[CRESCENDOPOWER]

Some CDs I use to audition equipment are: John Tesh's Avalon, Jennifer Warne's The Hunter, Anonymous 4's An English Ladymass, and Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.
I would also like to say that if you really want to audition equipment on equal terms the levels must be matched as closely as possible. A sound level meter could not hurt.
Audio Redneck, in almost every stereo magazine I have read they talk about the Boston Pops. I think I'll check that out. Oh yeah, Petra ROCKS!

 

[Xander]

My favorite auditioning discs:

Eric Clapton - UnPlugged (bass accuracy, stringed instruments)
Type-O Negative - Bloody Kisses (soundstage width and depth)
Guns n Roses - UYI1 and 2 (if these sound good, the headphones are OK in my book

SRV - In Step (No particular reason...)
Alice In Chains - Jar Of Flies (How well the equipment sounds with exaderated bass (see "Swing On This"))
Megadeth - Countdown to exstinction (how the equipment deals with harsh, thin, shrill recordings)

 

[eric343]

I went to a performance of Handel's Messiah with my parents, and picked up a CD (at the Benaroya Hall giftshop-ish-place) called "Engineer's Choice: Top Recording Engineer John Eargle Picks his Favorite Demo Tracks." It's a CD specifically oriented towards audiophiles and those interested in the business of recording engineering; Eargle included in the album notes a description of how he recorded each piece, mic placement, etc. Also, each selection is quite revealing of equipment flaws, especially track 5 (Selection from Copland's Billy the Kid) which has *REALLY* loud, deep bass drum. It made our home stereo [McIntosh+medium-quality speakers] look like my bookshelf stereo when I played it through my CHA47+Etys.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Quote:

Originally posted by KR... Who's Portishead? One of my favorite bands My Dying Bride does a cover of Roads, and it's just an amazing cover. Can you tell me anything more about them?

Sorry to reincarnate a thread that was trying to rest in peace, but being familiar with both these bands, I finally got a chance to hear this.

(Yes, KR, I finally picked up Meisterwerk 2.)

It's actually a very faithful cover (of "Roads"). You may want to check them out if you like this. But it may come across as too wussy, since it is all like this.

 

[mrselfdestruct]

For really, really, really deep synth bass - Roni Size/Reprazent-New Forms, very hard to reproduce on headphones

 

[Ob3ron]

To beat a dead horse... Quote:

Why should you care how well they sound with Classical or Jazz or Rock or whatever if you don't listen to those styles?

I personally try to listen to as many different genres of music as I can, whether or not it's something I currently enjoy, because I know that chances are, sometime down the road I'll find myself interested in genres I've never yet been compelled to explore

For example, in the last year I've been through insane amounts of trance/house music, then I moved on to celtic music, then onto alternative-pop and now I find myself enthralled with classical and jazz. I've also been dying to further explore chamber music and other vocal music such as the music of Norah Jones, Diana Krall and Tori Amos. Recently, Yoyo Ma/Edgar Meyer/Mark O'Connor's "Appalachian Journey" album has gotten me interested in bluegrass. So now you see why I don't just stick to genres I'm currently interested in

I guess you could call me the Microsoft of musical tastes

 

[Aloft]

I don't believe I've seen this mentioned yet. One of my favorite CDs, and a great one for testing the range of a particular piece of equipment is Biosphere's Substrata. It is as ambient as ambient gets, but with enough depth and range of sound to put stuff through its paces. Everything from vocal snips to articulate percussive sounds to sub-sonic deep noises that seem to have no bottom in their frequency curves. Additionally, good use of stereo panning, sound stage, and mixed digital with acoustic instrumentation. The only drawback to this CD is that the original CD release had poorer than average mastering. There is a good deal of hiss in most of the tracks, and occasionally what sounds like clipping in a few of the samples. There was a Substrata+ re-release done fairly recently, and I have heard that it was re-mastered with much better quality. I've yet to procure a copy of this though.

I also like to use Pan Sonic's Aaltapori. I know I saw them mentioned earlier. Pan Sonic pushes the limit on frequency range, and everything I've heard from them is mastered very well. Nothing quite like what sounds to be a page of paper several thousand miles wide being crumpled up from the inky black depths of silence.

Other favorites for testing is Autechre's Tri Repetae, and sometimes I'll throw in a pure noise CD to test the utter limits of layering and sonic reproduction with something like Merzbow, or Aube.

 

[Atomicarnage]

I love the 5th Element soundtrack. It has every form of instrument from sythesized instruments to vocals to low low bass to high hight tweety trumpets and everything in between. The recording is excellent quality much like the sound in the movie. If you have seen this movie, and you liked it, I highly recommend the soundtrack, your headphones will appreciate it.

Disclaimer: For those with eclectic taste only

 

[millerdog]

wow! old post
I'll add my two lincolns
Level 42 - Something About You I use cause of the bass punch.
John Pizzarelli - anything just to evaluate the vocals.
md