Aside from XLO main man Roger Skoff's gigantic ego preventing him yet again from choosing a more melodious voice than his own for the test narration, this one's hard to fault. Its current technological relevance is enhanced by reference recordings' key role is launching HDCD, so the music tracks are HDCD-encoded. In playing order, you get channel identification and phase tests, a clap track, a 315Hz test tone, a wonderful 'spatial' set-up track narrated by Professor Keith Johnson, demagnetising fades and sweeps and a 15 minute burn-in track. Music selections, all from the Reference Recordings catalogue, include Eileen Farrell (Surprise, Surprise), the Turtle Creek Chorale, the Dallas Wind Symphony conducted by Fennell and others, plus mono in-phase and mono out-of-phase and stereo 'out of absolute phase' tracks.
|
