Favorite Songs for testing gear?

[llmercll]

What are you favorite high fidelity songs/albums for testing the limits of your equipment?

Here are some of mine:

Grace Jones - I've seen that face before
Arturo Sandoval - Swingin
Yoshi Horikawa - Bubbles
Bill Wurtz - Might Quit

 

[NTK]

Not my list. Probably Dr @Sean Olive had his hands (or ears?) in this.

Exclusive Selection of HARMAN’s Acoustical Experts Reference Songs for Sound Quality Testing

Free Selection of the perfect Tracks to discriminate and rate Sound Quality Attributes of Audio Systems and overall Sound Quality – at Home, in the Car, or on the Go

artoflistening.harman.com

 

[Sean Olive]

It seems like my list. Many of these tracks are on my critical listening playlist

 

[Redacted]

Just off the top of my head:

Several Yello tracks! (Stella: Domingo, Desire and many more)
Kraftwerk - The Mix: Radioactive (clean electronic)
B52's - Give Me back My Man/Private Idaho/Cake (voices can be harsh on some kit)
Several Leonard Cohen - First We Take Manhattan, You Want It Darker - deep vocal test
Several Joy Division - Closer
Pink Floyd - Shine On (guitar tone)
Ras Command - Green Dub/Love Dub/Acid Dub (drums and bass tones)
Tool - Fear Inoculum/Pneuma (tone, drum kit separation)
Yes - Close to the Edge (complex) / Hear Of The Sunrise (Rickenbacker bass)

Edit - Dead Can Dance - Wind That Shakes The Barley (vocal) and Saltarello

All old stuff because I'm familiar how most of it sounds from LP, to CD to FLAC remasters.

 

[Pareto Pragmatic]

To be useful, such a list would need what you are listening for, and how it might fail to be "right".

I was looking for good recordings, and figured that "tests tracks" would generally be high quality. I think one list had Seal's "Crazy", and said something like,"if he sounds like he is singing inside a closet, you have an issue with midrange clarity". Something like that would be more useful for others who want to use them.

I doubt I would use tracks to test gear at this point. Big differences show up in measurement, small ones really require an a/b switch to pick out with certainty, which I have, but that's a PITA to hook up for multiple amps and speakers.

That switch was worth every penny, btw. I spent a lot of time using it when learning things and training my listening skills.

 

[Oeilvert]

 

[DanielT]

Nice choices in the thread, but I’m missing tracks with huge dynamic range—songs, or more likely classical full-orchestra pieces, that really put hi-fi equipment to the ultimate test. Do you have any suggestions?

Edit:
A quick Google/Gemini AI search gave me these suggestions—what do you think of them?

 

[CT Man]

What are you favorite high fidelity songs/albums for testing the limits of your equipment?

Here are some of mine:

Grace Jones - I've seen that face before
Arturo Sandoval - Swingin
Yoshi Horikawa - Bubbles
Bill Wurtz - Might Quit

I have others, but to start:

For piano sound and imaging of keyboard: Murray Perahia, Bach English Suites 1-6 - Track: Suite No 6 in D Minor BWV 811, VII Gigue

For acoustic guitar sound: Jason Vieaux, Albeniz Piano Music (Arr for guitar) - Track: Suite Espanola No 1 Op 47 Part V. - Asturias

For imaging and female vocal: Tierney Sutton, Paris Sessions - Track: Don't Go To Strangers

For male vocal, Kurt Elling: American Tune - Track: American Tune

For imaging and soundstage height & width: SWR Big Band/Paula Morelenbaum, Bossarenova - Track: Blackbird

For imaging and soundstage height & width: Julian Lage, Arclight - Track: Stop Go Start

For deep electric bass: Bela Fleck & Flecktones, Flight of the Cosmic Hippo - Track - Flight of the Cosmic Hippo

For acoustic bass & female vocal: Marianne Solivan, Prisoner of Love - Track: All or Nothing at All

For opera with big transients: Joyce DiDonato, Stella di Napoli - Track: Stella di Napoli Part I: "Ove t'aggiri, o barbaro"

For huge bass drum hits: Minnesota Orchestra, Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man - Track: Fanfare for the Common Man

For pipe organ: Helmut Walcha, The Art of Fugue - Track: Toccata & Fugue for organ in D Minor BWV 565

 

[CT Man]

Nice choices in the thread, but I’m missing tracks with huge dynamic range—songs, or more likely classical full-orchestra pieces, that really put hi-fi equipment to the ultimate test. Do you have any suggestions?

Edit:
A quick Google/Gemini AI search gave me these suggestions—what do you think of them?
View attachment 552570View attachment 552571

For dynamic range try:

Lucerne Festival Orchestra with Claudio Abbado, Debussy "La Mer" (Live)

Edit: Just saw your list. Both those are great. Recordings by Minnesota Orchestra and Lucerne Festval Orchestra are usually top-notch technically, plus they're great orchestras. The Minnesota is my choice for a number of Mahler symphonies.

 

[Redacted]

Do you not think dynamic range is baked into the recordings? I can't see a stereo rig not playing the quiet bits as well as the loud, and keeping up with the change from one to the other.

 

[CT Man]

Do you not think dynamic range is baked into the recordings? I can't see a stereo rig not playing the quiet bits as well as the loud, and keeping up with the change from one to the other.

If the volume setting for the quietest parts is loud enough to hear details of individual orchestral instruments over ambient noise:

1) You don't want to hear hiss (but this can be tested without playing music)

2) You want to be sure the loudest passages play cleanly, without distortion

If using EQ also ensures no digital clipping

 

[Barrelhouse Solly]

This is the one I listen to first:

 

[Redacted]

It's long, long time since I heard hiss from modern stereo equipment! And I always play well above ambient noise (it's very quiet here at the edge of the known world).

Even if I turn my amp's volume dial to max and put my ear by a treble speaker, I hear nothing. Nor any hum from the bass. All the hiss I ever hear is - again - baked into the recording, especially so with with any old enough to have used tape, (I have lots that did), or acoustic recordings; digital or analogue. In fact, electronic instruments and amps all produce hiss, and it many orders of magnitude above any amp above say, £200 (probably).

 

[kemmler3D]

To be useful, such a list would need what you are listening for, and how it might fail to be "right".

I was looking for good recordings, and figured that "tests tracks" would generally be high quality. I think one list had Seal's "Crazy", and said something like,"if he sounds like he is singing inside a closet, you have an issue with midrange clarity". Something like that would be more useful for others who want to use them.

I doubt I would use tracks to test gear at this point. Big differences show up in measurement, small ones really require an a/b switch to pick out with certainty, which I have, but that's a PITA to hook up for multiple amps and speakers.

That switch was worth every penny, btw. I spent a lot of time using it when learning things and training my listening skills.

Big agreement with this post.

I used to have to test a lot of headphones and speakers for work, often in situations where using test tones would not be welcome (trade show floor) and the goal was to find flaws quickly so I could move on or at least judge tradeoffs.

I have a list of several songs that stress speakers in specific ways so I could find the flaws quickly. One has a lot of sub bass, one actually has a tone sweep as part of the song, one lacks low bass so you can quickly hear if the bass extension is adequate, one has a little sibilance if the treble is too hot or distorted, a few have loud components across the entire spectrum so you can judge tonal balance and output capacity, etc.

In general really well recorded "audiophile" songs do not reveal problems. Trying to reveal exceptional quality in a speaker by listening to music is pretty hard compared to picking out problems. If you are going to try to do that, go for harmonically rich stuff. Pink noise is the fastest way to hear tonality but music that has a similar and dense spectrum can also work.

The absolute wrong way to go about this is to find out that a certain song sounds absolutely mind-blowing on a certain speaker, and conclude it must be a good speaker. This is probably actually a sign that it has uneven frequency response in some regard, and has enhanced the song in a lucky way. Inevitably other songs will not sound the way they're supposed to on such a speaker.

 

[IngMishael]

Here's mine -

 

[Chris A]

It seems like my list. Many of these tracks are on my critical listening playlist

Just for the readers here...I assume that there was some sort of non-random selection process used to identify those tracks, at least the criteria for selecting the tracks. Could you highlight any information that may speak for those criteria or the process used?

I know that my list of tracks includes specific tracks for specific purposes, i.e., vocal/instrumental balance, transients (like ride cymbals, triangles, etc.). While auditioning loudspeakers/rooms, I listen for cues to pull out those specific tracks. So my list of reference tracks is actually a fairly long list.

I've also noticed that a simple upsweep--like that used by REW and other measurement apps using pulse compression techniques--can yield the most audible results of loudspeaker/room irregularities. I believe that I remember an article or plot generated by yourself that might have said that independently of my experience. Could you comment on that?

Chris

 

[Sean Olive]

Just for the readers here...I assume that there was some sort of non-random selection process used to identify those tracks, at least the criteria for selecting the tracks. Could you highlight any information that may speak for those criteria or the process used?

I know that my list of tracks includes specific tracks for specific purposes, i.e., vocal/instrumental balance, transients (like ride cymbals, triangles, etc.). While auditioning loudspeakers/rooms, I listen for cues to pull out those specific tracks. So my list of reference tracks is actually a fairly long list.

I've also noticed that a simple upsweep--like that used by REW and other measurement apps using pulse compression techniques--can yield the most audible results of loudspeaker/room irregularities. I believe that I remember an article or plot generated by yourself that might have said that independently of my experience. Could you comment on that?

Chris

The tracks were selected based on the following criteria:

1. Generally well-recorded (well-balanced, dynamic, low distortion)
2. Content includes the full spectrum from 20 to 20kHz - so resonances and spectral imbalanced across the spectrum can be detected.
3. Some data in research studies and product tests that they are good for discriminating differences among headphones and loudspeakers.

For example this shows the bandwidth to be an important parameter in identifying peaks and dips in the frequency response. In another study we looked at how the program affected the preference ratings of headphones. The the dominant effect was the headphone the program affected how discriminating and reliable the ratings were. Bandwidth and bass produced more discriminating and reliable ratings: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=18654

 

[Chris A]

Many thanks, Dr. Olive.

I've seen so many discussions where there really wasn't this kind of groundwork for selecting auditioning tracks--that it becomes yet another "I like this" discussion. I did remember seeing some of this in your past articles, presentations, and postings, but I didn't think that most of the people reading this thread would have the same knowledge of what you've done.

Chris

 

[Cogito]

Drum Improvisation -Audiophile NBR Music
Black Cow -Steely Dan
Each Small Candle (Live) -Roger Waters
Melodie en sous-sol -Kenichi Tsunoda Big Band
D-Grade Fuck Movie Jam -The Aristocrats
Digital Bath -Deftone
Give Me One Reason -Tracy Chapman

 

[Waxx]

Best is to use songs that you know inside out, with a big dynamic and frequency range and a clear production. For the rest this is subjective as this is a subjective test.

Tracks that i use myself:

- Shakara - Fela Kuti
- Don't you worry about a thing - Stevie wonder
- the 12" mix of "Jamming" by Bob Marley & The Wailers
- Light up your spliff - the Bush chemists (electronic dub, very good to test your subs)
- Carmina Burana of Carl Orf, in the recording by Anima Eterna Brugge & Collegium Vocale Gent and conductor Jos Van Immerseel (2014). I was already familiar with an older recording (from 1979 conducted by Ricardo Mutti) since my youth, but this one tops it, and is a good dynamic test for your setup.
- "Vessels" from the Koyaanisqatsi suite by Philip Glass (also used partially in the film with the same name from 1982): a very dense piece that makes many speakers struggle.The best recording of that is the 1998 CD release.