陳法政 CHIN Fa Cheng’s Hi-Fi QUICK Evaluation Test Tracks (circa 2002)

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Due recordings are stereo, playback stereo and our ears+brain stereo,

n  hence sound/frequency response and stereo imaging are intertwined/entangled,

n  can’t have just one without another (i.e. can’t demand just want to have good SQ but ignore stereo accuracy, i.e. sit on the side line)

n   and head not looking to high or low or left or right etc anywhere else.

1)         Rotation from soft to loud to soft in succession is to relax the ear and reset the brain to combat hearing fatigue,

a)         as well as wake-up sleepers after fallen asleep on quiet & slow track, by using loud track next.

2)         Voice rotation from female to male to female and vice versa,

a)         must also consider age rotation from old to young to old to young etc etc,

b)         Asian mix Western was also considered.

c)         – because【Tonal Balance】is most easy to discern from singing/speech.

                                        【i.】              If and when the speech / voice sounds right, all other instruments won’t be that far off bad, hence a good start.

                                      【ii.】              – instruments individual’s key are usually very narrow band versus voice are broader band in comparison to single key, hence more difficult to catch and tune using instruments as reference (for me anyway) how about you? Are you good with discerning voice or vice versa as in good in discerning instruments?

3)         In summary by mixing as many genre, age, sex, speed/tempo/beat, soft, loud, it is hoped that all the things that's necessary to test a sound system can be quickly assessed without “brain-wash” problem accustomed to the system, see below point[∞-B] [∞-1] .

a)         but obviously this compilation alone is not enough, please do not assume as a de-facto ultimate test disc, by no means at all.

b)         Still, if a system does not pass this compilation then it is no longer qualified or worth testing other more superior recordings,

                                       【i.】              apart from personal indulgence/enjoyment of “ignorance is a bliss”.

                                     【ii.】              Sometimes no need to take things too seriously, over-demanding usually leads to disappointment, if the mood is on just let it rip.

4)         With these tracks and rotation, take the opportunity to LEARN to identify “when” the-supposed-right-sound has turned bad or not.

5)         It is not necessary to have these exact tracks, just compile your own ROTATION following this concept of Psycho-Acoustics will do.

 [∞-A ]              Do not fall into "brainwash" where our ear+brain get accustomed to the system and will quickly loose DISCERNING ability, Usually within a few minutes , this is why need single CD compilation to switch track fast.

(∞-1)       i.e. when ear+brain get used to the sound 【stuck】, then stop and rest, else quick changing genre, sex, speed, etc won’t get brainwash quickly.

 [∞-B ]              If a particular one track is needed repeatedly, then only use around 30 seconds to maximum 1 minute, then skip track to "wash the brain & reset the ear", except very slow but continuously tempo changing track like [Amuseum].

(∞-1)       but ultimately our ear+brain will still get accustomed to the new system sound .......... no escape.

 [∞-C ]              Do not use single instrument/solo music as test, most easy to make wrong judgement, because it’s nearly like sinewave with simple harmonics which is like blowing whistle.

l  All RIP tracks level original to their respective CD production, no level normalization, no intrusion post processing.

l  Please adjust volume as necessary, because some recording studios are louder, some are softer, the consumer expected internationally aligned studio levels and response were not fully practiced in reality and not realized even today and in the future, hence please don’t think one system can play all,

l  I target to just over 90% so that most of the tracks from any cd / production will always be good up to 90% (hopefully more) and not fall into trap of 100% good for track A but failed for track B only achieve 50%.

Suggested listening level peak 85 ~ 95 dB SPL (not average) - no weighting, RTA FAST or very FAST.

Suggested listening level average 75 ~ 85 dB SPL (not peak) - no weighting, RTA very SLOW (high amount of averaging up to 10 seconds).

1.)       Humans imperfection = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equal-loudness_contour

2.)       New listeners of these tracks, if played on UN-optimized system, will not be pleased, natural outcome, because the system was bad simply put……. This should not deter from future usage……… Especially when it is your own compilation.

a)         Assuming human’s conscious are able to remove psychological preference towards the selections, a)No bad bias, and/or b)Making sure the mind set directed towards evaluation only and not the genre/sex/age.

b)         These tracks had been listened to nearly 30 years, some as early as 1989, while others accumulated throughout the years…..

c)         The “secret recipe” is to listen over hundreds of systems, headphones, in-ear-plugs, car audio, etc. Gather all the experiences before making judgement.

l  Other references CD: - https://www.sonicelectronix.com/item-65170-AutoSound-2000-AS2K-Disk-Set.html

l  Another favorite track, only used when system is truly good = Kitaro 1991 Live in America = #11 The Light Of The Spirit i.e. This track is liked so much that if the system is not good it is not played to avoid disappointment.

l  Heroic Legend of Arslan OST - full list = https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-laUFrKxpXBgH2OOh1wjCEhk00jm0tMB very good arrangements, ahead of it’s time.

a)         i.e. track_#01 Amanda McBroom’s DREAMING immediately also tests in-phase out-of-phase, i.e. one or more of the loudspeaker out of phased.

                         【i.】              May be help catch crossover slope mis-match, may be wiring polarity mistake,

                       【ii.】              May be help catch each loudspeakers’ stereo level differences,

                      【iii.】              May be help catch too much crosstalk

                      【iv.】              May be help problem between loudspeakers or signal source/electronic distribution error.

                       【v.】              As well as help catches system with loose wire, i.e. missing sound from a loudspeakers.

b)         Every test criteria judging in this document are multitasked and simultaneously executed on the fly by ADVANCED listeners,

                         【i.】              There’s no such thing as one track for one purpose only.

                       【ii.】              When toe-in perfect triangle but can’t get stereo balance and/or phantom images not at their supposingly positions then something’s wrong….

a)         First thing to say wrong is phase is out,

b)         But phase might not be there at all because the sound didn’t got reproduced, hence also means no frequency

c)         Quick summary Phase + frequency + time arrival coincidence(s) or not are all intertwined……….. can’t say one without referring to the others.

d)         Too many to list, sorry out of this document’s scope.

e)         Don’t forget room acoustics influence ……… too much to write…..

                         【i.】              Beginners should learn these ultimatum which is covering/closing/blocking ALL loudspeaker, except one respectively, to quickly reach a new realization. Effectively mono. i.e. is the listener sure that the highs that was heard is truly what it sounds? Or woofer or mids for that matters.

                       【ii.】              MUTE function in DSP is easiest to use for point【i.】.

                      【iii.】              Then learn the opposite of 【i.】via covering/closing/blocking each one loudspeaker only, respectively, to mimic a problem in order to quickly learn how to differentiate between what is so called perfect to slightly imperfect.

                      【iv.】              Good opportunity to reverse one or more loudspeaker wire polarity to listen to the wrong thing and forever recognize it.

A very super good tweeter should be able to play 10 different sounds/instrument/voice simultaneously and the listener will experience as if there were 10 separate individual tweeters dedicated each one sound source (imagine so CLEAN sounding tweeter). A typical tweeter can handle 3 different sounds at the same time. One of my prototype can handle 7 at once = the so called “it is so noisy yet quiet”, future write up follow up. Ultimate Tweeter Test = 2014 Hiroyuki Sawano’s ALDNOAH.ZERO Original Soundtrack #4 MKAlieZ (CCAW VC test – for future write up) and #14 SiTE-n0w1 Daring mixture of sinewave as key tune into the already explosive mixture of rock & roll + heavy metals + orchestra (violin) + Africa?? tribe choir. #7 Kanascene @3:09 French-Horn-Realism test !!!!.

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