[newzooreview]

I spent a lot of time watching Youtube coverage of the Pacific Audio Fest that just finished last weekend, and I noticed that Dominique Fils-Aimé has, in a way, become the new Diana Krall. Her songs showed up in a number of rooms: they are clean sounding with a good bit of compression and a hot, forward mix that can provide a "hi-fi" sound in a lot of systems. There's also a good bit of upper bass that even a bookshelf speaker can portray (at least partially, when not heard side-by-side with a more capable speaker).

I know this is not a new phenomenon, but it seems to be getting worse. It's the loudness wars and the whizbang first-impression that Best Buy goes for. People often bring their own music to mitigate the issue if the room is not busy and the exhibitor can manage to play the track.

My questions are

A. Is the use of these fizzy tracks that make most systems sound good actually getting worse in recent shows?

B. What music could we recommend to exhibitors either to avoid, or more positively, to effectively use to fully demonstrate the capabilities of their equipment?

Regarding the second question, I would say that live recordings with real instruments and spatial cues would be a start. Massed strings and distant bass from timpani and horns in a symphony reveal a lot about a speaker's capabilities. I have wide ranging musical tastes, and good live recordings of rock and jazz can be just as revealing as classical. I understand that aficionados of electronic dance music will have specific recordings and quantities they listen for as well.

Maybe this sort of recommendation for exhibitors has been covered and doesn't do much good.

[aldcoll]

I was at the show in Seattle and yes there appeared to be " Show Play List"  as you roamed the halls.

And with the advent of streaming if the room was slow or they noticed I had returned I was asked if I had a request and Bingo.

I might throw out that with LTA powering multiple rooms it was easy to get a grasp of their equipment.  And all three sounded GREAT.

Alan

[simoon]

I spent a lot of time watching Youtube coverage of the Pacific Audio Fest that just finished last weekend, and I noticed that Dominique Fils-Aimé has, in a way, become the new Diana Krall. Her songs showed up in a number of rooms: they are clean sounding with a good bit of compression and a hot, forward mix that can provide a "hi-fi" sound in a lot of systems. There's also a good bit of upper bass that even a bookshelf speaker can portray (at least partially, when not heard side-by-side with a more capable speaker).

I know this is not a new phenomenon, but it seems to be getting worse. It's the loudness wars and the whizbang first-impression that Best Buy goes for. People often bring their own music to mitigate the issue if the room is not busy and the exhibitor can manage to play the track.

My questions are

A. Is the use of these fizzy tracks that make most systems sound good actually getting worse in recent shows?

B. What music could we recommend to exhibitors either to avoid, or more positively, to effectively use to fully demonstrate the capabilities of their equipment?

I have pretty much no issues with whatever the purveyors of the room choose to play. I can easily get a good idea what the gear sounds like, even if I don't care for the music, if the recording is good. Although, I do tend to avoid commercial studio recordings*, when evaluating audio.

I have almost always had my requests filled, even if they are on the, shall we say, not so mainstream side of the spectrum. I have had modern and atonal classical played at my request, as well as progressive contemporary jazz. 

Regarding the second question, I would say that live recordings with real instruments and spatial cues would be a start. Massed strings and distant bass from timpani and horns in a symphony reveal a lot about a speaker's capabilities. I have wide ranging musical tastes, and good live recordings of rock and jazz can be just as revealing as classical. I understand that aficionados of electronic dance music will have specific recordings and quantities they listen for as well.

Maybe this sort of recommendation for exhibitors has been covered and doesn't do much good.

I completely agree with your assessment of playing recordings with a lot of spatial cues. But I do have to disagree with live rock recordings being revealing.

Live rock recordings are almost never recorded with any effort to capture spatial cues.

The vast majority of symphonic classical recordings are made using a Decca Tree, with a few mics to capture sections further away from the tree.

Decca Trees are known for capturing the spatial cues of the event.



And for smaller ensembles and acoustic jazz, the equally effective (at capturing spatial cues) Blumlein method is most often used.




I believe (please correct me if I'm wrong) most live rock recordings are recorded from the feed from the instruments, to the mixer, and not through the air. some mics are added to capture the crowd, but not usually for ambient cues.

*Although I listen to many at home

[newzooreview]

I agree, live rock recordings are less likely than other genres to be recorded with good spatial cues. Most are recorded from the soundboard.

Everyone has a number of favorite tracks that reveal the good attributes of a system. For me it's a cheesy Philips collection of Mozart passages, "Mozart in the Morning." The recordings span about 15 years from 1973 to 1988, almost all with Neville Mariner. They are in the good to very good range as far as classical recordings go, so they tend to test how well a system can reveal. As I've upgraded my system, I've heard new delicacy in instruments that are farther down in the mix, space and air around instruments that were mushed together before, improved realism in the timbre of instruments, the easing and opening of congested and strident massed strings, and texture and spatial depth in the low bass.

With typical audio show recordings it is hard to discern those things. But it's also hard if you aren't familiar with the recording in the first place.

[Tyson]

Back when I used to do show coverage, I would burn a CD with 5 tracks.  One track was large orchestral (Mahler), one track was classical vocal (Handel), a solo instrument (Bach solo violin), one track modern pop (female vocals) and one track electronica type music (heavy bass and percussion).  I also cut each track to only 2 minutes each, so in 10 minutes I had an excellent idea of the various capabilities of any given system.

[newzooreview]

That makes really good sense. It seems as if CD players are rare at shows nowadays. Most have a streaming option, but it is time consuming to talk someone through finding the right recording, especially if it's classical. Some number of rooms play only vinyl or locally stored files because hotels want to charge nearly $1000/day for "event WiFi" for one exhibitor in one room.

Carrying around a USB stick with a few favorite files would probably work in more than half the rooms, at least.

One thing I noticed with the coverage on Youtube was that it seemed difficult for folks to make it to most of the rooms and also play their favorite tracks. They often find the room busy with several people already focused on what is playing and/or the exhibitor too busy in a conversation to change the music. So, they record what is playing and move on. That's a different issue than exhibitors playing more revealing tracks, but related, I suppose.

[EkW]

At the PacFest Dr. Vinyl (Jose Rodriguez) gave a talk on cartridges etc. He is of the opinion that Simon and Garfunkel's Concert in Central Park is a great live recording that is the exception to the live non-classical recording are no good rule.  From his description it might not be the music so much as the audience ambiance that makes it a useful test record. He said that there are several audience noises that appear when the TT and Cart are set up properly. Maybe the music sounds great too; I have never heard that album.
I had never heard nor heard of Dominque *-* before the show. I thought she was boring. I also was subjected to Keith Please Leave but did get part of Tin Pan Alley and Pawnshop Jazz. In one room where I was the only listener I got to hear Bat For Lashes version of Springsteen’s I’m on Fire. I had heard it on the radio and thought that it might sound good on a decent system. It did.
The hotel didn’t have the bandwidth necessary for everybody to stream but their cookies were good.