edits: 10/26/14 10/26/14
RE: Would you use a Kanye West recording to test a $6500 setup? - genungo 15:05:30 10/25/14 (2)
I'd use the recordings I listen to the most, whatever they may be. If I was a professional reviewer, I'd want to try out all sorts of different recordings both bad and good.
- You took the well traveled high road. - jimbill 20:03:27 10/25/14 (1)
  If I were a reviewer I'd use recordings I'd listened to on many occasions with various headphones and then recordings I knew that would challenge a piece of equipment.
  
  What do you mean by "bad"? A poorly recorded cd?
  - RE: "bad' recordings - genungo 00:25:16 10/26/14 (0)
    "Bad" recording = too much dynamic compression, unnatural sound, poor signal to noise ratio, low-rez. "Good" recording = dynamics relatively intact, natural sound, good signal to noise ratio, high resolution.
    I might prefer good recordings to bad ones for the most part but regardless, I'd want to listen to a few "bad" ones in order to find out if the system was resolving enough to highlight the differences between different recordings. To me, this is the test of a highly resolving system. Like you, I'd want to listen to very familiar recordings as well as recordings that were capable of revealing the limits of the systems resolving powers.
    That said, one might not want a highly resolving system if one's music collection contains mostly bad recordings. If one likes the music on bad recordings a hi-resolution system won't smooth over the warts and help make those recordings more "listenable", like a more "flattering" low(er) resolution system might do. High resolution systems flatter good recordings, not bad ones. If bad recordings are what we listen to most, we might want to find ourselves a system that makes our bad recordings seem as "musical" or as listenable as possible.
    Some would argue that a truly good system makes ALL recordings sound better regardless of recording quality. I don't think so. A system like that would tend to make all recordings sound the same to some degree. A system like that would be a highly colored one, masking the good in good recordings to the same degree it masks the bad in bad recordings.
    
    Edits: 10/26/14 10/26/14 10/26/14

Post a Followup:

FAQ

Post a Message!

Forgot Password?

Moniker (Username):
Password (Optional):
	Remember my Moniker & Password (What's this?) Eat Me
E-Mail (Optional):
Subject:

Message:	(Posts are subject to Content Rules)

Optional Link URL:
Optional Link Title:
Optional Image URL:
Upload Image:
E-mail Replies:	Automagically notify you when someone responds.

To view your new posting or follow-up, click on the RELOAD or REFRESH button on your browser.

This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors:

Sonic Craft