[Kev H]

Hello All,

I searched for Best Stereo Test Discs and did not see anything that would satisfy my curiosity. So I'm putting it out to the community with this thread. I am particularly interested in music recordings that contain notes on the bottom octave of a piano. The lowest note there is about 27.5 Hz, I understand. I'm not looking for 16 Hz organ tones or the best 1812 Overture recordings for bass reproduction. I'm just looking for suggestions covering the octaves of the piano and its overtones. I listen to Jazz, Classical, Blue Grass, and Chill.

Thanks for your responses!

 

[vzphoneman]

I use the Bink Audio Test CD that I somewhere years ago. I also use some of the test tone sweeps found here .... http://www.audiocheck.net/testtones_sinesweep20-20k.php


These are not music CD ... just test tones.

 

[vzphoneman]

As for music here's a few good songs I used testing out some Goldenear Triton One speakers recently .... (they sounded as good as everyone says!)


Diana Krall, Trust You Heart - CRS-Craft
" " , Love Scenes - All Or Nothing At All
Donald Fagan, Morph The Cat - Morph The Cat
Steely Dan, Two Against Nature - Two Against Nature
Joe Jackson, Rain - Uptown Train
S.M.V. Thunder - Lopsy Lu - Silly Putty (Medley)
Artur Dutkiewicz, Hendrix Piano - Wind Cries Mary
Dire Straits, On Every Street - You and Your Friend
John Hiatt, Dirty Jeans.... - Adios to California
Jorma Kaukonen, Blue Country Heart - Blue Railroad Train
JJ Cale Eric Clapton, The Road to Escondido - Ride The River
Aaron Neville, I Know I've Been Changed - Don't Let Him Ride

 

[ronny31]

European Mobile Media Association have a nice set of CDs which are used in determining how accurately car stereos can recreate a sound stage. New CD every year. What sets this apart from others is that there's classes available to learn how they should sound for people who are going judge SQ competitions (which others also can take), I reason there must be an American equivalent.

 

[RayDunzl]

Not a test disc

Hiromi has said she feels the low notes aren't seen often enough

Chick and Hiromi

 

[Brap]

Check out Sheffield Labs demo discs. Also, you can search for discs having Ray Brown on bass.

 

[Kev H]

I'd like to thank all those who have replied. I'm listening to a David Ake album as I write this.
So, I'll look into Chick Corea and Hiromi on Spotify afterwards. If I like it, I'll look for the CD. I'd thought I'd say I'm looking for CDs to determine how much I'm missing using only my Mirage OMD-5 speakers w/o a subwoofer. I really don't know what the lowest note on a double bass sounds like nor can I remember the sound of the lowest note on a piano.

As for other advice, my listening space for this desk top system of mine is in a 12' X 10' room with an 8' ceiling. I'm thinking REL T-Zero for a subwoofer. So, assume my room is 3 meters X 3+ meters and air temp is 20 C this gives speed of sound about 343.6 m/s and a frequency of 115 Hz over the whole 3 meters. I haven't to the best of my knowledge heard resonance in anything I've played over the OMD-5 speakers. And, I have to wonder, "How low can this room go?"

The CDs will be used to audition subwoofers.

 

[ronny31]

Small rooms are excellent for bass response, or so we think in the car world after getting 140db from a subwoofer which should only give 115db in open air 1m away. As long as the subwoofer enclosure has the right tuning, it can go as low as you want in a small room like yours. Low tune involves a long port and large enclosure, something bought subwoofers often lack. To get you an idea of what sort of size, to get under 30hz tune on a 15 inch woofer I might buy, it the enclosure would be 250L and have a 1.5 meter long 50x15cm port (the port dimensions are to reduce port air flow velocity until its pretty much guaranteed that there is no port noise).

 

[bluewizard]

What is it you are testing? This is, what information do you expect to get from the tests?

I generally find frequency sweeps to be worthless if all you are doing is listening. If you sweep from 20hz to 20khz, but your speakers only response from 50hz to 15khz, you have no way of knowing because you can't hear anything outside the functioning range of your speaker. The tone goes WHOOP, but how do you know you can't hear what you can't hear?

Again, what is it you hope to test?

Real Traps has some sample Test Tones the rise very slowly and the rise precisely 1hz every 10 seconds, so you can use the Time Counter on your CD player to know exactly what frequency you are at.

http://realtraps.com/test-cd.htm

I believe, though I should really check that it sweeps in one hertz increments every 10 seconds from 10hz to 300hz. Though it does it in something like 100hz files. So, 10hz to 100hz in one file, 100hz to 200hz in the next file, and 200hz to 300hz in the next file. Though don't quote me, that's from memory. I haven't used the disc in a while.

I use these low frequency test tone, in conjunction with Pink Noise, and 1/3rd Octave Test Tone and 1/6th Octave Test Tones so I know precisely what frequency I am hearing.

How much money are you willing to invest in this project?

A good USB mic, and the Free Software REW (Room EQ WIzard) would probably give you extensive testing capability with detailed measure results for about a $150 investment.

http://www.roomeqwizard.com/

If you are serious about testing ... then get serious.

If you would like a complete software/hardware package then consider the Dayton software -

http://www.parts-express.com/dayton-audio-omnimic-v2-precision-measurement-system--390-792

What you need is contingent on what you are trying to accomplish. A Test CD doesn't do much good unless you have some way of making measurements, In areas like this, the ear is notoriously flawed.

But then ... that's just my opinion.

Steve/bluewizard