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Audiophile songs you're sick of

I thought Alison Krauss and Einaudi would get a tough time on this thread, I presume they get played a lot at shows.
 
Pretty much anything that gets played at hi-fi shows or is included in lists of records to test out your hi-fi. I tend to choose a selection of recently bought new releases that I am currently listening and I might throw in an old favourite. The main thing for me is that it is a piece of music I like and the first test of listening is that I enjoy it on the kit I am demoing. Then I will listen more critically to decide if it gives me what I am hoping for sonically.
 
I agree that for auditioning gear, poorer recordings rather than audiophile or superb recordings are more useful. I want to hear how the system handles these compromised or poor recordings, whether it still communicates the essence of music well or makes the music basically unlistenable. Or, if it communicates the music even better than my previous system.

Last thing I want is a system that only sounds good with audiophile recordings.
 
The music used for demos can be off putting, but at the other end of the scale - I was sat in on an early Naim Statement / Focal demo a few years back and was horrified to hear a couple of ear bleeding remaster CDs being used. Whether they were handed over by punters on a ‘please play this’ basis I don’t know, but the results were entirely predictable.
 
Never mind audiophiles and Nils Lofgren, Steely Dan, Roger Waters etc - if I'm asked to go to another choral concert where they sing Leonard b****dy Cohen's Hallelujah again I shall emigrate.
 
After the excitement of posting a link to the Bristol HiFi show songs, I thought I'd complete the circle and post a link to the playlist I used to demo Heresys and Fortes.


Nothing particularly exotic.
 
Ptah said:
Never mind audiophiles and Nils Lofgren, Steely Dan, Roger Waters etc - if I'm asked to go to another choral concert where they sing Leonard b****dy Cohen's Hallelujah again I shall emigrate.
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The most lugubrious and overhyped singer I can think of. I'd be on my knees after a few seconds, let alone a whole song.

He should have stuck to writing novels. At least they don't make a sound. 1967 was a bad year for music lovers.......
 
chiily said:
After the excitement of posting a link to the Bristol HiFi show songs, I thought I'd complete the circle and post a link to the playlist I used to demo Heresys and Fortes.


Nothing particularly exotic.
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Let’s have I Gotsta Get Paid by ZZ Top
 
The one that gets my goat is Mojo Magazine. I have a subscription free from my bank as part of having a particular account, so it was that or Homes and Gardens. Mojo was the best of a bad lot, and at least you get a CD. But the magazine choices - Kate Bush is on the current mag's cover, aged about 18 or 20. Great, but that's *40 years old*. Likewise articles on Bowie, God knows who else, most of them are dead. It's so bloody *old* and backward looking. Christ, I'm nearer to 60 than 50 and even *I* think it's dated. Anyone under 40 must look at it the way that I look at Homes and Gardens.
 
stevec67 said:
The one that gets my goat is Mojo Magazine. I have a subscription free from my bank as part of having a particular account, so it was that or Homes and Gardens. Mojo was the best of a bad lot, and at least you get a CD. But the magazine choices - Kate Bush is on the current mag's cover, aged about 18 or 20. Great, but that's *40 years old*. Likewise articles on Bowie, God knows who else, most of them are dead. It's so bloody *old* and backward looking. Christ, I'm nearer to 60 than 50 and even *I* think it's dated. Anyone under 40 must look at it the way that I look at Homes and Gardens.
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On the plus side last month's Pearl Jam cd was good (this months is crap IMHO) and sometimes the CD features 'new to me ' music, it does list new releases, reissues, books, etc, like you Tracy gets it free with a bank account, she did try Homes and Gardens for a year but thought it utter crap.
 
stevec67 said:
The one that gets my goat is Mojo Magazine. I have a subscription free from my bank as part of having a particular account, so it was that or Homes and Gardens. Mojo was the best of a bad lot, and at least you get a CD. But the magazine choices - Kate Bush is on the current mag's cover, aged about 18 or 20. Great, but that's *40 years old*. Likewise articles on Bowie, God knows who else, most of them are dead. It's so bloody *old* and backward looking. Christ, I'm nearer to 60 than 50 and even *I* think it's dated. Anyone under 40 must look at it the way that I look at Homes and Gardens.
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It's just catering for its target audience - middled aged blokes mostly interested in classic rock. You're free to pick up Computer Music, Shindig or The Wire if you want something more leftfield.

I think the problem is the internet has killed off a lot of the music magazine market so you're left with magazines that are either pretty inoffensive to appeal to a wide demographic or are specialist. There's a limited number of punters willing to pay £7 to read reviews you can find on Pitchfork or The Quietus.
 
Haven't read the entire thread, so may have been said already:

You and your friend - Dire Straits

Seems to be on at least half the speaker demo videos on Youtube, along with the Nils one that was mentioned.

There seems to be an obsession with playing either clean electric guitar or acoustic guitar songs, often really mediocre jazz quartet music (double bass, some reticent drums in the back ground etc). I'm presuming it's because then the soundstage of the speakers can be heard. Problem is tonally (which is what I care about far more than soundstage layering accuracy) any half way decent sub £1000 stand mount can make such music sound pretty good. It's when music becomes denser and has bass with actual power to it that the real difference between an average and a good speaker is exposed. (and amps too). But barely anybody seems to demo this kind of music. EDM is ok, but it can't be used to assess tonality as it's all "fake" sound to start with.
 
Eoin said:
Let’s have I Gotsta Get Paid by ZZ Top
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That's a good track too. Mushmouth Shoutin' has a wonderfully overdriven harmonica that can make your ears bleed with the wrong setup. I was a bit concerned with what I'd read about the "harshness" that Klipsch can have, but the Fortes were in the right side of ear bleeding :)
 
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