Putting my speakers to the test.

[mrbojangles]

I've just bought myself a Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin dock and want to put it through it's paces. I've never had B&W before.

They don't sell them here in Saudi, so I will have to pick it up in the UK in a couple of weeks when I go back on business. I think they weigh in at 10kg, so need the extra baggage allowance.

Anyway. When I bring it back, I want to see just how good it is and my middle of the road musical preference probably won't stretch it to the max. So, just for fun, what do you suggest I play on it to get the maximum listening experience and to see what it really can do?

Probably a bit of classical? But what is a good classical CD to hear all the plucks of the violin and every note how it was meant to be heard.

Probably a bit of rock? Any suggestions?

[IMHO]

Nice choice

Anything from Erich Kunzel and and Cincinatti Pops Orchestra will give you a good idea how they handle, but watch the volume levels on tracks that get really low..

As for Rock - that's such a broad genre these days I'm a little wary to make any suggestions

[stoneyboy]

It may afford a decent rendition of Blue Moon will that suffice sir ?

[joeaverage]

while i have had and some astonishing bw speakers in my time (lost a set to flooding -- nearly cried) i cant see how expectations on an iphone doc could be that high.

would be interested to hear different, but it seems to me it would not have proper separation and just be under powered

Edited June 18, 2013 by joeaverage

[mrbojangles]

while i have had and some astonishing bw speakers in my time (lost a set to flooding -- nearly cried) i cant see how expectations on an iphone doc could be that high.

would be interested to hear different, but it seems to me it would not have proper separation and just be under powered

Yeah, I'm obviously not expecting anything like the preformance of a full size system. But after reading many reviews, I am expecting them to be very good. I just want to see how good they are, for a dock. If I can blast out my living room, or they can handle being in the garden with clarity and without distortion, I'll be happy.

Off topic but my all time favourites that I have owned (I also lost but due to theft) were my Mission Argonauts. I loved them to bits.

[mrbojangles]

Nice choice

Anything from Erich Kunzel and and Cincinatti Pops Orchestra will give you a good idea how they handle, but watch the volume levels on tracks that get really low..

As for Rock - that's such a broad genre these days I'm a little wary to make any suggestions

Thanks for that IMHO. I'll do some downloading later.

[joeaverage]

fair enough, that i understand completely.

having just read some of the hype, they have a lot to live up to!

[IMHO]

while i have had and some astonishing bw speakers in my time (lost a set to flooding -- nearly cried) i cant see how expectations on an iphone doc could be that high.

would be interested to hear different, but it seems to me it would not have proper separation and just be under powered

The Zepplin does quite well - I have auditioned them a few times - the sound quality reminds me of the B&W 685's running off a 30Watt'ish amp - if that's the kind of thing you like, you'll like these too...

Sure it's not going to give you great staging and imaging given the form factor, but it still does a reasonable job of presenting a sound stage at <= 2M listening distances, if not too far off vertical axis.

They do great on classical, jazz, acoustic rock and easy listening. The bass response and subdued top-end don't make them very well suited at rocking the dance floor with EDM or pop though

If they ran off Li-on batteries, I'd probably buy one for garden/workshop listening

Edited June 18, 2013 by IMHO

[Bcgardener]

No matter what you feed into them it will not sound good. Nothing from a highly compressed mp3 music file can come close to real music from a good cd or old vinyl record.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

[joeaverage]

No matter what you feed into them it will not sound good. Nothing from a highly compressed mp3 music file can come close to real music from a good cd or old vinyl record.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

blah blah

[JetsetBkk]

Probably a bit of rock? Any suggestions?

Led Zep II

[Tywais]

Santana? So many possibilities though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaKnRUfh_5I

[Gnasher328]

No matter what you feed into them it will not sound good. Nothing from a highly compressed mp3 music file can come close to real music from a good cd or old vinyl record.Sent from my GT-N7000 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

I was just going to say the same thing. I was experimenting transferring from vinyl to mp3, and listening back to back it was amazing how much detail was missing. Interestingly, I stopped actually listening to music when cds came out.

T.

[joeaverage]

the argument is vaiid, but not when discussing a dedicated ipod dock. besides, you can record lossless

[joeaverage]

Santana? So many possibilities though.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaKnRUfh_5I

if you are going to go santanna, this track positively breathes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVLr0bLYiIs

Edited June 18, 2013 by joeaverage

[mrbojangles]

No matter what you feed into them it will not sound good. Nothing from a highly compressed mp3 music file can come close to real music from a good cd or old vinyl record.

Have you actually seen what it is I have bought? The dock at the front is for ipod, iphone etc but they have also catered for many other inputs on the back of the unit and so you can connect your CD player and your record player into the Aux input if you like.

[IMHO]

No matter what you feed into them it will not sound good. Nothing from a highly compressed mp3 music file can come close to real music from a good cd or old vinyl record.Sent from my GT-N7000 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

I was just going to say the same thing. I was experimenting transferring from vinyl to mp3, and listening back to back it was amazing how much detail was missing. Interestingly, I stopped actually listening to music when cds came out.

T.

What ADC did you use? What impedance and gain matching did you do? How good was the analogue signal chain and transport? What MP3 compressor did you use and what were the bandwidth and bitrate settings? Why did you choose (lossy) MP3 and not lossless?

There's many factors involved when converting from analogue to digital, and it's pretty easy to mess it up. Done properly, the only difference you'll hear when doing follow-up listening tests will be a few more pops and crackles on the original source as more dust settles on it

Edited June 18, 2013 by IMHO

[IMHO]

No matter what you feed into them it will not sound good. Nothing from a highly compressed mp3 music file can come close to real music from a good cd or old vinyl record.

Have you actually seen what it is I have bought? The dock at the front is for ipod, iphone etc but they have also catered for many other inputs on the back of the unit and so you can connect your CD player and your record player into the Aux input if you like.

Not withstanding the fact that anyone serious about SQ listens to raw WAV files or ALAC/FLAC/APE lossless audio formats, not MP3

Note to Bcgardener: iTunes (and by extension iPod, iPad and iPhone) has supported lossless audio since 2004 - i.e. absolutely bit-perfect copies of the original media. When docked to the Zepplin Air, audio is transported from the docked device digitally, with the conversion happening inside the Zepp's themselves using Wolfsen 24-bit DACs - so it's a solid signal chain that's impossible to pick from a decent CD player - compromised only by the speakers themselves

Edited June 18, 2013 by IMHO

[IMHO]

Nice choice

Anything from Erich Kunzel and and Cincinatti Pops Orchestra will give you a good idea how they handle, but watch the volume levels on tracks that get really low..

As for Rock - that's such a broad genre these days I'm a little wary to make any suggestions

OK, Seeing as some other have posted classic rock and you didn't bite them, here's some suggestions:

Eagles - Hell Freezes Over (Best live recording ever. Little weak on bottom end, and overall gain a little low, but incredible dynamics)

Dire Straits - Money For Nothing (the album, has a high noise floor and thin bottom end on some tracks, but is a great listen. standout recording is Brothers in Arms)

Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive (very high noise floor, but "Do You Feel Like We Do" is just such a great journey on nice speakers)

And some more recent stuff:

Jason Mraz - Love is a four letter word (standout track: I won't give up - amazing dynamics)

Jessie J - Who you are (title track is the standout)

Adele - 21

Edited June 18, 2013 by IMHO

[AngelsLariat]

For what it's worth, below is the playlist that I often use when auditioning equipment at a hi-fi- store. Generally I'll have them loaded onto a notebook PC and play them with foobar2000 software over either a USB DAC that I bring with me or by plugging the PC into the USB input of whatever DAC the store has set up. The songs are a mix of 16bit/44KHz files that were ripped from CD and 24/88KHZ, 24/96KHZ, 24/172KHZ, or 24/192KHZ that were downloaded or ripped from various sources.

I'm not claiming all of these are good music or even that they all are well recorded, but when I audition equipment I generally want to put it through the paces with a wide variety of tunes that are at least somewhat representative of what I might listen to at home. Your mileage may vary.

Marvin Gaye - [Midnight Love #02] Sexual Healing

Muddy Waters - [Folk Singer #04] Good Morning School Girl

Dusty Springfield - [Casino Royale #02] Look of Love

The Kingston Trio - [36 All-Time Greatest Hits CD] The Wreck Of The John B.

The Kingston Trio - [36 All-Time Greatest Hits CD] Tom Dooley

Waylon Jennings - [Nashville Rebel - Disc 1 (1958-1969) Boxset] I Ain't The One (with Jessi Colter)

Grateful Dead - [American Beauty, DVD-A] Ripple

The Rolling Stones - [Let It Bleed, HDTracks] Gimme Shelter

The Who - [Live At Leeds [1995 Reissue CD] Amazing Journey / Sparks

The Amboy Dukes - [Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From The First Psychedelic Era 1965-1968] Baby Please Don't Go

The Rolling Stones - [Let It Bleed, HDTracks] Monkey Man

Beyonce - If I Were A Boy

Itzhak Perlman, London Symphony Orch - [Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto, 1980's Chesky CD] Capriccio Italien, Op.45

The Doors - [L.A. Woman, SACD] L.A,. Woman

The Beatles - [sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (24 BIT "Apple" Stick] When I'm Sixty Four

Jerry Garcia & David Grisman - [Jerry Garcia-David Grisman #01] The Thrill Is Gone

Hamilton Camp - [Troubadours Of The Folk Era Volume Two CD] Get Together

Johnny Cash - [American Recordings IV - The Man Comes Around CD] Hurt

Joe Cocker & Leon Russell - [Mad Dogs & Englishmen - Fillmore East Concerts Boxset] Girl From The North Country

Grateful Dead - [birth Of The Dead - The Live Sides] It's All Over Now, Baby Blue

Bob Dylan - [blood On The Tracks (remastered CD)] Tangled Up in Blue

Elton John - [Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Japanese SACD] This Song Has No Title

David Grisman / Jerry Garcia / Tony Rice - [The Pizza Tapes, HDTracks] Shady Grove

Grateful Dead - [Grateful dead (Skull and Roses)] Me & Mobby McGee

Grateful Dead - [Grateful dead (Skull and Roses)] Not fade away goin' down the road feeling bad

Jerry Garcia & David Grisman - [Jerry Garcia-David Grisman CD] Arabia

Stevie Wonder - [Original Musiquarium I (HDTracks)] Superstition

Stevie Wonder - [Original Musiquarium I (HDTracks)] You Haven't Done Nothin'

Stevie Wonder - [Original Musiquarium I (HDTracks)] Living For The City (1982 Musiquarium Version)

The Weavers - [Reunion at Carnegie Hall 1963, Acoustic Productions DVDA] Banks Of Marble

The Weavers - [Reunion at Carnegie Hall 1963, Acoustic Productions DVDA] Ramblin' Boy

Led Zeppelin - [Led Zeppelin I, Barry Diamont mastering from 1980's] Dazed And Confused

The Bangles - [Greatest Hits (SACD)] Hazy Shade Of Winter

Johnny Cash - [unearthed (Vol. 5 Best of Cash on American) Boxset] Solitary Man

Chris Isaak - [baja Sessions #03] Only The Lonely

Traffic - [John Barleycorn Must Die (HDTracks)] John Barleycorn (Must Die)

Traffic - [Heaven Is In Your Mind (Dear Mr. Fantasy) 2000 Remaster] Dear Mr. Fantasy

The Rolling Stones - [sticky Fingers, Japanese SACD] Can't You Hear Me Knocking

ZZ Top - [Tres Hombres, HDTracks] La Grange

Edited June 19, 2013 by AngelsLariat

[IMHO]

Nice list - a few tracks there I don't yet have, will have to do some searching

[rizla]

No matter what you feed into them it will not sound good. Nothing from a highly compressed mp3 music file can come close to real music from a good cd or old vinyl record.

Sent from my GT-N7000 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Get some ogg vorbis files

[mrbojangles]

Yeah. The daughter finishes school next week and so the wife and her are off to Thailand next tuesday evening. Therefore I will have the time (and peace) to download that lot.

Thanks for the list gents

Edited June 26, 2013 by astral
No need to quote the entire post

[Tywais]

Lot of dynamics in this one.

[Tywais]

And for classical, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture is hard to beat for range.

[Tywais]

Dynamic Range Database

[IMHO]

Hehe yes, 1812 with the cannons hits hard, but it's difficult to find a *really* clean version of it.

If you have speakers that claim they can play properly low, try this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_q8Iu-q1PU

Pure, naturally recorded sub-bass (just good mic placement) starts around 0:46, and at 1:20 there's a lot of activity under 20Hz - so you either won't hear anything, will hear something horrible, or if you're lucky, will hear some great lows

[IMHO]

Another one for the list (blues)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s08zfmsR7gA

[Gnasher328]

No matter what you feed into them it will not sound good. Nothing from a highly compressed mp3 music file can come close to real music from a good cd or old vinyl record.Sent from my GT-N7000 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

I was just going to say the same thing. I was experimenting transferring from vinyl to mp3, and listening back to back it was amazing how much detail was missing. Interestingly, I stopped actually listening to music when cds came out.

T.

What ADC did you use? What impedance and gain matching did you do? How good was the analogue signal chain and transport? What MP3 compressor did you use and what were the bandwidth and bitrate settings? Why did you choose (lossy) MP3 and not lossless?

There's many factors involved when converting from analogue to digital, and it's pretty easy to mess it up. Done properly, the only difference you'll hear when doing follow-up listening tests will be a few more pops and crackles on the original source as more dust settles on it

Hi again.

The questions are irrelevant as no matter what equiptment you use, MP3 will not be as good as analogue or higher quality digital due to conversion rate and compression, but I assume you already know this so why do you quibble.

I chose MP3 as I was simply transferring music to to my phone for travel.

Fourty years ago I was a geeky audiophile and myself and my Thorens turntable have looked after my LPs well so there are virtually no crackles or hiss.

T.

[AngelsLariat]

Hi again.

The questions are irrelevant as no matter what equiptment you use, MP3 will not be as good as analogue or higher quality digital due to conversion rate and compression, but I assume you already know this so why do you quibble.

I chose MP3 as I was simply transferring music to to my phone for travel.

Fourty years ago I was a geeky audiophile and myself and my Thorens turntable have looked after my LPs well so there are virtually no crackles or hiss.

T.

Why would it be necessary to use MP3 files? If needing to use an Apple base system, wouldn't it be possible to use WAV files are M4A files instead? And if it really must be MP3, when encoded at 320 CBR, MP3's aren't that easy to tell from lossless files even when doing a blind test.

Edited June 19, 2013 by AngelsLariat