For those of you with the B&W 1200 watt system, I've been looking for the right songs to really test out the quality of the sound system. There are some excellent songs in each genre, but in rock and roll, try Foreplay/Long Time by Boston. I downloaded it to my iPhone and played it today. Wow...just amazing sound. Great range in this song. I also find the quality of the sound from an iTunes download is superior to a cd, radio, or satellite. Only HD radio sounds better.

Interested to know what you guys think of this song for sound testing, and what other songs are recommended. I'd like some good jazz songs if anyone has suggestions.

 

Check out anything put out by the label Chesky Records. They specialize in sound quality-type recordings, and some of their compilations are jazz/genre specific. Back when I was really into car stereo, their "Ultimate Demonstration" disc was used at competitions to grade tonality, sound staging, imaging, phase, etc.

As far as individual tracks to download, I'm more of a metal guy... no jazz suggestions here.

 

Gato Barbieri "Que Passa"
Connie Evingson "Fever - A Tribute to Peggy Lee"

My favorite discs and tracks to test car and home audio systems

 

Do you know if our system plays SACD's? Great suggestions guys. That Chesky cd sounds awesome...gonna grab it now in SACD if our systems will play it.

 

From everything I have read and seen I doubt it. And I have the Napster and Rhapsody apps which download music offline at 256kps which is same rate of normal itune downloads. I find CD's sound better and don't make the speakers pop when pushed hard.

 

I have a call in to the right people to find out for sure on this, and I'll post the outcome. Some CD's sound good, and some don't. You'd think it's more standardized than it is, but it really isn't. It's a lot like HDTV where some HD is crisper than others. Even Blu-Ray has that same issue.

 

True. I think in the end it is about the mastering process. Even though there is not a big market for it. I was surprise that it didnt play SACD or DVD audio. I assume it would at least play FLAC or some other kind of lossless codec. Its no different than having at 50,000 dollar home audio system and then playing nothing but MP3 on it. Kinda defeats the purpose.

 

I'm not sure if it plays SACD but it does play DVD Audio discs I have several of them and they sound great it also plays DTS music discs as well which sound even better in my opinion but are really hard to find. So far the best sounding recordings I have heard in the car are 2 DVD's one is Brian Setzer live in Tokyo and the other is Stevie Wonder live in London both of those Concerts sound amazing they were recorded in DTS surround. HD radio also sounds good but it varies By station, IPod sounds really good also but only when connected thru the iPod cable, it doesn't sound as loud when connected thru Bluetooth. The worst sound quality in my opinion is satellite radio but this is not a jaguar problem, satellite radio sounds like crap in every car I have owned and on every system I have listened to it I really don't know why I bother paying for it, it always sounds like your listening to it in the bathroom you always hear a metallic echo sound.

 

You may want to try some superdiscs from Monster Audio they are very high quality recordings in DVD format and they have a few jazz titles available I have the George Benson and Al Jarreau disc and it sounds great, the Ray Charles one is a good one also.

 

If your B&W plays DVDs, get a copy of the live Snakes&Arrows RUSH concert, select 5.1 on the DVD menu and crank it up. I listen to this in my car (not XJ) and it's simply amazing.

 

I don't have an XJ, but i'm a musician & spent years & a small fortune on sound, here's my 2 cents.

If you want to get the most out of your system, forget about mp3's, the compression to reduce the file size removes more than half of the actual sound from the original recording. Buy original CD's, not compliations, as these are often compressed too. Burning mp3's to CD's won't help either. mp3s are fine if you are using headphones, but when you crank it up on a big system the sound will usually be distorted & muddy.

What sort of hifi system do you have in your house? If you've got something good like Bose, B&O, Onkyo, etc then you should make a comparison to the in-car system, using the same CD.

My personal favourite for testing sound systems is an original CD of Metallica's Black album, if you can crank it up and everything stays clear, then you've got something good.

Another good one is Pink Floyd's Pulse live album, the quality of the production is excellent & it's actually recorded quadrophonic, so you can hear sound moving all around the car, front-back-left-right, assuming of course that the XJ system will play quadrophonic, i'd be surprised if it didn't.

Can't really make any suggestions for jazz, but in general if you are looking for top level production quality, anything from a major label recorded since the early 90's, on an original CD, should be a good indication.

 

I have to add my 2 cents to your 2 cents for a total of 4 cents on that Metallica Black album as the XJ's B&W demo material. I use my DVD-Audio disc of that album for demos and everything remains clear when cranked up, audio-wise, but unfortunately my car starts to fall apart with rattles coming from the front dash area and the rear shelf/trunk area.

Are those rattles occuring for you guys also when cranked past 40 and all tone controls flat?

 

I do recommend
Michael Angelo - Test Drive 2010 feat Danny (Nitrous Oxide)

I will give it a try in my Paradigm Home Audio System

 

Kenny G -songbird

 

The End Titles to the soundtrack of the movie The International.

 

I put in the original Metallica Black album that I got 20 years ago. WOW. What a great suggestion. I turned it up to my personal auditory pain threshold, and no distortion, no rattles, just pure heavy metal from 1991.

Can't wait to pop in the Dark Side of the Moon CD I got at the discount CD shop.

 

In twitter #HFAudioTestSong

 

It will not play DVD-Audio discs. It will, however play DVDs. There is a difference. It will not play SACDs. However, I think the best demonstration of the abilities of the system would be the Dead Can Dance SACD hybrid remasters (it will play the CD-Audio layer of the discs). Those are mastered impeccably. Also, the This Mortal Coil remasters sound damn good.
I gave the Talk Talk DVDs that come with the newly remastered vinyl albums a spin recently as well, and, while quiet, sound gorgeous.

 

Yes but I am getting the rattles from the driver and passenger door panels and from the headliner right where the sunroof starts. Its pretty annoying. I am going to take it to the dealer to see if they can at least get rid of the vibrations in the door panels. According to Jaguar and Topix there is some kind of vibration kit they can apply. The headliner may end up continuing to be an issue.

 

I posted this in another thread also. Hope it helps
Here's something to test the frequency responses of your car's (and home) audio system.

Autosound 2000 Disc One (Disc One) Low Frequency Test CD at Crutchfield.com