"Dennis Moore" wrote in message ...
Okay, what are the best test signals to use in listening
tests other than music? For the purpose of differentiating
between components.

Pink noise?

I use pink noise and sine waves to measure and listen to speakers.

Pink noise is good for typical RTA analysis, and if you listen to it
enough while calibrating your ears with measurements, you begin to get
a sense of what it should sound like. As many have said, it's easier
to hear changes in pink noise than music.

IMO, sine waves are very revealing. It's almost shocking to fully
experience boundary cancellations that routinely occur. It isn't
difficult to find spots of near silence in my listening room, when
measuring 90db in other spots (for freq under 100hz). To minimize
these cancellations, sine waves are great for fine tuning speaker
placement and determining listening position (or coverage if, like me,
you refuse to sit still)-- IMO, they waay surpass the info from even a
1/24 octave RTA. The only problem is that they are tedious to use.

Sine waves with a high resolution RTA are also good for getting a
handle on THD. I'm convinced bass, particularly sub bass, is the most
difficult thing to get right in audio, mostly due to room
interactions, but also due to THD. Get away from 1 watt fantasy specs
and you're lucky to keep harmonics 15 db below level. Push sine waves
through your bass drivers, and compare the primary level with the
levels of the harmonics -- eye opening. I doubt anybody would ever
fail a DBT of speakers using single sine waves 100hz as the signal.
Ever seen any sub manufacturer's full output THD specs????

One more neat thing about sine waves, is determining what I call TRD,
or total room distortion :~) As you dial through the frequencies,
the room starts talking to you -- buzzes and rattles, rather damn loud
at times, that you never knew were there. You usually can't hear them
with full range pink noise or music, they are masked. Sometimes you
can hear them when running pink through a sub alone. I'm surprised
how often the room noise is at a harmonic of the test freq.