[eric343]

What's your favorite CD/song for auditioning headphones?

Mine is Sousa's Nobles of the Mystic Shrine
because of the sonic complexity of certain parts

 

[bpm2000]

I always liked Sarah McLachlan's Surfacing.

 

[grrr223]

Eric, could you recommend a good recording of that piece? for anyone recommending a classical piece or the like, please indicate what copy you have, who performs it, what record label, etc. There is so much variety out there, that unless it's obvious like the Sarah M. (I can't spell her last name) CD, it would be helpful to know the rest of the details. Thanks.

 

[mbriant]

The CD "Gordon" by the Barenakedladies is incredibly well produced. The instrument separation along with wonderfully recorded vocals really add to the headphone experience.

 

[eric343]

grrr223: Mercury Living Presence is the label and the album is called Fennell Conducts Sousa.

 

[timoteus]

For the last two years or so my "reference" song is Tin Pan Alley from Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble's Couldn't Stand the Weather.

Very dynamic, and easily the best sound on the CD. Something about it I can't put my finger on. If I don't hear that magical quality that I know is there I know something is wrong. And at 9:10 in length it gives you time to do what you gotta do tweakwise. Check it out.

 

[ppl]

Timewarp and Bachbusters, Both on the Telarc Label. Great verry few sytems can handel the Dynamic range on these two CD's Also on Telarc the Classic 1812.

 

[reynman]

Eric343,

Don't have a favorite, but some must haves that have not let me down:

Mahler Symphony No. 2 in C Minor "Resurrection" Leonard Slatkin and the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra w/ Kathleen Battle and Maureen Forrester on Telarc.

Big, grand orchestral work using the entire orchestra. The second disc is the vocal portion.

Copland disc featuring Fanfare for the Common Man Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra on London.

Various Copland pieces, but Fanfare will test any system's lows (timpani), mids and highs (brass). Appalachian Spring is a very beautiful, peaceful piece, lots of woodwinds especially the oboe.

For the ambient(?) in me, anything by Portishead and Massive Attack especially Angel on the Mezzanine album. Listen for the added static on various songs to make it sound like an LP.

Regards - reynman

 

[rickfri]

I have been lurking on Head-Fi and Headwize for the last couple of months trying to get a fairly good sounding headphone set up, and thought it was about time to contribute something.

The music I have been using to audition is:

Copland Lane/Atlanta Symphony Ochestra (Telarc) "Fanfare for the Common Man".

"Leonard Cohen More the Best Of" The (intonations, iflections) in his voice are amazing. There are very distinct differences between headphones and interconnects that even someone with less than perfect hearing like myself can detect, especially on "Everybody Knows", "The Future" and "Closing Time". I should probably add that while there are no four letter words or hate lyrics in his songs, he does write mature and bleak music that may not be to everybodys taste.

Chares Mingus "Mingus Ah Um"

 

[zoboomofo]

Welcome to the forums, ridkfri

.

 

[deepriver]

Glad to see the votes for Fanfare for the Common Man, but if you haven't heard it before keep the volume down from the gitgo or you won't have any use for headphones anymore after the first few bars.

 

[Neruda]

I use a CD of African talking drum music whenever I audition stuff (although I do so rarely), entitled Tama Walo - Keepers of the Talking Drum. It's an absolutely spectacular recording, by far the best that I own. It's incredibly dynamic, as well; some of those drum hits can make a sennheiser sound as exciting as a Grado

.

 

[beowulf]

The Rite of Spring (Stravinsky) from
the Royal Philharmonic Collection (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Yuri Simonov) is also excellent. The detail is amazing.

And best of all, with that sound, and it's still a budget DDD title!

 

[beni]

I highly recommend a good recording of mahler 2 also. The fourth movement in particular is great for auditioning equipment. I just listened to one of my recordings last night when I got my cosmic in the mail and I heard a couple of parts I had never heard before, and I've performed the piece twice myself. That was on my ER-4Ss. The recording I use for auditioning is Leonard Bernstein with the NY Philharmonic on Deutsche Grammophon. That Telarc recording mentioned earlier sounds interesting too - I'd like to hear that and I'm sure it would make a good test album...Telarc is known for their great recording standards. As far as musical quality, I would recommend the Bruno Walter recordings of Mahler works. Walter was a protege of Mahler's and was a great proponent and wonderful interpreter of his music. Those are all old analog remasters, though, so they're not great for testing equipment. Georg Solti has lots of good recordings of Mahler with the Chicago symphony also, and you may want to take a look at those.

Anyway, back to the original recommendation - 4th movement of Mahler's second symphony is very revealing and will provide nice testing material.

 

[beowulf]

I also agree on the Mahler.

As a curiosity...

"There are a couple of reasons for the wide availabilty of low-cost Mahler recordings. First, the great Mahler conductors, Walter, Klemperer, Barbirolli, Horenstein, Szell, Bernstein, etc. were all active in the 50-70's and their recordings now form the basis for most label's rerelease programs. Second, engineers have always seen Mahler as a technical challenge and have tried to provide the best sonics they could. So even 1960's era recordings can hold their own with, and are often batter than, the latest DDD monster. "

That and more info about Mahler's recordings can be found on the following site, which I recommend especially for those here who will buy Mahler based on these comments.

http://www.fork.org/~jgreshes/mahler/newmahler.html