[tattoou2]

Mahler's 2nd or 4th
Coltrane - A Love Supreme
Sara K
Keith Jarrett - The Koln Concert
Roxy Music - Avalon
Bob Dylan - Tangled Up In Blue

 

[krmathis]

Any music I know well.
Meaning that I usually end up listening to some Pink Floyd, Massive Attack, Kari Bremnes, Øystein Sevåg.

 

[Anouk]

Hello, wow massive attack seems to be popluar. I have never heard them. I wodner if they are close to nine inch nails (which i have not heard either though).
Greetings, Anouk,

 

[lamikeith]

+1 familiar recordings. I prefer music made with solo or a small group of acoustic instruments: voice, guitar, harp, piano, horn, sax, cello, etc. Another good test is well recorded human speech, e.g. books on CD.

I haven't listened to "Dark Side of the Moon" in, oh, 20+ years. Come to think of it, I have it only on vinyl. Time to shop for a new CD!

 

[my.self]

ill just play all sorts of genres in my fuze. ill play a rap/hip hop song for testing out bass. rock song for mids and etc. i dont really have specific songs, but id prolly choose songs i know well too.

 

[analogbox]

Stan Getz & Charlie Byrd - Jazz Samba ( Beautiful soundstage and sweet mid range )
Wynton Marsalis Quartet - The Magic Hour ( Tons of details in percussion instruments )
CéU - CéU ( Sweet vocal and deep, deep, deep bass )
Pink Martini - Sympathique ( Full, rich vocal and, again, tons of details in percussion instruments )
Queens of the Stone Age - Songs for the Deaf ( Crunch upper mid, speed )
Beaux Arts Trio - Beethoven: The Piano Trios ( Resolution, Airiness, speed )
Sir Charles Mackerras with SCO - Mozart: Symphonies 38~41 ( Overall resolution, soundstage, timbre and instrument seperation )

 

[saintalfonzo]

If I had to keep it to one band, Steely Dan. Gaucho, Live In America, and Katy Lied (Hoffman) are the top 3.

 

[Baird GoW]

dragon force, iron maiden, megadeth (limited # of songs though), ATB, BT, Infected mushroom (3 songs), Ricky Maritn (lol) for vocals (cup of life).

 

[jjsoviet]

Use familiar recordings, since you know how the music really sounds. With that, I'm very fond of oldies and new wave music despite being only 16 years old. Not a lot of people love Air Supply and Earth, Wind and Fire today, right?

My playlist when testing headphones:

1. Fantasy - Earth, Wind and Fire
2. From the Heart - Another Level
3. Honestly - Harem Scarem
4. Stay the Same -Joey McIntyre
5. Boogie Wonderland - Earth, Wind and Fire
6. Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche) - 98 Degrees
7. Iron Man - Black Sabbath
8. Paradise City - Guns n' Roses
9. All Out of Love - Air Supply
10. True - Spandau Ballet
11. After The Love Has Gone - Earth, Wind and Fire
12. Alone - Heart
13. Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do) - Christopher Cross
14. My Immortal - Evanescence
15. Hard to Say I'm Sorry - Chicago

...and many more, but these 15 are a must.

 

[steviebee]

I seem to revolve around three artists. and they all include interesting percussion:

Flora Purim
Can
Ozric Tentacles

Oh, and Terry Riley, just because I love his work.

 

[terrymx]

I don't care how high quality something is recorded, if I don't like the music I'm not listening to it. I test headphones with my favorite music.

 

[jjsoviet]

I also use videogame music such as ones from Command and Conquer, Halo and Call of Duty to know if electronic/instrumental music is good in the headphone.

 

[intoart]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Anouk /img/forum/go_quote.gif Hello, wow massive attack seems to be popluar. I have never heard them. I wodner if they are close to nine inch nails (which i have not heard either though). Greetings, Anouk,

In stark contrast to the name, a lot of Massive Attack material is fairly mellow (while containing the deepest and and most powerful bass of any recorded music, period. Especially the track Angel.)
NIN, on the other hand, is very noisy, in-your-face, and aggressive. A very different style.

 

[Salmoneus]

I just made a playlist last night and got the chance to test it out today...it did some things really well (pointing out a somewhat anemic bass on the Shure 310), and some tracks I'm a bit doubtful really need to be on there, but I think I'll leave for the familiarity:
Air - La Femme d'Argent
Ananda Shankar - Streets of Calcutta
Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra - Indictment
Bill Evans - Gloria's Step
Bobby McFerrin - Blackbird
Canadian Brass - Bach: Fugue in g
Josh Roseman Unit - LDSN 2.0
Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven
Mark Deutsch - Avodah
Mehta/VPO - Mahler 2, Mvt. 5
Sreteniye - O My Soul, Rise!
Horenstein/LPO+ - Mahler 8, Mvt. 2 "Alles Vergangliche"
Buddy Guy - Done Got Old
Buddy Guy - Baby Please Don't Leave Me

I don't listen to everything off every track obviously, but it's a plenty good range to put a headphone through its paces

 

[3602]

Say It Right
Dukou (Chinese)
Freq sweep
Heavy drum
20Hz lines