The Canton audio in the L&K is astonishing. Loud, deep bass and crystal clear highs even at loud relatively un-distorted volumes. For a car audio system it rates with the best.

A good test of the sub is to play a track with full range content. For all you prog rockers out there, there must be one or two, try Squonk from the Genesis live album Seconds Out (1976). Turn it up loud and it is a fantastic test for the sub. When the Moog bass pedals are used it shows how just how deep the sub can respond.

 

Any other suggestions then put them in below.

 

 

Whenever I want to test a sound system I find most early Depeche Mode very good. 

When I was in the market for good home system a few years back, I made a 20-track test CD with everything from light classical to female vocals to synth bass. I won't bore you with the whole list, but Boccherini's Concerti da Violoncello,  "I've Got This Friend"/The Civil Wars, "This Masquerade"/The Carpenters, "The King of Rock'n'Roll"/Prefab Sprout, "Still Got the Blues"/Gary Moore, "Erase/Rewind"/The Cardigans and "Vertigo"/U2 cover most of the bases.

 

But, if you're really looking one track: "Walk Between the Raindrops" by Donald Fagen is well produced with a luxurious soundstage.

Edited 28 January, 20188 yr by freelunch

Echo that. Donald Fagen’s album ‘The Nightfly’ is a reference for many audiophiles.

Edited 28 January, 20188 yr by MorrisOx

Try “Frankenstein” by the Edgar Winter Group, play it loud. Managed to blow out a couple of cones in my home hi-fi setup many years ago with that track. Awesome!

Dark Side of the Moon also sounds stunning on the Canton...

 

Just thought of another one that sounds really good on the Canton too.

”Unspoken Words” by Status Quo from back when they were a proper rock band.

Edited 28 January, 20188 yr by Rifleman

Whilst I appreciate a decent album as much as the next man, I enjoy a spot of Kraftwek and Grace Jones, and am going to check out that Donald Fagen album that’s been mentioned, is it really worth having a top notch sound system in your car, what with the intrusion of wind, tyre and engine noise, because much of that cannot be eliminated? 

Believe me when you turn it up wind noise, road noise, tyre noise cannot be heard while the music is playing 

I know the demographic on here may not listen to Radio 1 very much (I don' t either)  but some of the "modern" dance music sounds tremendous on the Canton as it tends to be very bassy.   Occasionally switch over to R1 and crank it up till my ears can stand it no longer.  

About 30 seconds?

I tend to use a bit of Def Leppard to test how deep and rich the sound is, Dance to test the punchiness of the system, and something vocal (London Grammar is a good choice) to test the clarity.

 

Been enjoying just that this morning testing out my new car!

Edited 29 January, 20188 yr by GoneToBeemer

21 minutes ago, GoneToBeemer said:

I tend to use a bit of Def Leppard to test how deep and rich the sound is, Dance to test the punchiness of the system, and something vocal (London Grammar is a good choice) to test the clarity.

 

Been enjoying just that this morning testing out my new car!

Good luck with the beemer. I went the other way, 520d to Superb Mk3 L&K and haven’t regretted my decision for a single moment...

the standard BMW sound system was total pants compared with the Canton, no flac support for starters.

2 minutes ago, Rifleman said:

Good luck with the beemer. I went the other way, 520d to Superb Mk3 L&K and haven’t regretted my decision for a single moment...

the standard BMW sound system was total pants compared with the Canton, no flac support for starters.

 

Cheers mate - exactly what I’ve gone for 520d, but with quite a few options, including Harman Kardon. All standard audio systems are poor, but BMWs seem to be a special kind of awful! 

 

Had Canton in my Octavia L&K and it was very good indeed, but very dependent on the quality of the source it was fed. 

14 minutes ago, GoneToBeemer said:

Had Canton in my Octavia L&K and it was very good indeed, but very dependent on the quality of the source it was fed. 

Totally agree. Spent the best part of a year ripping my entire cd collection to flac for streaming on my home network, including tagging and cover images. Even though all tracks came from cd the difference between flac and mp3 versions of the same source can vary quite a lot. Thankfully the vast majority of the flac versions are much much better than the equivalent mp3.

My default go-to music for testing audio equipment is the Bowers & Wilkins Very Audiophile New Recordings in lossless FLAC...

@Rifleman I'm curious to know how you got album art on your flac files? I ended up using Apple lossless because it accepted the artwork. I couldn't figure it out for flac.

11 minutes ago, freelunch said:

@Rifleman I'm curious to know how you got album art on your flac files? I ended up using Apple lossless because it accepted the artwork. I couldn't figure it out for flac.

I used a pc app called MediaMonkey. It does batch conversions from one file format to another too and allows all sorts of info to go into the tag section of the flac file, including .bmp, .jpg etc. Not sure on the technical aspects of how it does it but it sure works.

I use Exact Audio Copy as shown in this article.

https://www.cnet.com/how-to/how-to-rip-your-music-cds-to-flac/

Seems to work well and I get the album cover as well.

 

Worth trying some Manic Street Preachers to appreciate how the Canton copes with the "wall of sound" type production.

Whilst the Canton it ok for a car stereo upgrade it’s sub is a little too easy to distort. I don’t turn the sub up any further than 6. I have a 128gb sad card in which is almost full of Albums that I ripped. I have one copy in mp3 and the other in WAV. Even some new albums that I have downloaded in 24bit Studio WAV from Qubuz and Bowers and Wilkins. 

 

Top Albums are 

Radiohead Oknotok

Peter Gabriel 

Pink Floyd Devision Bell / Dark Side of the moon 

Dire Straits

Olita Adams

Pharrell Williams

Phil Colin’s

Mike and the Mechanics 

Turn it on Again - Genesis 

The Chain - Fleetwood Mac

Most songs by Jamiroquai