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“Bessie Smith” is a surprisingly dynamic track, with a fair amount of talent mixed in, and works as a great tonality stress test with nice width and no real imaging distractions to speak of.

I would compare White’s voice to Dawn Landes, Wikipedia compares her to Hope Sandoval of Mazzy Star, and I would say both are largely accurate. Her vocal on this track is raw and intimate, like Dawn’s it feels close to the listener but not overly focused. It just feels right and gives way to the width of the track, it’s beautifully wide. You think it’s wide with the guitar, then it gets wider with the cello’s entrance at 0:02 (listen carefully).

The percussion is sharp and of varying amplitude, which just adds to the authenticity of the track, and is something else to listen for as some systems will gloss over this. Around two minutes in, the bass and drums intensify the song into a complex attack of bass. You should be able to discern between each part, but at moderate to loud volume it should/will be pushing the limits of your system. The varying bass and drum parts should be quite uniform and not pull around the vehicle, ideally everything should stay up front, and the vocal should stay strong and true throughout. If this part of the song sounds delicate in any way on your system, your mid bass and/or sub bass simply aren’t strong enough. If on the other hand, any part of the mid bass or sub bass drown out the vocal, or each other, then it/they are too strong. Also, any inconstancies in your sub/mid bass transition (and rattles) should make themselves known here.

Downside, there is a bit of floor noise and as I said, the percussion is a tiny bit sharp, but neither are distracting from the song’s presence.

(Source: Spotify)