what's yer demo?

Micah Cohen

Your personal assignment: The next issue of the Polk Audio newspaper is going to be a sort of demo-suggestion clearinghouse, an overview of the best of the best for people who are just joining the growing DVD and high fidelity audio (multi-channel music) crowd. (Did you know that over 25 million people now have a DVD player? That it was the most popular gift this past holiday season? And that most people don't even realize all the cool stuff you can do with these formats?)

Do you have a single personal favorite demo disc, either DVD or CD or multi-channel music disc? If you do... Please contribute a short post here that looks like this:

SPY KIDS (DVD)
Jump-to demo tracks:
4: bicycle rides around rear channels, cool surround effect
10, 19: weather conditions in the "virtual room" provide deep bass and good wide dynamics
22: lots of low end!

That's it! No need for a lengthy "review," just the format, your favorite "jump-to" demo tracks & why they sound cool in your Polk speakers.

Any format is fine: CD, DVD, DVD-A, SACD, even VINYL!

I will be compiling these, testing them out, and combining them with the suggestions from our field sales force for an all out demo-rama in the next issue. I might even -- if you're good -- attribute them!

PLEASE: If you see someone has already posted "your" demo disc, the one you were going to post, please DO NOT repost it; pick something else and post that.

Gentlemen, start your demos!

(Thanks! Micah)

Ron-P

~Titan A.E. :The Ice Field sequence
~Daylight: The tunnel explosion
~Moulin Rouge: The Green Fairy sequence
~Swordfish: The opening bomb sequence
~Toy Story II: The intro
~Gladiator: The chariot fight scquences


Peace Out~:D

Micah Cohen

Aw, it's the Green Fairy thing again. Ron! Ron!

Make em look just like I made em look up there:

SPY KIDS (DVD)
Jump-to demo tracks:
4: bicycle rides around rear channels, cool surround effect
10, 19: weather conditions in the "virtual room" provide deep bass and good wide dynamics
22: lots of low end!

Just like that. Use that as a "template." Cut & paste it.

Help me out here. I need details.

MC

Micah Cohen

*bump!*

Ron-P

Make em look just like I made em look up there:

Too much work.


Peace Out~:D

Micah Cohen

You guys suck.

MC

Ron-P

You wish.


Peace Out~:D

Micah Cohen

You make it very difficult for me. I give and I give and I give. You take take take. And you don't bring me flowers anymore.

Just do this one cool thing. It's like the audience participation part of WONDERAMA. Sit on the balloon, write up a demo.

Simple.

Ron-P

I'll try and jump on some of mine tonight for ya.


Peace Out~:D

First One: The Green fairy from Moulin Rouge. I have no problem watching this again.

Micah Cohen

Okay, so what chapter is the alleged "green fairy" in, and why is it a good demo?

It'll look like this, I'm sure:

MOULIN ROUGE (DVD)
Jump-to demo tracks:
X: the "green fairy" sprinkles dynamic bandwidth throughout the room.
X: lots of bass when the fairy returns.
X: aggressive surrounds when the fairy gets aggressive!

Comeon man, not so hard.

Today, even Mozart's not helping. Damn.

MC

hoosier21

Eagles Hell Freezes Over - Bonus song "Seven Bridges Road" nice DTS surround demo, clean and clear.

wangotango68

it looks like micah wants us to do HIS job! are we getting a kick back on this "assignment"?

scott

Ron-P

YEAH! What up wit dat, Micah?


Peace Out~:D

RuSsMaN

Super Speedway (DVD)
Jump-to demo tracks:

1,2 'The Barn' & 'Main Title': Ambient sounds coming from everywhere. Main title peaks with a full frontal onslaut, putting you right on the edge of your seat. Ultralight flyover gives a great front to back transition. If your center is not timber matched, these tracks will show it.

6,7 'New Car Test' & 'Fullspeed Testing': Outstanding front to back and side to side transitions. Heavy engine sounds with intense LFE riding on the nose of the Cosworth Ford.

10,11 'On the Track' & 'Mario and Michael Compete': More great high rpm engine and track sounds. TONS of ambient information. In your face center channel, and lots of rear movement.

22,23 'Wet Conditions' & 'Racing': Subtle effects on all 5 channels, paired with a stereo music score that has a great LFE drumbeat. Again, tons of left-right/front back sweeps.

Cheers,
Russ

Aaron

Rippingtons "Live in L.A." (CD)
4: "Weekend in Monaco" - this song tests a speaker's ability to separate and resolve different instruments and is also a good test of a tweeter. The song is pretty "busy" and will cause lesser speakers to run all the instruments together. The piano solos are an excellent test for a tweeter, particularly its smoothness. The piano often reaches to the upper octaves and will sound harsh on lesser speakers. The resolving ability or detail of a speaker is best illustrated in the sax solos. A good speaker will let you hear sax, a great speaker will let you hear the musician playing the sax. Such a speaker will convey the emotion and personality of the sax player, especially as he strives to hit the notes in one of the solos.

Erich Kunzel & the Cincinnati Pops "The Great Fantasy Adventure Album" (CD)
6: "Robin Hood Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves" - this song tests a wide range of a speaker's performance including: bass, tweeter detail, imaging, and dynamic range. The bass drum hits in this song are deep and powerful and will test any speaker's low end capabilities. A tweeter's detail and speed can be easily heard during the bell solos. A good tweeter will be able to release each note creating separation, not running each note together. At the same time, however, it must still continue to produce the ring from the previous note, and this whole time it must do this without sounding too harsh, bright, or "ringy." Since this is an orchestral piece, it is a good test of a speaker's imaging abilities. You should be able to hear the instruments and sections properly placed across the soundstage in front of you. Listen for the trumpets and low brass sections. This is a high energy song that just begs to be turned up. The great brass flourishes and hard bass drum hits are a test of any speaker's dynamic range.

Dave Matthews "Crash" (CD)
3: "Crash" - this song is perhaps the best all-encompassing test track I've found. It is foremost a test of a speaker's ability to realistically and transparently recreate a vocalist standing between the two speakers. Additionally it is excellent for judging the imaging and soundstaging of a speaker and also has reasonable bass. A speaker's worth can be judged within seconds after Dave begins singing. This is an excellent recording and will sound good on most speakers, but the point, however, is that it should be a surreal and emotional experience. You should feel as though Dave is standing right between your speakers and that you could even touch him. There should also be a separation between him and the other musicians, almost isolating him. The other musicians create a large soundstage around him with imaging that is very three dimensional. This is especially noticable as the song begins.

Metallica "Metallica" (aka the black album) (CD)
Jump-to demo tracks:
8: "Nothing Else Matters" - the song contains the deepest, hardest-hitting bass I've found on a CD. It separates the men from the boys. I wouldn't use this song as a judge of anything other than bass due to its harshness and somewhat poor recording quality.

Micah Cohen

You guys are the bestest!

I don't want you to do my job (you couldn't, loser; I'm a high powered marketing exec with the lives of dozens of underlings in my greedy little hands hoohoohoohahahah.... Uh, sorry...), I just want to include your input in the next newspaper because we're all one big happy family!

More more more!

Cool!

Micah

Micah Cohen

*pre-weekend BUMP!*

wangotango68

did everybody notice that micah didn't say high payed?

scott:cool:

TroyD

Here are some of my faves although I am not NEARLY as eloquent as Russ and Aaron.....

Round Up - Cincinnati Pops (CD)
Track 2 (William Tell Overature) - IMO a good test of dynamic range. This is a good measure on how well your speaks do from top to bottom. To me it also lets you know just how musical your sub is......This recording was the first that I heard on George's Amazings and it just makes you go WOW! Played loud this really lights up the lights on my Carver m1.5t.....
Track 3 - Magnificent Seven - makes me appreciate what an impressive soundstage that my RT7's produce

DMB "Listener Supported" (DVD)
Track 8 "#36" - great concert track, almost makes you feel like you are at the Meadowlands
Track 18 "All Along the Watchtower" this song just really rocks, when the drummer goes "HA HA HA" in the background, that really sold Wendi on the R10's as rear surrounds. Don't ask me why.

What Women Want (DVD)
Track 4 "I Won't Dance"
Scoff if you will but Frank Sinatra is THE MAN

Gladiator (DVD)
damn it I don't have the disc handy but Track 2 I think "Unleash Hell" All kinds of stuff going on but the arrows flying through the air is pretty cool

Troy

Micah Cohen

weekend *bump!*

Go to it, warriors! SNOW!

Strong Bad

U-571 (DTS) - DVD
Jump to track 15 through 16:
This is the depth charge sequence. In addition to the incredibly thunderous lowend of the charges exploding, notice all the small details of the sub literally falling apart. The sub squeeking and rattling. The bolts flying loose as pipes burst.

This movie didn't win the Oscar for best sound for nothing!

John

danger boy

hey how do I sign up to receive the Polk newspaper?

juice21

http://www.polkaudio.com/home/library/newsp/

joe logston

music; patty larkin, regrooving the dream , try this one on your polks

movie; u2-571, the haunting dts, matrix.

Micah Cohen

Another weekend *bump* up from me.

Please... Use the format I gave at the top... I need name/title/track or chapter # and REASON.

Help out, man!

MC

juice21

you know, a better way to get us to do your job would to be make this a contest, winner takes home a pair of LSi9's:D
guess the polk corporate guys wouldn't be too into that though eh? since that's what they are already paying you to do, or supposedly do....

johnnyamerika

Gladiator (DVD)
Jump-to demo tracks:
2: Unleash Hell, what a dynamic range and thick sound...coming from all speakers! Fantastic stuff!

Desperado (DVD)
Jump-to demo tracks:
2: Steve Busemi's story with the gunfight. Hot damn, those are soe great sounding guns!
12: The bar fight massacre! Gret guns, booms of bass, shells rattling from all sides, wow!

Fight Club (DVD)
Jump-to demo tracks:
8: Single Serving Jack. The scene where the plane's collide and rip through each other's hulls. This is loud. Very loud.

Akira: Special Edition THX (DVD)
12: Terrorist Bombing. Explosions with tremendous boom and heavy assault rifle gunfire make this great!
18: Battle in the Sewer. The 'cable guys' take on a hovering speeder in the sewer.

Good list? Pretty long!
John

Micah Cohen

johnnyamerika... You rock, man! Thanks for that!

MC

johnnyamerika

hey hey, I do what I can.

juice21

EVENT HORIZON(DVD)
Jump-to demo tracks:
1: Daylight Station - great track to show-off your sub. this track has some mind-numbing bass

PHANTOM MENACE(DVD)
Jump-to demo tracks:
THX 'rain' sequence before the movie: very cool!
20/21/22: Incredible sequence, great sound, seperation & detail
39: again, great sequence, very wide soundstage, love how you can feel the lightsabers.

RULE OF ENGAGMENT (DVD)
Jump-to demo tracks:
1: Battle of Ca Lu, probably one of the most overlooked peices of demo material. when the VC retreat after the battle, you can hear each group head off in their own seperate direction. amazing sense of seperation, one of the best examples of what 5.1 sound can be!

TOY STORY 2 (DVD)
Jump-to demo tracks:
1: opening titles
2: buzz's mission- fun demo, incredible bass, great fly-thru with buzz, very detailed and good work out for all 5.1 channels.

ATLANTIS (DVD)
Jump-to demo tracks:
1: opening titles/prologue- pumping bass, great sound, puts you right there in the battle

MATRIX (DVD)
Jump-to demo tracks:
29: lobby shooting spree-do i even need to write about this one?

TARZAN (DVD)
Jump-to demo tracks:
1: main title/two worlds: great layering of audio with effects.


so, can i get some of your paycheck?:D

goingganzo

some of my demos are:

X just put it in and start it up first chapter
armageddon chapter 2 nyc hit hard
ID4 chapter 29 canyon chase
alantis chapter 16

but the best demo is not my theater is the popcorn boy the real popcorn poped in a kettle is so much beter than the microwave and it keeps for hours not minuntes now all i need now is a soda fountan