Definitely not a new CD, well as you can see, it’s dated on 2009. But high quality stuff lasts years and this CD is one good example.
From the label itself, you can easily understand that this CD is meant for car audio usage – be it competition or not. But for sure, no one will prevent anyone from using this CD on other purpose, e.g. home listening session.
Made by Stockfisch-Records, a label that is quite famous for high quality recording.
First two tracks can easily be skipped – channel identification and pink noise for phase testing.
Track #3 to #12, you will be thrilled with high quality recording, plus enjoyable tracks. The music is quite common and not considered complicated. In fact, you can hear it daily.
Track #3, #4, and #5 definitely my favorites. Track #3, Chris Jones with No Sanctuary Here will pamper our ears with low but well defined bass and also the “reverb” of the vocal/back vocal. Interesting combination and best played with a bit loud volume and floorstander speaker (you might miss some low frequency with common bookshelf type of speaker).
Track #4 switches our attention a bit from low frequency to vocal and strings. Vocal of Steve Strauss is clearly audible, well defined, along with some touch of guitar strings. Good system should be able to reproduce the micro detail and the dynamic of the strings.
Track #5 is quite famous, Allan Taylor & Chris Jones with The Tennessee Waltz. Off course Alan is not Patti Page when singing The Tennessee Waltz, but both has their own magic when singing this song. This track is “properly” recorded and good to represent the imaging of your system. Refer to the booklet (snippet below) to understand how to evaluate your system with this track.
The rest of the tracks are as much enjoyable as the first 3 (#3 to #5), but I will not describe more detail as the key is simply to play and relax.
The booklet inside also can guide us on judging the system performance by using this CD. Off course all of the reference will refer to the placement inside your car. But again, it doesn’t necessary for you to listen this inside your car. I don’t listen music seriously on the car later these days (one of my car has no sound system and the other one is simply standard factory setup), so definitely I’m listening this CD at home only.
Inside booklet of the CD, with detail of the singer, track name, and length. The source of the track also noted there. From my feeling – I can be wrong though – that the tracks here are “better” than the original one. Original means the original CD album which the track was taken, example: The Tennessee Waltz was taken from Allan Taylor’s “Behind the Mix” SFR 357.9021.2.