How would I test speakers I find in a store?
07-14-2005, 08:39 AM
#1
Registered User
Thread Starter
How would I test speakers I find in a store?
from the FAQ:
How would I test speakers I find in a store? What am I listening for? How do I listen?
"Ok, fine. How do I demo this stuff?"
Here are some tips i often give friends for demo'ing equipment:
-You're trying to find the speakers that sound best to you. The goal is to find the speakers that produce the music in the most pleasing way possible, that don't sound too boomy, too harsh, or too weak.
-Make sure that where ever you go that the source is set 'flat' (0 settings for bass and treble, loudness turned off, 'bass boosts' turned off, EQ turned off), so you can be sure you're hearing the gear and not the 'tweaks'. this keeps the playing field from system to system fairly even. try to compare similar power levels as well from location to location... don't put 100Wrms / channel against 20 Wrms / channel and expect that to be a fair playing field.
-Try not to be fooled by different speaker sensitivities... your ears will lie to you when speakers are directly switched back and forth... your mind will sometimes tell you louder speakers sound better. best way to avoid this is to start w/ a low volume setting, turn it up, listen, reduce the volume, change speakers, turn up the volume to what you hear as the same level (don't look at the little indicator), then compare.
-Also, bring good quality dynamic recordings that you are familiar with to use as test material. don't only listen to what the dealer wants to stick into the player. your test music should be somewhat representative of your normal listening habits. some tips for picking good demo music - piano's, strings (cellos, violins, etc.), kick drums, snares, accoustic guitars, and women's voices are very difficult sounds for speakers and amps to reproduce faithfully. the music you hear played back to you should sound like 'you're there' at the performance. make sure to pick music that has a full range of sound with tight bass, clear midrange, and crisp highs. also, the better the sound quality of the original recording, the more flaws it will reveal in the gear you listen to...
-And don't feel compelled to match gear all together by name brand... there are really no inherent benefits from going all one name brand. pick out the equipment that you like... buying all one name only does two things... it gives you gear with the same logo everywhere and it limits your options. personally, i don't think the first outweighs the second.
-And the final thing I would add is a little rant about people should LISTEN to gear before buying gear, and it is important on HOW you listen to gear you're demoing, not just listening to anything! too many people shop name brands and prices and completely forget they are buying 'sound'.
Some good songs I've used in the past for demo'ing (going for a variety of sources and styles):
How would I test speakers I find in a store? What am I listening for? How do I listen?
"Ok, fine. How do I demo this stuff?"
Here are some tips i often give friends for demo'ing equipment:
-You're trying to find the speakers that sound best to you. The goal is to find the speakers that produce the music in the most pleasing way possible, that don't sound too boomy, too harsh, or too weak.
-Make sure that where ever you go that the source is set 'flat' (0 settings for bass and treble, loudness turned off, 'bass boosts' turned off, EQ turned off), so you can be sure you're hearing the gear and not the 'tweaks'. this keeps the playing field from system to system fairly even. try to compare similar power levels as well from location to location... don't put 100Wrms / channel against 20 Wrms / channel and expect that to be a fair playing field.
-Try not to be fooled by different speaker sensitivities... your ears will lie to you when speakers are directly switched back and forth... your mind will sometimes tell you louder speakers sound better. best way to avoid this is to start w/ a low volume setting, turn it up, listen, reduce the volume, change speakers, turn up the volume to what you hear as the same level (don't look at the little indicator), then compare.
-Also, bring good quality dynamic recordings that you are familiar with to use as test material. don't only listen to what the dealer wants to stick into the player. your test music should be somewhat representative of your normal listening habits. some tips for picking good demo music - piano's, strings (cellos, violins, etc.), kick drums, snares, accoustic guitars, and women's voices are very difficult sounds for speakers and amps to reproduce faithfully. the music you hear played back to you should sound like 'you're there' at the performance. make sure to pick music that has a full range of sound with tight bass, clear midrange, and crisp highs. also, the better the sound quality of the original recording, the more flaws it will reveal in the gear you listen to...
-And don't feel compelled to match gear all together by name brand... there are really no inherent benefits from going all one name brand. pick out the equipment that you like... buying all one name only does two things... it gives you gear with the same logo everywhere and it limits your options. personally, i don't think the first outweighs the second.
-And the final thing I would add is a little rant about people should LISTEN to gear before buying gear, and it is important on HOW you listen to gear you're demoing, not just listening to anything! too many people shop name brands and prices and completely forget they are buying 'sound'.
Some good songs I've used in the past for demo'ing (going for a variety of sources and styles):
- Natalie Merchant/Ophelia: My Skin
- Metallica/Black Album: Enter Sandman
- Tool/Aenima: Eulogy
- A Perfect Circle/13th Step: Blue
- Tori Amos/Little Earthquakes: Precious Things
- Depeche Mode/Violator: Halo
- Diana Krall/Dedication to the Nat King Cole Trio: Boulevard of Broken Dreams
- Cake/Comfort Eagle: Long Line of Cars
- Police/Syncronicity: Every Breath You Take
- Rush/Moving Pictures: Tom Sawyer
- George Michael/Faith: I Want Your Sex
- Beastie Boys/Hello Nasty: Intergalactic
- and (my personal favorite, if you can find it) Adam Again/Homeboys: Save Me.
06-29-2009, 01:53 AM
#3
don't mean to bring a dead thread back, but I think we can add a few more varieties into this section to bring more variesties and new references.
The disc that I use to demo all the time:
The Ultimate Demonstration Disc / Chesky Records / Various Artists
Jazz, Blues, Soul, Up Right String, Classicals, etc. Marvelous recordings of many different types of music. As typical reference discs, all recordings are very dynamic thous needing more amplification and will show all flaws of a system. Best of all, John Henry tells you what you listen for before each play back
A great tutoring disc for music lovers as well
Emphasis
Norah Jones/ Come Away with Me : Don't Know Why
Common tune that every one knows. Awesome female voice and intrumentals that will revel a lot of staging problems. Not perfect recording however, a few pops and buzzes along the song. Other songs in the album are great as well, all instruments should present very distinctive staging.
AK/ Trilogy
A great tuning disc for those that love eletric based music, especially electric bass. Hard to comeby in US since it is Japanese, but since it is Club music with relatively good recording, it helps set up and demonstrate systems that are tuned for electronic based music such as RAP, Trance, etc.
I'll add more of my collection when I have time, but one general principle that I go with is to use female vocals for judging and tuning, since humans are more sensitive to higher frequency vocals and sounds.
The disc that I use to demo all the time:
The Ultimate Demonstration Disc / Chesky Records / Various Artists
Jazz, Blues, Soul, Up Right String, Classicals, etc. Marvelous recordings of many different types of music. As typical reference discs, all recordings are very dynamic thous needing more amplification and will show all flaws of a system. Best of all, John Henry tells you what you listen for before each play back
A great tutoring disc for music lovers as well Emphasis
Norah Jones/ Come Away with Me : Don't Know Why
Common tune that every one knows. Awesome female voice and intrumentals that will revel a lot of staging problems. Not perfect recording however, a few pops and buzzes along the song. Other songs in the album are great as well, all instruments should present very distinctive staging.
AK/ Trilogy
A great tuning disc for those that love eletric based music, especially electric bass. Hard to comeby in US since it is Japanese, but since it is Club music with relatively good recording, it helps set up and demonstrate systems that are tuned for electronic based music such as RAP, Trance, etc.
I'll add more of my collection when I have time, but one general principle that I go with is to use female vocals for judging and tuning, since humans are more sensitive to higher frequency vocals and sounds.
06-29-2009, 03:36 AM
#4
Throw in almost any clossic 70's rock album (not a remastered one, the original mastering).
Pink Floyd is a great way to audition speakers.
Classical music will work very well also.
Keep in mind that you need to use a CD track, not an MP3, not a WMA, or OGG, etc. Those formats are extremely lossy and compensate by increasing the volume of what music data remains.
A somewhat easy (if confusing at first) way to audition is to listen for how much music you can actually hear. Bright or boomy speakers tend to mask that they don't reproduce all the music well. When you hear a high SQ set of speakers, you'll realize how much of your music you've been missing - those barely audible treble notes, the snap of the snare (a snare should not be muffled, it should pop), etc.
Pink Floyd is a great way to audition speakers.
Classical music will work very well also.
Keep in mind that you need to use a CD track, not an MP3, not a WMA, or OGG, etc. Those formats are extremely lossy and compensate by increasing the volume of what music data remains.
A somewhat easy (if confusing at first) way to audition is to listen for how much music you can actually hear. Bright or boomy speakers tend to mask that they don't reproduce all the music well. When you hear a high SQ set of speakers, you'll realize how much of your music you've been missing - those barely audible treble notes, the snap of the snare (a snare should not be muffled, it should pop), etc.
06-29-2009, 08:25 AM
#5
Registered User
Originally Posted by Neutered Sputniks,Jun 29 2009, 06:36 AM
Throw in almost any clossic 70's rock album (not a remastered one, the original mastering).
Pink Floyd is a great way to audition speakers.
Classical music will work very well also.
Keep in mind that you need to use a CD track, not an MP3, not a WMA, or OGG, etc. Those formats are extremely lossy and compensate by increasing the volume of what music data remains.
A somewhat easy (if confusing at first) way to audition is to listen for how much music you can actually hear. Bright or boomy speakers tend to mask that they don't reproduce all the music well. When you hear a high SQ set of speakers, you'll realize how much of your music you've been missing - those barely audible treble notes, the snap of the snare (a snare should not be muffled, it should pop), etc.
Pink Floyd is a great way to audition speakers.
Classical music will work very well also.
Keep in mind that you need to use a CD track, not an MP3, not a WMA, or OGG, etc. Those formats are extremely lossy and compensate by increasing the volume of what music data remains.
A somewhat easy (if confusing at first) way to audition is to listen for how much music you can actually hear. Bright or boomy speakers tend to mask that they don't reproduce all the music well. When you hear a high SQ set of speakers, you'll realize how much of your music you've been missing - those barely audible treble notes, the snap of the snare (a snare should not be muffled, it should pop), etc.
06-29-2009, 09:24 AM
#6
Originally Posted by philbert,Jun 29 2009, 12:25 PM
why do you suggest the original, rather than remastered, recording?
Let me see if I can find the thread where we discussed it a few weeks ago.
EDIT: Found it:
https://www.s2ki.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=703040
Check out the linked article in that thread.
06-29-2009, 05:27 PM
#7
Registered User
Intreresting, I'm reading through the two articles now.
Makes it even more disappointing that Mobile Fidelity stopped doing the remasters from the original studio recordings (they came on gold discs, which was probably why most people bought them, and cost 2x a regular CD). The Wall was one of the lower volume remasters they did, take a look at the "market price" for a copy on ebay. Wish I bought a copy back when...
Makes it even more disappointing that Mobile Fidelity stopped doing the remasters from the original studio recordings (they came on gold discs, which was probably why most people bought them, and cost 2x a regular CD). The Wall was one of the lower volume remasters they did, take a look at the "market price" for a copy on ebay. Wish I bought a copy back when...
Trending Topics
06-29-2009, 05:44 PM
#9
It's sad how many people think MP3 = CD quality 
Most people have no clue what they're missing when they connect their Ipod to their HU. But, then again, mainstream speakers/HUs/amps seem to be tuned towards that same kind of listener-fatigue inspiring audio...
Most people have no clue what they're missing when they connect their Ipod to their HU. But, then again, mainstream speakers/HUs/amps seem to be tuned towards that same kind of listener-fatigue inspiring audio...
07-02-2009, 10:34 AM
#10
UK Moderator
I'm ambivalent about using my iPod in-car.
I have a wonderful setup at home for a quality listening experience (cost more than my S2000
), and the sound in car depends massively on whether the roof or windows are up or down.
Whilst using a CD will give slightly better sound quality in-car, the other factors relating to the acoustics of an S2000 have a far greater bearing on how things sound IMO.
Using Alpine's Imprint has vastly improved things when driving roof up (as happens quite a lot in rainy England ) but as soon as the roof goes down, much of the sound quality goes with it.
What do we all think?
I have a wonderful setup at home for a quality listening experience (cost more than my S2000
), and the sound in car depends massively on whether the roof or windows are up or down.Whilst using a CD will give slightly better sound quality in-car, the other factors relating to the acoustics of an S2000 have a far greater bearing on how things sound IMO.
Using Alpine's Imprint has vastly improved things when driving roof up (as happens quite a lot in rainy England
) but as soon as the roof goes down, much of the sound quality goes with it.What do we all think?