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 ...
Wow, the first song on their list “I Can See Clearly Now” by Holly Cole Trio is great. I just added it to my Spotify “Eclectic” list (songs I like from a wide variety of genres, many of which cannot be easily categorized).
The Prophets Song sounds like a simplified version of
another Queen song called “March of the Black Queen” on an earlier album. “March” is brimming to overflowing with music, piano wars, guitar riffs and overlays of harmonies.
I suggest Lucky Man by ELP.
“Sheffield drive” was an eclectic collection of songs and instrumentals on CD used to test out speakers. I would guess it would be best to have songs that demonstrate different types of sounds...voice(opera and pop). Symphonic music using a side variety of instruments, raw sounds like waves crashing, wind blowing, talking, yelling, sounds of tools, utensils, animal sounds,etc. Would desire the most realistic sounds with no distortion and no emphasis on any frequency . IMHO
Are they kidding? No way!
Nice list. I remember audiophiles using Deacon Blues to tune stereo. I really miss having a good stereo system.
I had no idea Boz had more talent than Ledo until I accidentally found Somebody Loan Me a Dime some years ago.
So much music, so little time
Great tune! Or maybe Fanfare :)
You know the backstory of Lucky Man? I only learned it a few years ago.
JBL used to run a lot of ads in Rolling Stone showing control booths in music studios, the studios using JBL bookshelf speakers mounted overhead of the control panel. The ads were pretty impressive.
However, the studios were using JBL bookshelf speakers because the smaller JBLs represented the type speaker the average hi-fi enthusiast used, not because the JBL speakers were the absolute best you could buy (although they were pretty good).
As far as albums, the CD ‘Diesel and Dust’ by Midnight Oil came out in an era of mediocre sounding CDs (1987) and always stood out to me as an example of terrific sound engineering. I wonder if it still pops as much as it did then?
Click on the image for details of the contents of the CD.
-PJ
I have about 200 songs...all favorites...stored on my car’s hard drive. There’s room for a lot more and someday I’ll get off my a$$ and load them. Unlike some I don’t expect concert hall sound quality in my car...the basic sound system I have is good enough.
Either song by ELP gets my vote. I’m thinking we’re their only fans on here ...
I had a quad system in my car back in 1980. I used “Moving in Stereo” to adjust balance. It worked pretyy well. There were very few tunes in actual quadrophonic.
Unlike some folks I divorced LPs long ago in favor of CDs. Better sound quality...portability...and you can play them a million times.
The only thing I miss about LPs are the jackets...many of which are certainly iconic.
I’ll let you read it for yourself, as told by Greg. :)
A little more than halfway down.
https://www.classicrockrevisited.com/show_interview.php?id=141
Read this second
Thanks for the link!
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