HiFi Subjectivist ¦ Audio Forum ¦ NVA User Group

You know how it works - you've just got a bright and shiny new piece of gear and it has been carefully installed in 'The Rig'.
So everything is switched on and ready to go - but what to listen to first?

We all have a selection of standard tracks and albums that we are so familiar with - knowing the details and sounds so intimately that you can immediately hear the sonic influence of any changes in your Hifi.

So .. what are your favourites?

One of mine is the opening section of Joni Mitchell's 'Don Juans Reckless Daughter'

Joni is gently strumming a crystalline acoustic guitar and murmuring along with it in multitracked vocals. Then Jaco Pastorious enters with some seismic bass-work and the track takes off into this huge sonic space before moving into the folk/funk of 'Cotton Avenue'.

Joni Mitchell - Overture/Cotton Avenue

I have a test record, it tells me channel balance and phase. The rest I don't use. The remainder of my records are for entertainment

When ever i buy new equipment I seem to jump to these albums:-
Led Zeppelin - Physical Graffitti
Bowie - Ziggy Stardust
Queen - A night at the opera
I am so familiar with them from over forty years that differences are easy to dehtect.

Tracks I use which are not on these albums are:-
Bowie - Heroes
Rainbow - Stargazer
Rolling Stones - Brown Sugar

But I have found there is no substitute for listening over an extended period to not so familiar albums.

I know it's a cliché - but I often play 'A Walk Acros the Rooftops' from The Blue Nile.

And Tangerine Dream gets a look-in every time too:
'Phaedra' is a regular, along with 'Hyperborea' and 'Poland'.

Michael Hedges 'Aerial Boundaries' and/or Pat Metheny 'One Quiet Night' for some solo acoustic guitar.

The first level 42 album and swim by feeder

I'd like to throw this in, a little known 90's band called innocence,
if you want to hear transient attack, soundstage, tonality, imaging,
dynamics, bandwidth capabilities or whole host of other reasons, look no further,
don't let your computer or iPhone speakers fool you, make sure your bass drivers are screwed in and your amp swings enough current as not to fry your tweeters with distortion.

I picked ''family ties'' as the beat and soundscape is constant therefore good for moving speakers etc for fine tuning, and the close mic of the singer really helps with cartridge fine tning, it can get harsh and spitty if not right,the whole album is good,
they only made 2 albums and both are good.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xgrh-0DIE7I

I'm sensitive to timing, so...can it keep pace with all the things going on in this?

[BBvideo=560,315]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_X2SjNpwZaY[/BBvideo]

Mostly, though, it's just a case of whether music that I know I connect strongly with, emotionally and without conscious analysis, is doing it for me.

Already a few intriguing choices. I will have to check Innocence out.

I've been playing Jack Loussier's version of The Four Seasons a lot lately. Bass, drums, and piano are all well recorded.