[judas391]

pink floyd - the wall: live in berlin
alice in chains - unplugged
tool - aenima

 

[Zarathustra19]

In no particular order:

Angelis - Angelis
Funeral - From These Wounds
Wes Montgomery - California Dreaming
Bloodbath - Resurrection Through Carnage
Josh Groban - Awake
The Decemberists - The Crane Wife
Death - Symbolic

Then random stuff from other genres ensues. I like to make sure I can deal with music from different genres with a pair of headphones.

 

[Prozakk]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pibborando /img/forum/go_quote.gif 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.

I also like using lo-fi recordings to test equipment for the very same reasons.

 

[carlineng]

Fleetwood Mac - Rumours
Paul Simon - Graceland
Bruce Springsteen - Born to Run

Each of these albums tests a different element of what I'm looking for in quality headphones.

 

[Negatron]

Chris Rea, The Road to Hell
Enya, Shepard Moons
Dire Straights, Love Over Gold
The Notting Hillbilies, Missing
Digital Samsara, Blue Beryll

 

[MaloS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pibborando /img/forum/go_quote.gif 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.

+1 on both ideas. Shpongle is a test at detecting various layering, timbre, extension, and soundstaging.

Low-fi albums are great for testing musicality, although in the end I would rather prefer a well done recording form the same period (Gentle Giant's Free Hand is hissy, but things are done well, and it results being incredibly musical even on the more revealing systems).

 

[MaloS]

Although, I have to add, I think for personal auditioning of a system, you should use albums obviously representative of your listening habits (unless you are writing a review for others).

 

[Redo]

Chicago Transit Authority, Santana (first four albums), Beatles, Doors, Pink Floyd


All of my staple favorites get the run through. I have to have headphones that sound good for the music I listen to, not headphones that sound killer on other genre's and bleh on the older stuff.

 

[Drag0n]

Steely Dan - All different songs really.

Pink Floyd- Dark Side Of The Moon (OMG I feel like such a fanboy,someone get me an Ipod or some Bose...lol).

Primus- Sea of Cheese.

Bella Fleck and the FleckTones- Flight of the Cosmic Hippo.

Lisa Loeb- FireCracker.

STYX- Greatest Hits.

Joe Walsh- Lifes Been Good.

All different Jazz from the GRP label,like Chic Corea, Dave Grusin, Tom Scott,etc.

Peter Gabriel- Greatest Hits.

Loreana McKennet- I forget the CD,and i dont wanna dig for it...but The Mummers Dance is a song from it...lol. I also think i spelled her name wrong..lol.

James Taylor- Fire and Rain.....Theres a bass line that goes through alot of the song,,just an on going tone,and i test woofers with it.

Dixie Chicks- Wide Open Spaces (Im not really a fan so much,,but its a good test CD).

Rush- Chronicles.

Allman Bros- Beginnings.

BB King- some hits CD,,i forget, but theres some live stuff on it,and its good for listening to the size of the venue etc.

Acoustic Alchemy- any.

Spyrogyra- any.

Eagles- Hotel California.

Fleetwood Mac- The Chain - Album: Rumours (some good clack sounds in it etc.)

Josh Groban- all different selections.

Cassandra Wilson- any.



Also so many others,,,i can be here all night listing. I have some classical i test with and blues and jazz.....everything really. Also i have some live recordings on CD that my friend recorded while doing sound for live bands,and its interesting to hear being i was at some of the shows and know the sound of the band and the venue.

 

[Netminder]

YES - Roundabout

 

[unclejr]

In groups in order of importance ... mine are selected tracks (some listed) from the following CDs:

Money Jungle (Ellington, Mingus, Roach)
Dreamland (Madeleine Peyroux)
So Danço Samba from Getz/Gilberto by the same
Monk. (Thelonious Monk)
Pre-Bird (Charles Mingus)
Seven Steps Complete Columbia 63-64 (Miles Davis)
Shack Man (Medeski Martin & Wood)
Soul Station (Hank Mobley)
Steal Away (Charlie Haden, Hank Jones)
Turn it out (Soulive)

Corelli's La Folia (Andrew Manze & Richard Egarr)
Bruch Violin Concerto 1 Op. 26 (Yehudi Menuhin)
Obrigado Brasil (Yo-Yo Ma)

Immortal MJH (Mississippi John Hurt)

Céu (Samba Na Sola) (Céu)
Khronos (Maktub)
Life on Planet Groove (Maceo Parker)

Black Star (Talib & Mos)
Get By on Quality (Talib Kweli)

To the person who said "everything," not sure if you were kidding but certainly there are constraints of time and feasibility. One dealer told me a story of some jerk who used to come in each week and bring a few CDs for 8 months testing out each and every recording on his rig. He finally told the guy that it was time to either buy or not come back. Eight months ... !

There comes a point where you know the music in your collection well enough such that you know what's representative of a particular genre, artist, label, producer, method, etc. So when you're testing gear for the sake of getting a feel for the gear, you won't have to play everything. Of course, the audio geek in all of us might listen to each and every one of our recordings sometimes with a critical ear, sometimes less so. Just take the stuff home first!!

 

[Chris_Himself]

Ashes of the Wake by Lamb of God

 

[epaludo]

Pink Floyd's Dark Side Of The Moon.
Sometimes Stevie Ray Vaughan's Texas Flood also ...

 

[kramer5150]

I'm surprised how well recorded The Beatles' "Love" is. They clearly did not over-compress it for the masses.

Nicely done, and its a great way for the beatles noob (me) to get into their stuff.

 

[sweetwilly]

Cynic - Focus. One of my favorite albums of all time. It's such a dynamic, textured recording.