What recording version used in What Hi Fi Tests

[admin_exported]

Hello guys in the WHF team

Just a question really about the music you use when assessing/testing Hi Fi equipment. Often in your reviews you will say something like "Stravinsky Firebird Suite sounded great", (just made that up as an example), and I would find it very useful if you could detail the actual verion used (e.g, Label, Performers etc). With more mainstream music (pop) theres usually just 1 version but with classical stuff, particularly when you enter areas like, for example Tchaikovsky 1812 there are zillions of versions out there and it would be nice to know which particular version you played. I know obviously you are strapped for space in the mag but it would be an interesting bit of information to have at hand.

 

[plastic penguin]

Usually, apart from the tracks/artists mentioned in the individual reviews, look at the mag (looking at the Nov edition, and includes album of the month) on pages 80/81 it gives a "playlist" where it give a fairly detailed synopsis of films, games and music (generally two or three from each section). I'm assuming these have been thoroughly tested during their reviews of films and music etc.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks PP but I was talking about the tracks used when testing equipment. Probably at cross purposes but it is Friday afternoon and I've had enough and ready to naff off home and play with Spotify (if my wife hasn't bagged the Sonos controller first!). So as you can gather I am on the internet at work but our IT manager is so thick he can't tell whether I'm on the net or not.

 

[plastic penguin]

Unless anyone from 'The Towers' can clarify, you'll have to assume that they hear all the tracks mentioned in the mag, plus the individual songs mentioned in the review. Remember it changes from month to month so you may have to be a little more specific.

 

[Anonymous]

Correct me if I'm wrong nick but if I get it right the question is:

When WHF team makes reference to music while reviewing an item (speaker, amp, or what ever), instead of writing only "... while listening to The Beatles' Abbey Road, the bass was...", nick would like to see something like this ".. while listening to the Beatles' Abbey Road (CD, Apple 3 82468 2), the bass was..." so you know exactly what sound the WHF team is making reference of.

The Tchaikovsky 1812 is one of the many classic perfect example. I could buy at least 10 CD of Tchaikovsky 1812 Opening in less then 5 min. All of them would sound very different. (Different orchestra, different modern music instrument, old traditional instrument, etc)

 

[Andrew Everard]

Correct me if I'm wrong nick but if I get it right the question is:

When WHF team makes reference to music while reviewing an item (speaker, amp, or what ever), instead of writing only "... while listening to The Beatles' Abbey Road, the bass was...", nick would like to see something like this ".. while listening to the Beatles' Abbey Road (CD, Apple 3 82468 2), the bass was..." so you know exactly what sound the WHF team is making reference of.

The Tchaikovsky 1812 is one of the many classic perfect example. I could buy at least 10 CD of Tchaikovsky 1812 Opening in less then 5 min. All of them would sound very different. (Different orchestra, different modern music instrument, old traditional instrument, etc)

No, he's asking for specific performance/recording references for classical works of which there may be many such recordings/performances. As he said, the problem mainly doesn't arise with non-classical works - well, apart from 30-however-many-it-is versions of Kind of Blue!

I'll endeavour to have conversations about this on Monday, and see whether we can get a 'this month we are mainly been listening to...' list on the site, or as a Spotilist or whatever.

 

[Anonymous]

Maybe do a feature on 'what's hot on spotify', new album's, great sounding track's etc.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Maybe do a feature on 'what's hot on spotify', new album's, great sounding track's etc.

It would have to be a daily feature.