[tranemiles]

You just opened a box containing a new set of headphones. What is the song you usually play first?

 

[PSmith08]

I generally listen to Gilbert Kaplan's 2003 DGG recording of Mahler's 2nd, the fifth movement. That is a superlatively good recording that captures the various parts in the right dynamic range with great detail.

 

[kwitel]

Depeche Mode's "People are People" IMO is THE song to test out headphones with. Tremendous drum play right at the open combined with basic rock instrumentation and synth sounds really covers the full spectrum of sound.
Great workout for your cans.

 

[BRBJackson]

The live version of the Indigo Girls doing "Down By the River" is usually one of my first tests. If the phones can capture the 'air' and soundstage of that song, they're probably keepers.

 

[Xakepa]

Sting - A Thousand (Y)Ears...it's kind of a standart showroom piece for almost any hi-fi.

Make it right, make it true, all of it - and I'm pulling the card

Stop dreaming about those Paradigm speakers and enjoy 580

 

[FalconP]

The song "My Love is Like a Red, Red Rose" from the album Songs of Earth and Sky by Bill Douglas: piano, mixed choir and woodwinds.