If you do a subjective evaluation of loudspeakers (or complete systems) there's one difficulty you cannot overcome in general - you don't know how a certain recording must be reproduced correctly because you don't know how the recording was done and whether it has some limitations etc.. This not a question of AAD or DDD (for CD's) but a problem on principle because before the laser reads a CD a lot of production steps have left their acoustic fingerprints:
Summary:
During the long production process of a recording there are a lot of influences on the final product which are in general unknown for the listener.
A recording that is well-known for it's badly manipulated sound is e.g. Tina Turner's 'Private Dancer' which is even more painful because of the - according to my mind - great musical quality.
The only way to overcome this is to listen to a (general accepted) technically well-made recording on many (general accepted) good reproduction systems in order to get an idea of the specific character of a recording.
As this cannot be achieved by everybody in general you have to trust specialists. A pretty good example of a collection of technically well- made recordings with hints for reproduction characteristics are e.g. the STEREO listening test CDs.
More detailed assistance to this point is given in the book of Dipl. Ing. Reinhard Fink / Mehr hören: 70 CDs im Akustik-Test (in German only), that is distributed by VISATON.
I also have tried to give some hints on my Music tips page.
Currently I use the following pieces of music to judge the quality of a reproduction system:
No | Artist | Title | CD | Year | What to take care of |
1 | Bobby McFerrin | Blackbird | The Voice | 1984 | Plausible voice and noises (e.g. breathing, claps) |
2 | Jefferey Smith | Eleanor Rigby | A Little Sweeter | 1997 | Very rich voice, muffled piano in background |
3 | The King's Singers | Back In The U.S.S.R. | The Beatles Collection | 1986 | Vocal bass not too dominant, discrete contributions easy to localize |
4 | Vocaleros | Superstition | Vocaleros | 1997 | Really funky, it must be easy to localize each contribution |
5 | Brent Lewis | Mumbo Jumbo | Pulse . . . Where The Rhythm Begins | 1995 | Very wide spatial reproduction, easy to localize |
6 | Talking Horns | Johann, der Tango kommt | Fisch im Wasser | * | Recorded with 2 micros only |
7 | The Oscar Peterson Trio | You Look Good To Me | We Get Requests | 1965 | Rich walking bass |
8 | Oscar Peterson | Dream Of You | Reunion Blues | 1972 | Bass left and behind speaker base, sober percussions, VERY wide vibraphone (single tones must be followed easily, even across center), muffled piano may not sound muddy |
9 | Melissa Walker | I'm A Fool To Want You | May I Feel | 1997 | Very spatial without much "pseudo" reverberation |
10 | Jennifer Warnes | Somewhere, Somebody | The Hunter | 1992 | Very wide virtual stage, both singers in center (follow their spatial interaction) |
11 | Keb' Mo' | Just Like You | Just Like You | 1996 | Very earthy, is must be able to separate the (co-)singers |
12 | Holly Cole | Jersey Girl | Temptation | 1995 | Very fat bass, all instruments very proper, warm voice, slightly purred/grumbled |
13 | Mighty Sam McClain | Too Proud | Give It Up For Love | 1993 | Very crisp cymbals, even at loud sections not annoying (singer should not be mixed up) |
14 | Marla Glen | Personal | This Is Marla Glen | 1993 | Throaty, dark voice, shiny trumpets, sounds addictive |
15 | Hugh Massekela | Stimela | Hope | * | Loud sequences must have puch, realisitc voice |
16 | Yello | Tied Up | Flag | 1988 | The masterpiece of the Swiss sound puzzlers. Must blow your brains! |