zloy loup
Head-Fier
- Joined
- Jan 10, 2012
- Posts
- 77
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- 11
Quote:
Well, a good portion of my own orchestral/classical music, and something I really like testing 'phones with, are compositions created by the composer Joe Hisaishi. They are all very good for testing soundstage. Many of the recordings also have sounds like turning pages, breathing, and other subtle details which you can listen for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygdv1jNy9bc This track has some parts which I like using for testing instrument separation and clarity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKp3y6363vI This track will suffer if there bass bleeding into the mids, also a good soundstage test. It tends to sound strangely intimate on headphones with a bad soundstage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXDREcdYDNM Not quite orchestral, but here's a movie track which works well for testing imaging and soundstage width. A particular moment is the drumroll at 1:29, which should sound like it is approaching you. Not many IEMs I listened to have been able to reproduce this effect.
...You get the drift.
The deal with orchestral music is that it usually needs a pretty neutral signature to sound good, so that will be an influence in your judgement. But despite that it is still useful for testing aspects of sound which are more widely regarded as desirable, such as soundstage, separation, imaging, clarity. It's better to get live recordings, because live instruments have very pronounced timbre and variations which synthesized music can't match. In general, I think any live orchestral music will work, you just have to find the right set of tracks for yourself,
Wow! Maybe I should try with that genre! Any advice what to try?
Well, a good portion of my own orchestral/classical music, and something I really like testing 'phones with, are compositions created by the composer Joe Hisaishi. They are all very good for testing soundstage. Many of the recordings also have sounds like turning pages, breathing, and other subtle details which you can listen for.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygdv1jNy9bc This track has some parts which I like using for testing instrument separation and clarity.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKp3y6363vI This track will suffer if there bass bleeding into the mids, also a good soundstage test. It tends to sound strangely intimate on headphones with a bad soundstage.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXDREcdYDNM Not quite orchestral, but here's a movie track which works well for testing imaging and soundstage width. A particular moment is the drumroll at 1:29, which should sound like it is approaching you. Not many IEMs I listened to have been able to reproduce this effect.
...You get the drift.
The deal with orchestral music is that it usually needs a pretty neutral signature to sound good, so that will be an influence in your judgement. But despite that it is still useful for testing aspects of sound which are more widely regarded as desirable, such as soundstage, separation, imaging, clarity. It's better to get live recordings, because live instruments have very pronounced timbre and variations which synthesized music can't match. In general, I think any live orchestral music will work, you just have to find the right set of tracks for yourself,