The Best audiophile tracks to test equipment - Page 8

Not sure if this is off topic or asking too much

would anyone want to compile a zip file of a few songs you use to test tracks

 

i would appreciate some new songs to test, without looking for induvidual songs manually

xD

 

aka. im lazy?

I think Head-fi won't allow it due to copyright issues. But if you can spare $20, I saw one at a great price

http://www.amazon.com/Ultimate-Demonstration-Disc-Critical-Listening/dp/B00002MXUH/ref=pd_sim_m_2/191-3848618-5480333

I love samples too so I previewed this album on iTunes.... this album is amazing!!
Edited by weirddub - 1/19/13 at 7:03am

in a gadda da vidda - iron butterfly

ammonia avenue - the alan parsons project

kashmir - led zeppelin

The Wall - Pink Floyd

Lenny - Stevie ray vaughn

A great one for clarity, dynamics, bass punch and soundstage is Nine Inch Nails - Into The Void.  It sounds disappointing on anything less then uncompressed, yet on a good system with a good file or CD, it's a shocker!  I always use that track to impress my friends.  On big floorstanders too, the scope and physicality of the bass sound when it kicks is breathtaking, with air, space, depth and width to it!

Edited by amigomatt - 12/24/12 at 9:18pm

can any1 here tell me whats the name of the track on this video?

 

There's a YouTube comment that says something about "Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio- Live at the Misty" if that means anything to ya. Not that I would know, that's just the YouTube comment I saw.

oh thank you very much

I think this should be on the list. 

 

Money for nothing - Dire Straits

Agreed.

Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio, Dark Eyes from Live at the Misty

 

Rodrigo y Gabriela - Stairway To Heaven (from 'Rodrigo y Gabriela')
The Eagles - Hotel California (from 'Hell Freezes Over')
Mark Knopfler - Speedway At Nazareth (from 'Sailing To Philadelphia')
Limehouse Blues - Arne Domnérus (from 'Jazz At The Pawnshop')

Some mentioned before, some not.

 

Radka Toneff - Fairy Tales - The Moon Is a Harsh Mistress  (If you have not heard this you are missing a real treat)

 

Talk Talk - The Colour of Spring - Happiness is easy.  Any system that can accurately reproduce this will absorb you.

 

Grace Jones - Nightclubbing - Libertango .       Ohhhh yes!

 

The Solti Ring (Decca) - Das Rhengold. It is unbelievable what is in this album.

 

Wild Card Pick

 

Kate Bush The Red Shoes - The Red Shoes and.....

 

Kate Bush The Red Shoes -The Red Shoes (Directors Cut)

 

Now here we have a rare anomaly and a treat and a half. Kate decided to redo her own stuff as things changed and she was now able to produce (re produce ?) several of her own tracks in the way she had originally envisioned them.

 

Now here's the hook.And quite possibly the only instance of this happening that I am aware of. She was never happy with The Red Shoes as she was more or less coerced into recording digitally and thought that sterilized the sound. Soooooooooooooooooooooooooo. while digging around for the material for Directors Cut, someone found the original half inch analog back up for Red Shoes. This was used for the master of the new release. We now have the opportunity to evaluate the identical material in both the digital and analog domains. The Red Shoes itself is such a laden and dynamic track that the differences in the recordings is immediately apparent.

 

Honourable mentions.

 

Roger Waters  - Amused to Death. Entire Album is great, Late Home Tonight Part I is lethal. We once detonated a pair of 3A speakers driven by my NAP120  with this track.OOps.

 

Famous Blue Raincoat. Used to be a standard but now controversial. The remaster getting a real grilling here. I am a fan of the original and no fan of the remaster at all.

 

Of note here. I generally select test music for it's production values. The cleaner and better mastered the recording, the less likely interference / incompatibility will arise in the playback chain. That is one of the reasons I love DSOTM but do not trust it as an evaluation album. Too much went on in the production of that album.

+1

OMG!  Now that you've posted this ,I can hear  that pedal squeak through the whole track.Now any time I listen to this I'm going to be isolating all the squeeks.

 

Love the background humm of the amplifiers though.