In article .com, Andy
Evans wrote:
It's interesting that the examples given so far have been the human
voice - obviously critical for timbre. funnily, the instruments I'm
most sensitive to are the woodwind - clarinet, oboe, bassoon, flute -
the piano and in particular the jazz drumkit. Since I was a jazz
bassist for many years I used to stand right next to the kit for hours
and hours on end, and the sounds of hi-hat, snare, ride and crash
cymbal, toms and bass drum are etched on my brain. When the drumkit is
right, top to bottom, there's not much wrong with the rest of it.
Cymbals in particular are a real test of an audio system. So are the
toms - they have a particular reverberation which is very distinctive.
Andy

Yes, everybody will have their own preferred type of music, but the human
voice is probably the sound most commonly heard through a loudspeaker
that most people are familiar with as an acoustic source, so provided it
has been properly miked it is a very good test for realism. I'd guess
that the piano is a close second as far as familiarity goes, though
probably a more critical test because of the impulsive components of the
waveform. Pianos are notoriously difficult to portray convincingly on
loudspeakers for those that do know what the real thing should sound
like. The same is probably true of drums for the same reason, though
personally I don't listen to drums very much. I think that familiarity
with the sound of the real thing has quite a lot to do with the
acceptability of a replica.

Rod.