Is there a specific music track that you always use to test new amps/DACs/headphones?

[brachypelma44]

Just curious if there's a specific track that people use for this, either because they are so familiar with it, or because it's good for testing the entire range of sound.

 

[daftcombo]

I use 4'33 by John Cage to test if tweeter hiss or not.

For the rest, any song that you know well, preferably with real instruments and voices.

 

[3125b]

Quite a few.
It is important to know the tracks well on a few different systems.
I use:
- binaural recordings (I'd especially recommend Amber Rubarth - Sessions from the 17th Ward and Macey Gray - Stripped)
- some very good studio recordings (I like Dire Straits, maybe it's something else for you)
- some good live recordings (certainly Eric Clapton MTV unplugged)
- electronic music (Kraftwerk for me)
- test tones (different frequency sine waves, maybe noise)
- some songs that do something technically wrong (all Queen remasters, most modern pop music, metal and so on)

In the end it has to be music you'd actually use the system for.

 

[win]

The bass line in "Young Thug - With That" can be tricky, so I like to use that to make sure the system sounds right. Too much bass will make it drone and too little will sound notably flat and dull.

 

[Robin L]

This has been my favorite for a long time, there's a lot to sort out, the different reverbs wash over the musicals layers, easy for it all to turn to mush:

The horns in this one easily congest/distort:

 

[MpNormy]

Not a specific track, but i always go back to this album.
https://tidal.com/browse/album/637743
Great separation between instruments and voices, plus a lot of details scattered around.
Oh, and that bass, THAT bass.

 

[Vini darko]

The first 10 minutes of this electronic set mostly for the mids but also high frequency extension.
Listen to Serafin Sinfonia Op. 36 - Nikolas Noam - Farewell Kingdom by Serafin Audio Imprint on #SoundCloud
https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/Lf2g
This for big scale in a large venue.

And this for rocking out

 

[Vini darko]

This has been my favorite for a long time, there's a lot to sort out, the different reverbs wash over the musicals layers, easy for it all to turn to mush:

The horns in this one easily congest/distort:

Enjoyed the the first one. Second one is blocked in England

 

[Robin L]

Enjoyed the the first one. Second one is blocked in England

The second is Paul Simon, "Late in the Evening" from "One Trick Pony". Wonderful brass arrangement, easily distorts.

 

[Vini darko]

Not a specific track, but i always go back to this album.
https://tidal.com/browse/album/637743
Great separation between instruments and voices, plus a lot of details scattered around.
Oh, and that bass, THAT bass.

That's so funky I'm growing an afro just listening to it

 

[LTig]

I use this one, beginning at 10:10, for speakers. If a speaker has problems in the mids the tenor shows it. A peak sounds horrible (like the old Naim SBL), a dip sounds polite:

 

[Harmonie]

So many of them, but most important: music that is well recorded !
I discovered a lot of good classical excerpts of records, well explained on local French Hifi mag with CD's from the NRDS in early/mid nineties.
You can judge pipe organs, strings, percussions, voices, flute.
So many.
+ Pink noise !

 

[danadam]

test tones (different frequency sine waves, maybe noise)

Just use the first releases from 80s, the remasters from 2000s and later are all too compressed and loud.

 

[mhardy6647]

I have a bunch, but the one I always, always play -- and nearly always play first -- when evaluating anything, is the plain ol' redbook CD version of this:

The Jennys can, and should, sound like they're in the room.
If I get chills listening, it's good.
If I don't, I'm probably finished (with the component in question).

 

[fløyen]

Nice thread - will be looking closely at the suggestions.

I usually listen to Walking In Argyll from Jackie Leven's The Argyll Cycle - Volume One - its an uplifting song and has a tricky bit of keyboards at 3:40, which can catch equipment out.

Otherwise, my all time favourite test track is Creature Feature from Leo Kottke's album "That's What"

 

[Bernard23]

I have a short playlist that I curated in J River, every audition of new kits purchases were done with it. I always took my laptop to the shop audition!

 

[Moderate Dionysianism]

I use this to assess the bass performance: