Chapter 1. The Backstory
I have gotten into the mindset that if I’m working on a project of some sort or another, which is always the case, should I write it up for the benefit of the greater good? Half the time I say yes and half the time I decide no. Then for the half that I say yes to, I struggle to find the time to write them all up.
This one I’m writing for a few friends who I believe will benefit and appreciate this. These are namely Bill and Pete (yes, two of my notable readers). I’m doing it for them because they give me feedback on my website and for that I am grateful.
I will try to be short on the backstory. I was or am, fortunately or unfortunately, an audiophile. I gave it up for all of two years due to a home move, my new cave having a lack of space for anything worthy. But also due to the frustration at times leading to violent thoughts in the never ending quest for audio perfection. I, in fact, found my utopia in my last house but I had a big room for audio/video. The equipment performed – most of the time. And when I had issues, whether due to reliability of the equipment or noise related, a mission, or better yet a crusade, ensued. I sold that system with house when I moved and it is missed. From a musical perspective, utopia was found there based upon a set of JM Labs (now Focal) Utopia speakers paired with Halcro monoblocks, JL Audio Sub, matching JM Labs center and surrounds and various Meridian source equipment. It was a long road to utopia, but it was achieved after better conditioning the room, relocation of equipment, and re-wiring (120V power level noise being the biggest issue). It was a many year project, mostly rewarding, except for the violent reactions to undesired noise or unreliable equipment (think Meridian…). The peeps who visited my A/V room found it engaging.
So when “Love” and I moved, into a smaller house, I went whole house Sonos and I like it. I was no longer an audiophile, self declaredly divorced from that disease. And the thing I like the most is the whole family knows how to, and does use Sonos. It is no longer required of me to set it up or turn it on. Home Run!
I flippantly decided to purchase a pair of bookshelf speakers off Amazon, some well rated KEF LS50s on a whim, because I knew of them and the price was right. The concept
was that these well known bookshelf speakers could “help” the Sonos system in the family room, which has become a main listening area. But when I went to set everything up, Sonos and Kef were not a great match due to some inflexibility with Sonos that was unanticipated. But to be fair, the Sonos system was doing fine by itself. So the small orphaned bookshelf speakers sat alone in the garage…for 1.5 years…until I needed to clean out the garage.
Interestingly at the same time, in the cave where I make music, my powered monitor speakers were possessed by hum. And were sacrificed to the trash can, leaving me with only my trusty and reliable Sennheiser headphones.
And I thought to myself – “Why not put the Kefs in the music cave?”. They are near field. They are small and fit on my desk. Seems like a stroke of luck as I’m killing two birds with one stone here; Garage and Cave. That is what I thought. But what happened was by this total strike of these coincidences and logic – I was sucked right back into the void of Audiophilia. Because those two amps I had laying around didn’t live up to the job. Neither of them. And the sound was shrill. And there was a lack of warmth and energy in the low-end due to the small drivers in the LS50s. The devil on my left shoulder told me – “fix it”. And the angel on my right shoulder told me – “don’t listen to him, you are calm, stay at peace my son”. The devil won of course…
So where to start: The sub was easy. Precision is needed, not muddled, not “boom”. This is purely musical 
stereo, not a home theater, so I didn’t feel the need for 15Hz nor earthquake bone rattling lows. Kef had a matching 10 inch sub known to be precise. After some research and the final contestants down to Rel or Kef, it was decided: KEF
Kube 10b. The amplifier section was trickier. One could spend days reading about the LS50s tricky needs in the amplifier area. I reflected – why am I back to doing this?…Numerous written debates of A/B vs D class amps, and an infinite desire by the LS50s for instantaneous and high current, nonlinear impedance, and so on. I should have listened to the angel…I settled on a retro audio only stereo receiver from Outlaw Audio, the RR2160, known to pair well with the LS50s which have a known inability to get along well with partners. And a receiver helps me because I don’t have a lot of space for additional components. So I cabled everything up. And started to listen to a playlist released on this website – “Dreamy Breeze” aka The Dream Pop playlist.
And my DNA surfaced quickly. Because I was ready to launch the LS50s out the window from the second story. It was trash. I was pissed. I wanted the speaker out and the window broken. I wanted the equipment gone…I knew better than to go this path and I swore to ignore that damn devil.
Using breathing techniques to calm myself, I became sensible. I spoke to myself: “Brian – You have to go back to the beginning. Diagnose. Debug. Implement.” So to begin I knew I needed to get off of Dream Pop and into reference audio test material to determine where my issues lay. And, I also know for a fact all equipment needs to be broken in and to loosen up, and I should be patient, not violent.
And hence the creation of my reference test material for testing of audiophile equipment 2020 was born. And it is dramatically different than that which I used in the early 2000s.
Chapter 2: Audio Testing Philosophy
The idea behind the creation of an audiophile system is to recreate music as accurately as possible, true to the recording, as though you are present with the performers whether they be in the studio, or live at a concert. It takes your senses, your brain, and your imagination to accomplish this. We search for the detail in the music, the nuances, hidden aspects that only an audiophile system might recreate. If these things are important to you, then you have the disease…
Of course we start with the basics: We want a system that is matched and when
combined produces a flat frequency response. We do not want the equipment coloring the sound even though we know the system and the room must do this. Our goal is to minimize these effects. We could get very technical here and I am a veteran electrical engineer who has had strong curiosities about the technical aspects of audio for 40 years. I have gone through a lot of equipment. But we are not migrating to the technical measurements and specmanship void; it is often equivalent to a magicians sleight of hand where you look here instead of there. Look for a flat response, and start listening. And I would suggest that we consider that the science might not have a good model of the psychoacoustic interaction between our ears, our other senses, and our brain nailed quite yet.
From a musical perspective we have an advantage: We do know what we like! And for me that encompasses that which I believe sounds great and feels great. In many cases we might have heard the music at a live concert somewhere, or some other personal but precious moment, and have a remembered reference to guide us. We want to be transported back to those moments. In other cases, it could be an experience we had while listening to the material at some point, an emotional experience, which gives us flutter feelings in our chest when we sense it again. Passion evokes emotion, and there are songs that evoke very strong emotion in me. I have cried over sad songs. I’ve been unable to inhale at certain operas or symphonies 
while in a mesmerized state, or fascinated by the ability of the musicians. An audiophile system can and should have the potential, at times, to recreate these experiences, invoke these remembered emotions whether conscious or subconscious, if it is “right”. I call this the psychoacoustic, a very nice pun…We need test cases that will potentially engage us emotionally when the system is, in fact, “right”. One might say, “But Brian, if it’s emotionally engaging does it have to be audiophile?” Well of course it does otherwise it disappoints us, and we get violent because “it” ruined it. Visualize: Busted window / gutter…
Moving on, we clearly know what the sounds produced from a violin, cello, guitar, banjo, bass, drums, piano, organ, trumpet, oboe, percussion, vocals etcetera should be. We must listen for the key instruments important to us, or all of them, to make sure our system recreates them accurately at varying dynamic range. I have no prejudices in music genre’s. I listen to a vast variety. So we need the variety of instruments associated with your key genres for testing. Test cases in this category need to be accurate and offer isolation between instruments and vocals so you can identify and test for them clearly. I listen for the nuance, the detail. The background becomes critical; percussive or synthetic effects, noises, backing vocals, a breath or sigh, the pick or the bow on the string.
Lastly, I am interested in the sound field, the audio imaging the sound system is creating. Stereo imaging is one thing, and listening for sweeps from left to right, or panning needs to be noted. But there is a 3D image the a sound system can create whereby you can sense the location of the instruments in reference to each other. This is easier done with a 5.1 or 7.1 system but is achievable with a 2 channel system as well.
A disclaimer is now needed: I’ve given you the philosophy, the definition. And as Pete knows, one must always start with the definition…I will next give you a list of tests, aka songs. But my emotionally engaging songs are based upon my listening tastes and personal experiences and not yours. I am giving you many more than are needed in hope that you find a subset of what you are looking for here. If these connect for you and suffice then great. If they don’t then you need to do some further work and find your emotionally engaging material. I do have many instruments and genre’s covered. And all of this is critical. Otherwise you might as well be listening to square waves and sine waves, beeps and pulses, panning left and right etc.
And now the challenge: It’s not a perfect world, and I want to be upfront. The reference set of tests must have a standard of a (near) perfect recording. And therein lies the challenge; The “finding” of those songs which one emotionally and physically reacts to and are near perfect recordings. I am satisfied with most of my “findings”. We are testing the system and the test cases cannot be a source of any issue which might create a violent reaction.
In summary, the criteria is:
- 1. Excellent Recorded Material
- 2. Wide frequency and dynamic range over the test set
- 3. Sound imaging tests
- 4. Set of relevant instruments in somewhat isolation
- 5. Songs with which we have an emotional connection to
Chapter 3: The Reference Tests
Much of this material might be new to you. And even if it isn’t, if you want to be an audiophile you need a good set of headphones. The following material should be studied on your headphones so you know what to look for. I’ve given some hints below. A/B comparisons will be needed.
Lisa Girrard, Sleep – Lisa Girrard, most known for her singing on the iconic songs in Gladiator, wrote and sang this song. Her emotions seep out of this song and you will hear them, these engage me. Notables: Gorgeous mezzo-soprano expressive voice, sultry, sublime, with tremolo. Imaging wise this song has space, with silent passages. This is a very clean recording, possibly perfect. It is simple, mainly voice and piano, which makes it a great candidate for its purpose here.
Morcheeba, Small Town – I’ve resurrected this from the early 2000’s and it still applies for the same reasons. Electronic trip hop, with sultry sexy singing, and a funk vibe. Heavy beat, blues organ, horns, and a flame guitar. If you aren’t moving something, feet or head or hands, your speakers failed.
Holst: The Planets, Jupiter & Saturn, London Philharmonic, Vladimir Jorowski – Holst’s The Planets had to be in here. This is known to be one of the best recordings of Holst’s work and it is very good. I struggled between choosing Jupiter or Saturn. I recommend you personally listen to both and pick for yourself. This piece will tax any system in so many ways I will spare you. In fact, it’s not even fair to bring in The Planets for a stereo system, with near field bookshelf speakers in a 140 square foot room. I’ve never heard any system represent this as one would hear live in a concert hall which I have, at times unable to breath… If you had only one symphony orchestral performance to go to on a desert island, you should pick this. Due to personal experience, it’s emotionally engaging and I believe the re-creation of what I’ve experienced live personally is impossible. Hence it’s an impossible test case. Here we integrate under the curve as one sets the limit to infinity in the hope of coming close.
Whitney Houston, I Will Always Love You – Whitney could do the unheard of with her voice. So expressive, so dynamic from a breath or a whisper to an alarming amount of power. And if you know her story, you are already emotional about her life and our loss. I hear zero noise in this, there is no floor. Note her emotion in the expression and intonation, her breathing, open space, quiet sections, dynamic range – with whispers to full lungs. Scanning over this whole list, this would be the world favorite as it is a loved song.
Toto, Rosanna – I needed a clean rock song. No disrespect to anyone but I can’t listen to Steely Dan. This is Steely Dan class reputation level recording, but from Toto. This is the rock reference song you need. It’s very clean, very accurate, crisp attacks/decays, notice the low frequency bass background vocals (who is that?!), as well as the main singer’s dynamic range and note accuracy. Plenty of synth leads. Clean punching guitar. Clean cymbals to check your high end. Horns. Great chorus. Clean bass. This will tax your speakers accuracy, responsiveness, and imaging. There is a wide breadth of instruments. And the background vocals need to be noticed, there are voices in the background here you must pay attention to. If your speaker can handle this song – you are on a good path
Circlesquare, All Sleepers – This is synthetic. I’m a synth player and there are sounds in here I’ve never heard or imagined but are now on my mind. Heavy percussive elements. Another sharp, detailed, bass intensive song. Heavily processed, sampled effects. It’s going to tax the whole frequency spectrum. We get some smooth sine wave action, smooth strings along with aggressive sharp effects. I have had systems that if you played this song loud the speakers would blow. Be careful…
Tori Amos, Pretty Good Year – Tori’s voice is unique. She is vocally an expressive athletic gymnast dancer and full of grace. Note her breaths, expressions, intonation, tremolos, and explosiveness. There is dramatic amounts of high dynamic range in both the vocal and what she does with the piano – Very dramatic quiet to full strength passages. Strings throughout but notice the acoustic bass buzzing.
Roy Orbison, In Dreams – Roy’s voice is very unique and very smooth and I like to see if a system can find his nuances which are hard for me to describe. This recording is old and has a bit of hiss so know it’s there and this is not your system. However if you don’t hear the hiss…there is a problem. This is a short song and worth the time. Roy’s voice should touch you.
Hans Zimmer, Time – It could not happen, to make such a list, and not have a Zimmer tune. I picked probably (?) his most loved. There is a big bass/percussive low end and if you’re not feeling it, then it’s game over. Expressive orchestration especially in the strings, including the guitar adder to the symphony, classic Hans. This one is more muted than the others, but builds and builds. Horns. Drums. Building. Strings. Building.
Sarah Brightman, Andrea Bocelli, Time To Say Goodbye – I’ve seen live both Sarah and Andrea together and separately sing this beautiful piece. These two singers sing to perfection, and this is such a clean recording. For personal reasons this is also an emotional engagement song. The vocals have expressiveness, dynamic range, silk, and precise annunciation. Beautiful strings and horns back this up. It has a drum line similar to Ravel’s Bolero. It’s tight and you have to pay attention on the attack and decay. Beautiful orchestration. Wow. We have a precision test here.
The Dixie Dregs, Hereafter – Switching gears to some Jazz Rock with a Southern Flair. Clean. Tight. Accurate. Virtuoso Skills are being demonstrated here by everyone involved. A rarity to get as much going on and not becoming muddled. Bravo. Bravo. I’ve seen this live way back, with Pete.
Holly Cole, Train Song – Holy Microphones Bat Man! A Live One – the first. Maybe the only. A clean live recording and I hear zero noise floor. Acoustic bass. Unique Percussive elements. Guitar. Stereo imaging. I love this song. If your speakers don’t have you tapping your hand or foot, or a head fake, something is wrong. Near the end – silence from breath to whisper to singing. It might be worth looking up who accomplished this recording live.
M83, Oblivion – Here we have some strong stereo imaging with sweeps, some silent passages, background percussive instruments which will tax your treble, bass and drums to tax your lows, horns, and vocals. It starts well and ends well but it is a bit muddled in places. This was on the bubble for this list, but the piano plus cello ending wins me over every time. By the way, a great movie, a great love story.
Queen, Feel Like Making Love – What? Where? Queen? Yes. And another Live one…This was recently found. Rodgers, who I guess tours with Queen (?!) at times,has his best vocal performance singing this classic. The song is great. As I listen, I – I – I feel like…
Bonnie Rait, I Can’t Make You Love Me – This is a beautiful and emotional engagement tune for me. I’ve seen Bonnie sing this a number of times, once on an off-beat which I wish I could find a recording of but never have. Bonnie has some grit, dirt, and rasp to her voice and she uses it subtly in this song – you need to hear some of her edginess or the speakers fail. Piano (Bruce) is fantastic. We have a fretless bass singing her for us as well. Clean drums. Bells. I just love this song.
Ennio Morricone, Gabriel’s Oboe – The oboe should stop your breathing and make you cry in the first passage, or throw the damn speakers out. Gorgeous arrangement especially in the percussion and the strings. That bass is humming and buzzing in the background – look for it. Ennio is the master of the offbeat, and it creates the unexpected. Listen for it.
Massive Attack, Angel – God bless your speakers on this one. A super clean recording. It is a speaker killer. It is tight and goes everywhere. Bass will crush your speakers unless they are big or you have a sub…attacks on the percussion are razor sharp. You are going to get rapid decays to silence in between delayed notes, the quietness should be noted. This cuts like a razor. There are some sampled/processed voices a little past the middle saying words – can you pick them out? This test case goes back to my first system, and has survived time as reference material.
Thomas Newman, Road To Perdition – A somewhat haunting song especially if you’ve watched the movie which is a sad story. There is a lot of nuance in this song to notice, but you need to know what’s there to get a sense of it. If you are not familiar with the background elements in this one, think headphones. Buzzing bass in the rear. Stereo effects. Sweeps. Motion. This might touch you emotionally. Just a note, Thomas Newman has a song very similar to this called Any Other Name which was on the first pass of this list but I decided we didn’t need both. If you like this one, you might give it a try.
Dave Matthews Band, Don’t Drink The Water – I knew I had to put a Dave Matthews song in here, but it was challenging to choose. A few, like Cortez the Killer and Sledgehammer (my favorite) could not be found in a clean recording worthy enough. Dave Matthews is another expressive athletic vocalist along the lines Tori Amos. He is always surrounded by great musicians. He is always moving, dancing, and expressing. See if you move with him, if not you have to think about it.
Alicia Keys, Pray For Forgiveness – Another tune which I connect to emotionally for personal reasons. The instrumentation is very clean and precise. Large dynamic range – starts quiet and ends big. Notice Alicia’s breathing and the way she uses the rasp in her voice to evoke emotion. This is about a clean recording and her voice. Tight percussion. She is in pain singing this. Do you feel it?
Lisa Gerrard & Patrick Cassidy, Abwoon – The strings are always there including the acoustic bass. Think silk-like Tenor, and he is definitely feeling this song, as it is a very spiritual piece. You won’t understand a single word of it. But you should feel the singers emotional and spiritual state of mind. I’m going to give you the spoiler in the event you don’t know this song: This is Our Lord’s Prayer sung in Aramaic, the language of Jesus. This should be impactful if your system can recreate the singers state.
Madonna, Ray Of Light – Total energy on this one. Stereo imaging. Bass/beats. Synths. Buzzing. Motion. It’s not clean in fact this is heavily processed. It is possible it does not belong here and it is apt to be criticized. But I keep it in the reference test set for its energy. It should make you want to turn it up and move. This is mostly tight, not all, even though we have too much going on. There are some great sweeps and percussive effects in here. They stand out. There are many distinctions going on. See if you can find them.
The Knife, Silent Shout – A clean recording of a techno upbeat tune. It has a heavy beat, heavy synth action, and good stereo imaging. There is overlap here with other techno tunes. You pick.
Kings of Leon, Closer – There is space and imaging, haunting guitars, synths, crisp drums, with gritty vocals. It’s a clean and crisp piece. This will again test accuracy, but forgive some of the blurred middle section.
The Band Perry, If I Die Young – How about a little country? Another odd ball tune to put in a reference set you think? No, this is precise, clean, and sharp. It’s a soft song with great treble, midrange, and at times lows between the soprano, the banjo, fiddle, acoustic elements, and a smooth bass line. The vocals are clean. This is a very sad song. If you read these vocals and hear her sing them – you might get an emotional reaction as I do.
Perfume Genius, Queen – This one is from the Dream Pop playlist. I just saw it as a fairly clean recording with great vocals, both front man and backing. Bass. Attacks. Strum Strum Strum Strum Strum….THRUMP. Low end synth is going to vibrate your woofers to flames potentially. Again, this is an electro/techno tune which you can select if it meets your needs.
Massive Attack, Paradise Circus – This is another choice for your silky smooth, sultry female vocalist accompanied by a heavy beat, percussive section including some interesting hand claps (which I find good for our purpose here), and a great rhythm. This is clean and builds up giving you some very nice imagery and dynamic range. Noise floor has dropped off any measurement that could be made.
Diante Do Trono, Cacao do Apocalipse (Avo Vivo) – This is a Christian song you might recognize as Revelation Song, except this one is in Portuguese. And it’s our last live recording! Woohoo! Diante is singing for God. Her voice is beautiful, the instrumentation is beautiful, the recording is clean. If you believe in God, you should feel it. If you don’t believe in God, you have to sense the spiritual and emotional state of this singer. We have spirituality, vocals, electronic instruments, acoustic instruments, choir, and horns.
Eurythmics, Love Is A Stranger – As we close down, I wanted an Annie song for her iconic voice. Lots of synth leads and effects here, but it’s about Annie and the backing vocals which are awesome. I like the energy. Annie was one of my test cases from the past, and I haven’t listened to her lately. This was a real treat to rediscover and to notice everything going on here with vocals while the percussion and instrumentation continues. The focus here is on precision and tightness of the vocals. Pay special attention to backup singing. And the energy.
And for your convenience as always, Amazon and Spotify Playlists, songs respectively in play order.
“The List” of reference material has multiple potential purposes; One is for me to determine what is wrong with my new system since it’s already been flippantly purchased as though these things don’t matter anymore. Second is for readers to have a reference set of music which can be used to demo equipment prior to the purchase which I strongly advise: Test first, buy after. I hope I have served you well. And third, for my readers who just love music and have a curiosity as to what the hell might be in here to accomplish these goals and their diversity. But beware if your system isn’t ready or if you have symptoms of the disease. And for the record, I’d be interested in your reference list, and I hope my readers will comment and tell me what they would have added or subtracted and why! Writers love feedback…hint hint.
Chapter 4: The Conclusion
So I know you are on the edge of your seat. You need to know where are we at with my music making cave and is my window intact or busted up with Kefs in the gutter? First, I have to set expectations correctly; As you can see in the picture, the speakers are sitting on a desk next to a wall. They are not a few feet off the wall which is what they prefer. So placement is a problem. Secondly, I’m sitting merely two feet from the speakers, which is too close. Hence by definition we can’t expect utopia. When I am reference testing, I move backwards approximately 4 feet in my office chair, close my eyes, and believe it or not spin slowly around, with a ceiling fan blowing above me, and lose my orientation while listening to the imagery until I find the magical spot.
And when I started putting the reference material through the system, with lights out, eyes closed – some of that material sang for me, spoke to me, helped me emote. I Am Transported. Lisa Girrard, Sarah and Andrea, Holly Cole, Ennio, Whitney, Alicia all gave me emotional reactions and brought me to another time and place. The Kefs provided exacting precision to Toto, Dave Matthews, and Tori, and I was very impressed with the articulation, precision, and accuracy. The sub, Kube 10b, did its job on everything effortlessly including the techno, trip hop, Massive Attack and Morcheeba, and I was impressed with its accuracy and ability for it to recover instantly for what followed. The system passed the synthetic percussive elements of Circlesquare.
At times I found myself turning up the volume. Launching from my listening seat. Air-guitaring and dancing. I played the Dregs four times in a row at one sitting while writing but not writing – thinking this method of air-guitaring wasn’t enough, I needed the guitar in the garage that I can’t play to make it “right”.
M83 was OK but the recording is questionable. Zimmer was good but not in the same dimension as the ole Utopia. Newman was non-notable but not bad. The system had no ability to bring me back to Holst, which would require my old house where utopia was found.
All recordings that were lesser than perfect, presented themselves as less than perfect, and possibly should be removed, thrown out the window, gutter.
Being the first near field system I’ve implemented I found it intriguing. Up close, at the desk, the volume has to be kept pretty low to be non-abrasive. Tweeters are just too harsh up close. Distance resolves this. The detail in these speakers is amazing at low sound pressure level though. For music making at my keyboard, I am complete. And 5 feet back we can rock out. Interesting. From a stereo imaging standpoint, at 5 feet back they did very well and you do not have to be centered. But when you come from a 5 or 7 channel system and go back to stereo you will not get the immersive, 3D, sound stage. I can’t state that I hear the location of the musicians but I’m going to think about this further. And that is a danger area. If I reconfigure the room by moving everything to the adjacent wall, remove the bed and put the desk closer to the center of the room, pull the speakers 24 inches from the wall and toe them in, add a center and two small rears at 6 feet with another 3 channel amp….”No Brian, No. Don’t Listen to Him. Stay at Peace Son”…
But I am building the receiver a beautiful live edge table made from Ash to sit on above the subwoofer soon. Next project. Very exciting. No writeup. I will update the pic.
Which brings us to the punchline: This is an audiophile level system even with its placement and imaging flaws. And when I had that first violent reaction to the Dream Pop playlist at the beginning, it wasn’t the system. It was the recordings. The system’s precision brought out everything lacking and missing and wrong in the recordings I was listening to that fateful first few minutes. And when you have a system that can differentiate between a good recording and a bad one, you have a good system. In fact you have an audiophile system. And it gets worse because I’ve just figured out my right ear is not hearing as good as my left anymore damnit. I’m glad I did not throw the speakers out the window.
Thank you for any energy you put into reading this or listening.
Update: Both Pete and Bill, who I dedicated this for being a few of my best readers have suggestions. Peter suggests Peter Gabriel “Mother of Violence” and I like it – it has some very nice nuances and an aggressive string here and there. Now I’m hoping my desire to break windows hasn’t prompted this suggestion…But it’s on the playlist. And Bill has also suggested a nice tune by Ray Davies, “Waterloo Sunset”, and I like it too. Both are very clean recordings and I suspect we have some bro’s here that are emotionally connected.
Equipment:
I am going to add codes for you to “click” to see exactly the equipment that was used in my new audiophile system. I ask you to “click” them as a favor. I do not need you to buy anything. That is not the intention of my website. But if I don’t get enough “clicks”, Amazon will bump me off the list for anything “click-able”. And there are codes in a number of my posts that are there to be helpful, for instance recommended backpacking food. In essence, if I don’t get enough clicks I lose the ability to embed anything on Amazon…
So, if you have any interest in what the equipment costs were or what reviews they get, you will find them below.
Note on the headphones: I’ve had these for probably 15+ years. I’m surprised they are still available. I guess they stand the test of time.
6 Responses
Poor Brian…..Seems you have a lack of self control or just enjoy tormenting yourself. Audiophile stuff should be a pleasure…not torture. Your pursuit of perfection is admirable. Fortunately I was not that bad about it. I created a play list CD that I used to travel from store to store with to test speakers…and did that again when I downsized from my big beasts (not as big as yours for sure). Actually I have you to blame for getting me started on the whole audio thing again back in 2000…and I wasted so much time and effort finding the right house out here in Boston to fit my system, I ended up building a house. Lost a lot of money doing that…thanks Brian.
You have a much more diverse musical palette than I do which makes your multidimensional problem even harder. Very hard to get a system to meet all your musical requirements.
I was thinking about you this weekend. For some reason this Peter Gabriel song from 78(?) came into my head in the middle of the night. So I searched for it on youtube and listened to it 10 times yesterday. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZ-bq4E2AKc I thought about you Brian because if I could play piano like you – I would want to learn to play the piano melody on this song. I just love it.
No Feeling Sorry For Me Peter Potamus! It’s just the passion old friend (and a little imagination…). I’m going to check out that song right now, and if it’s a (near) perfect recording it’s going on the playlist.
Definitely not your typical playlist. I challenge someone to find the connection….equipment test play list…of course!! I will have to use it when you install my sound system at the new house:-)
We will do that my friend. Maybe we should use the playlist I just made for your daughter too…
Update: Both Peter and Bill, who I dedicated this to for being a few of my best readers have suggestions. Above Peter suggests Peter Gabriel “Mother of Violence” and I like it – it has some very nice nuances and an aggressive string here and there. Now I’m hoping my desire to break windows hasn’t prompted this suggestion…But it’s on the playlist. And Bill has also suggested a nice tune by Ray Davies, “Waterloo Sunset”, and I like it too. Both are very clean recordings and I suspect we have some bro’s here that are emotionally connected. C’est La Vie. Finito.
Really good site, thanks so much for the contribution