Posted on 04/06/2024 7:24:27 PM PDT by thecodont
From the November 2021 issue of Car and Driver.
What's blasting from your car speakers, and more important, how does it sound? For sound-system engineers at the audio-equipment manufacturer Bose, a playlist is more than tracks that slap. To test stereos, they need songs representing a variety of sounds and recording techniques to make sure new systems can re-create a song with the depth of the original recording.
To have a common reference point, Bose engineers all over the globe share a master playlist. "Every system engineer knows these tracks inside and out," says Mark Armitage, head of the acoustical-engineering team at the company's Michigan field office. "It makes for a universal language we can use when testing and tuning."
Armitage says the 54-track Bose playlist is updated periodically, and engineers can use it alongside a smattering of their personal favorites or recent Grammy winners. He walked us through a few selections from his test list.
(Excerpt) Read more at caranddriver.com ...
I remember Pink Floyd’s “Dark Side of the Moon” being popular in part for reasons of testing stereo sound systems. Particular the clocks chiming the hour at the beginning of “Time.”
...But Dark Side had studio wiz Alan Parsons at the mixing board. I wonder how many albums he mixed are in the list?
Tom Petty, “Learning to Fly (Live)”
“The crowd starts singing along, Petty’s voice drops out, and if the system is done right, you get a real sense of how big that auditorium is. If not, it tends to collapse and you lose that giant space.”
I like that choice. I think it’s a great one. Pretty sure that was in 2006 in Gatortown.
Any Alan Parsons Project record is good, especially Pyramid and Eve.
Yes, Pyramid is excellent. When I sold or gave away all my LP albums, that is one out of the three I kept for a souvenir. I haven’t listened to vinyl in about 30 years unfortunately.
Come on over. We still listen to vinyl. I just bought my husband 2 albums for his recent birthday, and our oldest bought him 3. Hendrix, Clapton, and Ray Charles were 3 of them. We mostly have classic rock, southern rock, and blues here, with a smattering of other genres mixed in for good measure.
I prefer New Frontier myself.
L
A great album. Walk Between Raindrops is such a cool song.
They use Steely Dan’s Hey nineteen.☺️
My brain doesn’t retain info. I’ve already forgotten list of songs, or I would comment.
*BUMP* for morning coffee. :)
Spotify?
(won’t work on any of my browsers)
I would use Moving in Stereo
Supertramp recordings always sounded very polished, too.
I remember when audio stores would play something by Mary Black to show off their equipment. The womans voice was considered as close to perfect as humanly possible.
Oh my goodness, I just listened to a few minutes of 5 different color noises and now I feel seasick. I guess they really do something to you!
If ya wanna test stereo speakers I suggest using Queens “ The Prophets Song” from the Night at the Opera album.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZjjsrn9FY4
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