mrbojangles Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 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? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMHO Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stoneyboy Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 It may afford a decent rendition of Blue Moon will that suffice sir ? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeaverage Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 (edited) 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbojangles Posted June 18, 2013 Author Share Posted June 18, 2013 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbojangles Posted June 18, 2013 Author Share Posted June 18, 2013 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeaverage Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 fair enough, that i understand completely. having just read some of the hype, they have a lot to live up to! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMHO Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 (edited) 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bcgardener Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post joeaverage Posted June 18, 2013 Popular Post Share Posted June 18, 2013 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 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JetsetBkk Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 Probably a bit of rock? Any suggestions? Led Zep II Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tywais Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 Santana? So many possibilities though. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaKnRUfh_5I Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnasher328 Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeaverage Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 the argument is vaiid, but not when discussing a dedicated ipod dock. besides, you can record lossless 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joeaverage Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 (edited) 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbojangles Posted June 18, 2013 Author Share Posted June 18, 2013 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMHO Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 (edited) 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMHO Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 (edited) 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMHO Posted June 18, 2013 Share Posted June 18, 2013 (edited) 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelsLariat Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 (edited) 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 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMHO Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Nice list - a few tracks there I don't yet have, will have to do some searching Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rizla Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbojangles Posted June 19, 2013 Author Share Posted June 19, 2013 (edited) 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tywais Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Lot of dynamics in this one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tywais Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 And for classical, Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture is hard to beat for range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tywais Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Dynamic Range Database 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMHO Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IMHO Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 Another one for the list (blues) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s08zfmsR7gA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gnasher328 Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 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. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngelsLariat Posted June 19, 2013 Share Posted June 19, 2013 (edited) 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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