Best music for testing beolab 5

Hi

I will have the chance to test apair of beolab 5 at home at the beginning of the next week.

I won't have a lot of time available before taking my decision : purchase or not purchase?

If you own already a pair, please tell me which title, songs are the best suited to these speakers.

Thanks

Kodo - Lion (available on the "Best of Kodo" CD). This is a percussion song, where a really huge japanese drum is being used. The Beolab 5 are one of the only speakers reproducing it so that you can have that huge feeling.

Thanks

Unavailable on deezer unfortunately

Some other bass-heavy recordings I like to use are:

John Paul Jones (Led Zep bassist):  Zooma

Peter Gabriel:  Birdy soundtrack (remastered version)

Blue Man Group:  almost anything

How about the 1812 Ouverture - Tchaikovsky!

N.B. have a look here too:

http://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/stereo-recordings-bass/

MM

Thanks for all these examples.

I didn't know that master geoff puts some test tracks on his blog, very usefull.

Ok for the bass demonstration, but do you have some examples for the high and mediums, less bass oriented.

The seller offer me to buy them because in his place (a garage with low ceiling) the bass was too overwhelming.

Better to buy the new BeoLab 20 !

Half price of the BeoLab 5 and sound nearly the same.

BeoLab 5 will be End of Life soon !

"A bon entendeur"

olvisab:

Ok for the bass demonstration, but do you have some examples for the high and mediums, less bass oriented.

 

General: http://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/must-have-recordings-and-why/

Bass: http://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/stereo-recordings-bass/

Midrange: http://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/test-tracks-stereo-midrange/

Treble: http://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/stereo-recordings-treble/

Punch: http://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/stereo-recordings-punch/

Imaging: http://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/stereo-recordings-imaging/

You'll find more suggestions (more categories) listed on the right side of the page here

 

Geoff Martin:

General: http://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/must-have-recordings-and-why/

Bass: http://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/stereo-recordings-bass/

Midrange: http://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/test-tracks-stereo-midrange/

Treble: http://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/stereo-recordings-treble/

Punch: http://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/stereo-recordings-punch/

Imaging: http://www.tonmeister.ca/wordpress/stereo-recordings-imaging/

You'll find more suggestions (more categories) listed on the right side of the page here

And plus, there are more demo playlists in my Spotify account here Hope this helps! Have fun! Cheers -g

Thanks Dear master !

Very usefull works.

If the test is a success, I will probably make some video with these tracks. Each time I search videos about the beolab 5 (and most of the beolab), I am always very disappointed by the poor quality of them and the strange choice of songs playing.

BeoBoy68:

Better to buy the new BeoLab 20 !

Half price of the BeoLab 5 and sound nearly the same.

BeoLab 5 will be End of Life soon !

"A bon entendeur"

Beolit 12 White Edition .... The Boom Boom Box !

Bonjour, Hi,

The beolab 9 was my first choice but the beolab 5 will cost me 2000 euros less and I wanted to give them a chance as I did with my beloved beolab 1.

I love the look of the beolab 9 but they are too expensiv for me actually.

If you can buy the 5´s for 2000€ less then the BL20 BUY them. Its the best speaker I´ve heard. The BL20 can´t compare with BL5 IMO.

I love my BL5 and if given a digital signal ( preferred from a computer with USB-spdif asynchronous converter) you cant go wrong. I hade the same problem with too much bass in my "small" room but got it fixed thanks to Dirac Live room correction software.

All good recorded music will work for you. I had a friend over that worked in studios and all he could say after the demo was "impressive".

 

 

Wilderwein:

If you can buy the 5´s for 2000€ less then the BL20 BUY them. Its the best speaker I´ve heard. The BL20 can´t compare with BL5 IMO.

I love my BL5 and if given a digital signal ( preferred from a computer with USB-spdif asynchronous converter) you cant go wrong. I hade the same problem with to musch bass in my "small" room but got it fixed thanks to Dirac Live room correction software.

All good recorded music will work for you. I had a friend over that worked in studios and all he could say after the demo was "impressive".

Thanks for this tip.

If I have problems with the bass, I will dig further with the dspeaker solution.

Their products are for subwoofer but maybe I can use one before sending the signal to the beolab 5. I didn't think about this computer and software solution you talk about , thanks for sharing your experience.

Hi guys,

Lots of good music recommended here...But, for testing a pair of speakers before purchase, I would go for the music I usually listen to..

If that doesn't sound good, then it's not the speakers for me.. :)

Just my 2 cents...

/Peter

 

 

I will use some of my favorite tracks but that doesn't mean that these tracks will use the whole speaker at its best. Sound good probably but I want them to sound very good for the test.

I love my beolab 1, I love listening some kind of music on it but I won't play others kinds.

With the beolab 5, I want to have a smile whatever the music.

This is the purpose of this test, I want to test their reactions.

olvisab:

Thanks Dear master !

Very usefull works.

If the test is a success, I will probably make some video with these tracks. Each time I search videos about the beolab 5 (and most of the beolab), I am always very disappointed by the poor quality of them and the strange choice of songs playing.

Please - call me geoff.

 

I don't understand your comment about making a video. If you're thinking that you can record the sound of any loudspeaker (BL5 or not) and play that recording back to get a feeling of how the loudspeaker sounds, I would humbly suggest that you not bother. This is basically impossible unless you have a very large anechoic chamber, some extremely good microphones, and some very substantial background in working as a recording engineer. (And, even then, I would offer that the result would not be worth the disc space it would take to do it.)

Capturing the sound of a loudspeaker in a "normal" room with an iThingy (with or without an external microphone attached), for example, will result in nothing remotely similar to the sound that you heard - or that you're trying to "demo".

It's similar (or perhaps equivalent) to trying to show the difference in picture quality between two modern televisions using a cheap film camera with black and white film in it.

Apart from that, you might consider the legal implications of putting a commercial audio recording on a video on the Internet with your name attached to it. This is legally equivalent to copying and re-distributing the music, which is illegal and prosecutable in many countries - very likely including the countries where the recordings' owners reside. Some record companies have been known to frown on that sort of thing...

Cheers

-geoff

 

Dear geoff,

I do appreciate your warnings about my intentions. Of course a recording will be far away from the original sound, I am not completely stupid and I think that if it was easy and efficient you will use this means before in order to promote the sound quality of b&o speakers.

However, if it gives only some clues about the characteristics of the speakers, I think it worths it.

In the past I have see some videos of quad speakers and I must admit that we easily can perceive their capabilities.

Using just a part of a track for demonstration purpose when the complete track is available a million of times on youtube, well I think the risk is quite limited.

Posting a picture is as useless as posting a video, when you enter the shop and see the product the first time, you understand this.... But it gives an idea of the product. This is the same for a video.

Bang olufsen should publish his own "not perfect" video in order to avoid that potential customers only see bad records on the video websites. This situation tarnish the image of the brand.

This is my opinion, thanks for reading it