[liddown]

To be completely honest I don't know what it was they were playing, Euro sounding Female  Like I said I take it as my issue. 

Comparing sound for me is easier with source material that I know well, and have heard on my system. Impossible to please everyone in the room at the same time. I just try to take something that if the room owner is willing to play it I know at least it won't "offend" anyone.. LOL

[wisnon]

I find that at shows the test tracks to be used should stress the systems in predetermined ways to find their potential limits.

Thus, songs like The Lofgren guitar track mentioned, Mussorsky's Night at Bare mountain organ music, Chris Jones -No Sanctuary here/Roadhouses and Automobiles, All of You- Xylophone music by the Modern Jazz quartet, Nuages - James Carter, Get your lies straight -Ry Cooder +, Jazz variants by the Ozone percussion Group and great hall recorded vocal like Misa Criolla- Jose Carreras can help to gain a great appreciation of what a given system can do.

[audioengr]

The press always wants female vocalist.  It is a metric, but often the large orchestral piece or the lone piano is just as useful.  Difficult to find good piano pieces however.  I think the recording engineers have just as difficult a time trying to record it as we have trying to play it back.  I dont hesitate to play piano in my rooms.  Most rools shy away from piano IME.  People often get bored with it.

What most shogoers need to realize is that many times the rooms pick certain tracks that their system can actually reproduce well.  When given other good recordings, the same systems show deficiencies.  This is why ALL rooms should be able to play the tracks that you bring in on CDROM or Flash USB stick.  Two tracks is a good idea too, not just one.

Steve N.