To try and standardize my listening notes, I compiled a Tidal playlist comprising 30 very different tracks covering diverse genres and technical challenges. Here are a few worth checking out. The Cowboy Junkies' Trinity Session album and especially the first track "Mining for Gold" has the lead singer deliver a heart-wrenching solo rendition. If her voice doesn't float between the speakers raw and lifelike, something is amiss. For an audiophile treat, the recording picked up a significant amount of background noise thought to be the church's A/C. That low-level white noise helps shape the recording location. On the best systems you can actually visualize the inside of the church from how that noise bends around the listening room.
Friday Night in San Francisco is a much more common audiophile track but this live recording of "Mediterranean Sundance" where Al DiMeola and Paco De Lucia dish it out in one of the most amazing displays of guitar virtuosity remains one of my favourite tracks of all times. The crowd cheering them on makes it very real. This is is one of the very best tracks to showcase what the Enleum does so well: share the raw energetic charge of a recording. While triodes will make the guitars sound beautifully full-bodied, they will miss out on the intensity of the confrontation. Tchaikovsky's Capriccio Italien with the London Symphony under Kenneth Alwyn is the best recording of that showpiece I know. Imaging is spectacular and the various brass sections separate out nicely on timbre. Dynamics are also superb which make this recording a great demo track of a very approachable classical piece.
What about jazz? Miles Davis' live recording of "Time after Time" shows the master at the top of his game, with sharp notes hanging in the air and his band painting highlights with a light brush all around his improvisations. Unlike earlier recordings which can sound dual mono, this one has great soundstage and imaging and you can actually hear Miles Davis playing with acoustics and sound levels back to front on stage.
For a surprise finish let's go with some industrial EDM from Whitebear. I wrote surprise because that's probably not commonly played fare with speakers like the Ocellia but Whitebear's Pareidolia stands out with its creativity and intricate complexity. It's superbly mixed and doesn't stop at mindless low-frequency loops. It's a great way to open one's musical horizon into some more modern fare. That said, even the Enleum can't really get the Ocellia to do this full justice without subs. Together this little box and these speakers can only conjure up so much magic.
