Hight Fidelity Recording

Sound Quality Listening Guide

We all know that music speaks to our emotions. This guide sets out to demonstrate the difference superior sound can make. Purely in terms of quality, once you become aware of various sonic and spatial distinctions, be they ever so subtle, you will all the more relish the music you love.

Audio tones designed to test equipment and system setup

22kHz to 20Hz Sweep, use this test to familiarize yourself with tones at various frequencies
L-R Channel Check, left and right channel test with tone
R-L Check, left and right channel test with music
20Hz-20kHz InPhase-OutPhase Sweep, in-phase and out-of-phase test
Wideband Stereo Continuous Pan, a wall of white noise sweeps evenly from left to right
Wideband Stereo Stepped Pan, evenly spaced, pulsing white noise sweeps from left to right

Music tracks that highlight clarity, dynamics, resolution, soundstage and timbre

Good stereo creates an illusion. The better the stereo, the better the illusion, specifically a perception of harmonically rich, lifelike sounds occurring a real-life space. The guidelines and questions accompanying these tracks will help you appreciate the rewards superior sound delivers.

These tracks may be freely distributed in its entiretyonly with attribution to Nuforce. The album art file must be included with the distribution.

Album art:

Uncompressed WAV format

Drum Dynamics, 4608 Kbps / 96KHz.

This track demonstrates a largely misunderstood term: dynamics. Any boombox can play loud. A good stereo’s dynamics range from feather-soft to thunder-clap loud. The metal and drums (skins and rims) reveal a system’s ability to convey lightning-swift transients.
Cello Tonality, 4608 Kbps / 96KHz.

Good stereo allows you to appreciate this 300-year-old cello’s unique timbre and rich resonance.
Piano Tonality, 4608 Kbps / 96KHz

This intimate yet remarkably powerful recording is especially revealing of the Fazioli piano’s percussive attacks, overtones and decays, and most especially, of its soul-stirring middle and lower range.
Jazz Plucked Bass, 4608 Kbps / 96KHz
Classical Plucked Bass, 4608 Kbps / 96KHz

Apart from both instruments’ rich fundamentals and warm overtones, can you detect differences with respect to their individual character?
Vocal Tonality, 4608 Kbps / 96KHz

Her sibilants should have a natural rather than “spitty” character. You should also have a sense of the singer’s physical body – lips, tongue, throat, lungs and chest. The human voice via good stereo can be very seductive.
Asian Flute, 4608 Kbps / 96KHz

A brilliant yet distant, soulful and spacious sound, the result perhaps of applied reverberation?
Binaural Tonality, 4608 Kbps / 96KHz

You should experience a strong sense of left-right separation in an intimate setting yet with no sense of a hole in the middle of the soundstage.
Complex Tonal Resolution, 4608 Kbps / 96KHz

. In contrast to the above, the flute and guitar appear to occupy the space between the speakers in yet another intimate setting.
Outdoor Ambience, 4608 Kbps / 96KHz

Does the band seem to be playing in an acoustically ideal space? – a well designed performance shell perhaps? Pay particular attention to location within the soundfield.
Outdoor spaciousness, 4608 Kbps / 96KHz

Have you a sense of the trumpets’ knife-edged brilliance playing into the open air?
Harmonic Group Unity, 4608 Kbps / 96KHz

Here we have an excellent example of a fully occupied, harmonically luxuriant soundfield. Our table in this jazz club isn’t very far from the band.
Tonal Delicacy, 4608 Kbps / 96KHz

Note the swift attacks and the harmonics they produce. Our proximity to the guitarist permits us to hear this beautiful instrument’s every intricate aspect.
Complex Tonal Purity, 4608 Kbps / 96KHz

Do you hear this performance as entirely natural or artificially enhanced? You should be getting better at this.
Ensemble Power, 4608 Kbps / 96KHz

A hard-driving performance you can almost feel in your chest. Does the band seem to be indoors or outdoors?
Exotic Percussion, 4608 Kbps / 96KHz

A perfect demonstration of sharp attacks, rich overtones, authoritative bass, and long, elegant fades into space.