Well, we all know about Sara K and classical being supposedly 'audiophile-grade' but really, let's be honest, most people don't listen to them.
What recordings / tracks in your music collection do you use to test your new audio toys on and what tracks that you think are 'audiophile-grade' but on the surface, most people wouldn't think it is for whatever reason?
Mine for 'unusual' choice:
Evanescence - Field of Innocence
-Their underground (pre-Fallen) music is far better than their mainstream stuff and far better mastered as well. This song is among the best of them in terms of mastering and production. Lots of detail, has chanting, acoustic guitar. the note @ 2:59 = so sweet eargasm.
You can legally download all their pre-Fallen music for free. There's a number of FLAC torrents out there.
My other choices:
Deep Bass / noise floor level:
Daft Punk - 'Television Rules the Nation'
-the sub 50Hz bass measures up to -4dB on a spectrum = crazy. This song without a subwoofer / headphones sounds so so different because of it. And yes, you can feel your eardrums buzzing cuz of the bass, even with headphones! This is rather noisy track as well. The album this comes off 'Human After All' = insanely complex. 320k mp3 is in fact not enough as there's not enough bitrate, even at 320k. whilst most songs go + and - 20 kbps in VBR encoding situations, this album's songs = +80 and up from the set VBR bitrate = insane.
Mids / Instrument separation / Imaging
Mae - 'Painless'
- Mixture of guitars, piano and drums set in medium to fast paced soft rock = great to measure these + I'm very familiar with this track.
Marit Larsen - 'If A Song Could Get Me You'
- Folk rock like this tends to be great for testing these aspects too. She's signed a major label too. Yes, major label + good mastering these days can happen.
Bass Communion - 'Drugged'
- This track (either of them, the 13 or 24 min one) is very mid oriented and has zero treble. Really, none.
Rap:
Jay-Z - 'Dirt Off Your Shoulder'
- His 'Black Album' = quite well mastered tbh (rare for mainstream rap albums) + this track has deep bass. It's his best mastered album tbh. No hint of Loudness War in this album tbh.
Pop / Falsetto:
Any Michael Jackson track tbh. Yes, MJ's tracks = very well produced and mastered tbh. A joy to listen to.
'Sloppy' bass:
Michael Jackson - 'Billie Jean'
- This track is known to have it e.g. at the intro.
'Lots o' bass':
Pendulum - 'Slam'
- Plenty of bass (deep, mid-bass and high-bass) in this song particularly at the beginning.
Mid-bass:
Pendulum - 'Out Here'
- Track centered around mid-bass tbh.
Rock Music:
Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
- The entire album is a masterpiece and well renowned to be one of the best mastered albums of all time. 'Take The Power Back' = being the best one tbh. Great bass track to test out on at the intro and treble due to the drum cymbals, in particular from 4:25 - 5:03. I've never heard drum cymbals sound as good as on this track / album tbh.
Sibilance:
New Order - 'True Faith'
- this song = a lot of sibilance. You will hear sibilance no matter what setup you got guaranteed, particularly at the chorus, however the degree of it depends on the headphones / system = great to test this aspect out on.
I'll list more later ha. What about yours?
What recordings / tracks in your music collection do you use to test your new audio toys on and what tracks that you think are 'audiophile-grade' but on the surface, most people wouldn't think it is for whatever reason?
Mine for 'unusual' choice:
Evanescence - Field of Innocence
-Their underground (pre-Fallen) music is far better than their mainstream stuff and far better mastered as well. This song is among the best of them in terms of mastering and production. Lots of detail, has chanting, acoustic guitar. the note @ 2:59 = so sweet eargasm.
You can legally download all their pre-Fallen music for free. There's a number of FLAC torrents out there.
My other choices:
Deep Bass / noise floor level:
Daft Punk - 'Television Rules the Nation'
-the sub 50Hz bass measures up to -4dB on a spectrum = crazy. This song without a subwoofer / headphones sounds so so different because of it. And yes, you can feel your eardrums buzzing cuz of the bass, even with headphones! This is rather noisy track as well. The album this comes off 'Human After All' = insanely complex. 320k mp3 is in fact not enough as there's not enough bitrate, even at 320k. whilst most songs go + and - 20 kbps in VBR encoding situations, this album's songs = +80 and up from the set VBR bitrate = insane.
Mids / Instrument separation / Imaging
Mae - 'Painless'
- Mixture of guitars, piano and drums set in medium to fast paced soft rock = great to measure these + I'm very familiar with this track.
Marit Larsen - 'If A Song Could Get Me You'
- Folk rock like this tends to be great for testing these aspects too. She's signed a major label too. Yes, major label + good mastering these days can happen.
Bass Communion - 'Drugged'
- This track (either of them, the 13 or 24 min one) is very mid oriented and has zero treble. Really, none.
Rap:
Jay-Z - 'Dirt Off Your Shoulder'
- His 'Black Album' = quite well mastered tbh (rare for mainstream rap albums) + this track has deep bass. It's his best mastered album tbh. No hint of Loudness War in this album tbh.
Pop / Falsetto:
Any Michael Jackson track tbh. Yes, MJ's tracks = very well produced and mastered tbh. A joy to listen to.
'Sloppy' bass:
Michael Jackson - 'Billie Jean'
- This track is known to have it e.g. at the intro.
'Lots o' bass':
Pendulum - 'Slam'
- Plenty of bass (deep, mid-bass and high-bass) in this song particularly at the beginning.
Mid-bass:
Pendulum - 'Out Here'
- Track centered around mid-bass tbh.
Rock Music:
Rage Against the Machine - Rage Against the Machine
- The entire album is a masterpiece and well renowned to be one of the best mastered albums of all time. 'Take The Power Back' = being the best one tbh. Great bass track to test out on at the intro and treble due to the drum cymbals, in particular from 4:25 - 5:03. I've never heard drum cymbals sound as good as on this track / album tbh.
Sibilance:
New Order - 'True Faith'
- this song = a lot of sibilance. You will hear sibilance no matter what setup you got guaranteed, particularly at the chorus, however the degree of it depends on the headphones / system = great to test this aspect out on.
I'll list more later ha. What about yours?
