OTHER TECH

Al Griffin • Richard Thompson, Mirror Blue (Capitol) CD The solo voice and acoustic guitar on "King of Bohemia" is music in its most stripped-down, unprocessed form. The song's plaintive lyrics may cause your eyes to moisten, but once you snap out of it, you can use the track to evaluate your speakers' imaging and midrange clarity. • Jorma Kaukonen, Blue Country Heart (Sony) multichannel SACD The Hot Tuna guitarist goes country on this lush, pristine-sounding recording of mainly acoustic instruments. The active use of the surround channels will let you know how your rear speakers are performing. The disc also serves as a good reference point for checking bass response and timbre.

Ken Richardson • Linkin Park, Reanimation (Warner Bros.) DVD-Audio Dive! dive! - for a voyage to the bottom of the frequency response. But the truly impressive thing about this disc's six-channel mix is that, through all the glorious racket, you can still identify each thrak. Can your speakers?

Robert Ripps • Orff, Carmina Burana, Atlanta Symphony, Runnicles cond. (Telarc) multichannel SACD From the tuttis of the opening "O Fortuna" (Track 1) to the stunning brass and percussion of "Tanz" (Track 6) to the exquisite soprano solo "In trutina" (Track 21), this recording of Orff's 1937 "primitive" cantata demonstrates full-throttle surround alongside highlighted solos. • Los Angeles Guitar Quartet, LAGQ (Telarc) multichannel SACD And while a full symphony orchestra, chorus, and soloists playing to the max will tell you a lot about your speakers' capabilities, I also recommend a simple surround mix of four guitars, each in its own corner, as a chaser. The LAGQ's version of Sting's "Fragile" (Track 1) and Eduardo Martin's "Hasta Alicia Baila" (Track 2), for the four guitars and percussion, may be the most convincing introduction to multichannel sound I've yet to hear.

Michael Gaughn • Diana Krall, All for You (Impulse!) CD You'll get ultimate testing mileage out of the cleanly recorded jazz quartet on "Boulevard of Broken Dreams." Do the percussionist's hand taps on the bongos sound crisp and natural or flat and fuzzy? Do the bongos resonate like they should? Do the acoustic bass notes have their own space? Are they even, or are some unnaturally accentuated? Can you hear the guitarist picking each note of his solo? Does Krall's husky voice sound properly in its range or unnaturally low? Do the piano and guitar notes decay as they should, or do they fall off abruptly? Does the sound of Krall's foot working the piano's sustain pedal come across clearly or as just dull thumping? These are just a few of this recording's plentiful reference points.

Ken Pohlmann • Big Phat Band, Swingin' for the Fences (Immergent) DVD-Audio • Mark Knopfler, Sailing to Philadelphia (Warner Bros.) CD • Natalie Merchant, Tigerlily (Elektra/ Asylum) DVD-Audio • Lari White, Best of Lari White (RCA) CD • Buena Vista Social Club (Warner Bros.) DVD-Audio • The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (Warner) DVD-Video