[DavidMahler]

What is your favorite CD all round to test your headphones and other audio equipment?

My favorite CD all around is Gilbert Kaplan's 2nd recording of Mahler's 2nd Symphony with the Vienna Philharmonic. I feel this is the most natural sounding classical recording ever.

As far as rock though I would have to say remastered Dark Side of the Moon or Steely Dan's Aja or Jeff Buckley's Grace

I also love using kind of blue for testing as well........I love to know what other people use to test their equipment. Please feel free to write a list as long as you like and include reasons why

 

[feh1325]

dark side of the moon
a day at the races
black holes and revelations

and oh, 1812 overture on my record player

 

[Jeffreybar]

Actually, as I just mentioned on another thread, the first album I usually throw on is Neutral Milk Hotel's _In the Aeroplane Over the Sea_.

Why? Because it's one of my favorite albums and it's recorded *terribly*. Every medium-to-high end headphone I've ever listened to makes it sound like crap, and while I'm happy for them at being able to successfully show me that it's a bad recording, I don't intend to stop listening to music I like just because it's badly recorded. Any "real" high-end set of cans will make well-recorded and -mixed music sound good. I want a good set of cans that will make *that* album sound as good as it does on my $5 buds (and hopefully better, for what I'm paying). If it can fulfill that obligation, then I move on to the hoity-toity stuff.

 

[Pibborando]

Yeah, In The Aeroplane Over The Sea is pretty "lo-fi" but I love it as well, so I don't care. If any speaker system or headphones can make me feel the raw emotion from that album without me thinking "god this recording is terrible" all the time, it's a winner. I think I need some tubes.

Also, any Shpongle album. Holy crap.

 

[itsborken]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jeffreybar /img/forum/go_quote.gif Why? Because it's one of my favorite albums and it's recorded *terribly*.

Interesting approach to the problem. Unfortunately a lot of the music I listen to was totally overdriven in the 60/70s so I know where you are coming from.

Edit: I listen to a group of different songs; usually:

Bob Marley Them Belly Full
Bela Fleck & Flecktones Blu Bop
Allan Holdsworth Dodgy Boat
Bill Bruford The Drum also Waltzes
Dutoit Holst Mars
Danny Gatton Funky Mama
Dave Brubeck Take Five
David Gilmour Mihalis

Then I just pick things out at random

 

[vcoheda]

something well recorded and if possible live.

 

[gatmog]

I find Interpol's Turn on the Bright Lights is a good reference, since it drags the bass way out in front of what would otherwise be a typical rock record. I don't need a lot of bass in my headphones, but it has to present itself respectably.

Next I usually go to NIN's The Downward Spiral, because of all the layering. It's a creepy recording when you really sit down and listen to it.

 

[Tbln]

Manger Test CD.

Scroll down for more information: http://stereopal.com/CD1Cream.htm

Contains a selection of well recorded music from different generes to see if the headphone is up to the test.

 

[Facade19]

Bartok's Miraculous Mandarin for me personally right now.
I just love when the headphones get the trumpets in the score right (for me that is when I feel a kick in my ears...haha...very hard to describe).

Edit: Oh I like the Boulez version that he has done with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

 

[tbonner1]

Stereophile test CD's
Diana Krall-Love Scenes
Bob Dylan's SACD (early 1960's recordings are incredible)
Metalica Black DVD-A
Dark Side of the Moon SACD

 

[qazwsx]

Everything.

Why base on a certain amount of CDs? Unless those are the only ones you listen to. You need to test your headphones on ALL of YOUR music to get a feel for it.

 

[monolith]

These need to sound good in order for me to like stuff:

Sunn O))) - 00 Void
Rostropovich's Bach cello suites (particularly the g-minor)
Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley
Sleep - Sleep's Holy Mountain
Charles Mingus - The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady
Godspeed You! Black Emperor - Slow Riot for New Zero Kanada
Steve Reich - Any of a number of things from his complete works set that I have.
Basilisk - Vintyrhell (that's a tape, but it's one of my favourite recordings of anything ever)
Brahms' symphonies conducted by Solti
Lots of Grateful Dead stuff, but I usually use Live/Dead to check since it's so well recorded. Not my favourite, but best for this purpose.

Oh, I should add some Don Ross stuff too. Robot Monster by him is excellent for seeing how phones sound with acoustic music.

 

[kramer5150]

Dreamtheater - Awake
Diana Krall - Live in Paris
SRV - Texas Flood
Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms
Eric Johnson - Venus Isle

Lately I've been using a lot of Judas Priest, a lot of their guitar tracks are very ambient and deep sounding... plus I enjoy the tunes. A lot of Junior Brown CDs are released under the Telarc label, and are very well recorded.

 

[luidge]

Metric - Old world underground
DJ Shadow - Endthroducing
DJ crush - Jaku
Accrophone - J'Theme
MAdvillains - Madvillainy
Viktor Vaughn - Venomous villain
MF DOOM with danger mouse - DangerDOOM

And lot of other, metric to see if they can rock it out, Shadow and Crush to see if they can play fast and slow, deep and light. Accrophone cause they are my friend and i am listening to their CD non stop since it release, magical rap masterpiece. And the doom to see if they doom well

 

[KenW]

Steely Dan-Aja
Dream Theater-Images and Words
Dave Matthews-Crash
SRV-Texas Flood and Couldn't Stand the Weather
Pink Floyd-DSOTM
Jack Johnson-In Between Dreams
Metallica-Black Album