I don’t know if this idea has been considered before but I thought I’d mention it.
In all the discussion on new firmware for the DS it is difficult to know how much of the variation people report on particular aspects of sound quality is due to the recording, system, room etc. Some of this, obviously, can’t be eliminated but its been my experience that one of the biggest sources of variation is the recording.
If we can get to a standard playlist of, say, 10 tracks, we can eliminate at least this source of variation.
It could be quite difficult to start with a clean slate and arrive at a consenus because opinions, tastes, and music collections vary so much.
If we can start with a list of tracks that, say, Arnie uses in his evaluation and then suggest modifications/additions and have, say, Paul or Ted be the final arbiter we could finalize such a list quite quickly. The list, of course, should include a link to the source from which the particular version of each track can be purchased.
This has been suggested a number of times. There was limited interest. The general consensus was each listener is better off with tracks/CDs/sources he knows well.
And few are going to be willing to buy multiple CDs/downloads of music in which they are otherwise disinterested merely for discussion purposes.
Cookie Moreno was kind enough to offer a playlist [files] of the same recordings and in various resolution and format files for our DS Beta group.
These I posted in the Beta area and many of our testers downloaded them. Perhaps, if asked, she might permit that some of these could be shared.
There are also free files in multiple formats in the list I posted in the “Music” thread although I have no idea if those are claimed to all be from the same original files for true comparison.
This might help with some of the source variables when comparing our “differences or similarities”. It might also help to hear how our own rigs compare with those fortunate to have more upscale equipment. IE: we might know better what to strive for.