[superpuza]

Hey head-fi, I was wondering what you guys consider to be good music for testing out headphones/speakers?

 

[MorbidToaster]

There's so many of these threads, but I always post when they pop up. Surprised they don't stay alive longer.
 
Some of my favorites...
 
Pendulum - Crush (Very busy and cymbal heavy song. I use it to test brightness and speed)
Puscifer - Indigo Children [JLE Dub Mix] (My favorite bass depth test by far. I've had cheap subs that didn't go low enough for this one)
Andrea Bocelli - Con Te Partiro (I use both version. Solo & with Sarah Brightman. They're my vocal tests)
SRV - Riviera Paradise (It's really just a fantastic song that I know really well. So I use it regularly to test gear)
 
Those are the big 4 that I always use, but chances are if I DLed it from HDTracks (Moving Pictures, and Tommy) I'll use those, too. Still looking for an end all soundstage test.

 

[GadoGado]

 Jay-Z and Beyoncé on Lift Off from the Watch The Throne album
.Test punch  weight and level of agility and detail.

• 

 
 
 

 

[GadoGado]

 Hans Zimmer’s Dream Is Collapsing from the Inception soundtrack delivers masses of information to process,

 

[GadoGado]

 

[Azathoth]

Test tracks always vary for me, it depends on what's in my DAP at the time. Recently, it's been:
 
Katatonia - July (loud/soft dynamics, vocals)
Spawn of Possession - Eve of Contempt (extremly busy and complex passages)
Demolition Hammer - Skull Fracturing Nightmare (PRaT)
Al Di Meola - Chasin' The Voodoo (PRaT too)
Suffocation - Synthetically Revived (bass and lower mids)
Bolt Thrower - When Cannons Fade (guitar tone)

 

[kmj2587]

I usually do a lot of testing and change it up based on what purpose I wish to use the headphones for.  Some stuff I'll test pretty much everything with though, either for informational purposes or for kicks.
 
Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, jazz band arrangement with Michael Tilson Thomas and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. - Detail.  I don't play the entire piece as it's over 15 minutes, the big thing I'm listening for is the clicking of the clarinet's keys at the very beginning and how the sense of space changes when the full brass section comes in.
 
Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man with Leonard Bernstein and the New York Philharmoic.  Mid/Treble balance.  With this I'm listening for the relative volumes of the horns and the trumpets.
 
Mozart's Great Mass in C Minor, K. 427 - 2b. Laudamus Te. with Sylvia McNair and the English Baroque Soloists.  Female vocals.
 
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, 4th movement. - Male Vocals and "Wow factor".
 
Verdi's Requiem - Dies Irae with Robert Shaw and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra & Chorus and Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture with Leonard Bernstein and the NYP.  Bass drum impact.  The bass drum is getting slammed pretty hard in both these pieces and if it just sounds like another tone without any sense of impact, it's pretty close to a deal breaker for me, especially in the latter where they stand in for cannon blasts.
 
I also usually test the fourth movements of Tchaikovsky's 4th and Dvorak's 9th symphonies.  I'm not listening for anything in particular, but they're both among my favorite pieces, and if a system can't make them really jump out at me, I want no part of it.
 
Now on the non-classical stuff.  This changes around quite a bit more and is much more subject to whatever I'm listening to at the moment.  There are some things I'll hit up pretty reliably though.  I don't take this as seriously and I don't generally examine them for things in particular as much as I do the classical stuff.  I'm not as much of a classic rock junky as this will make me look, but they're known quantities that I know are of good quality.
 
Led Zeppelin - Bron-Y-Aur Stomp.
 
Gogol Bordello - Mishto.  Builds by adding instruments one by one and is good for evaluating cymbal response.
 
Jethro Tull - Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Day
 
Pink Floyd - Wish You Were Here end of Have a Cigar / beginning of Wish You Were Here.  I really like the way the sound withdraws suddenly, then seems to move around behind me sounding like a tinny little radio speaker and the contrast with the guitar at the beginning of Wish you Were Here

 

[Signal2Noise]

Dido ~ Safe Trip Home

The subtle acoustics with a deep layer of lush tones allows me to dial in settings relatively quickly. It's pretty much my goto CD that I use to test interconnects and speaker cable out.

 

[dulath]

When in doubt, Mister X had me use A Perfect Circle's Thirteenth Step for resolution testing. He probably had a hard on for them, in retrospect.

 

[leng jai]

I've got a play list called "reference" which I use whenever I'm testing new equipment:
 
Between Two Lungs - Florence & The Machine
Let Down - Radiohead
Angel - Massive Attack
Biko - Bloc Party
Cheers Darlin - Damien Rice
Erotomania - Dream Theater
A Fair Judgement - Opeth
Trains - Porcupine Tree
The Streets of Ubar - Uncharted 3 OST
The Streets of Yemen - Uncharted 3 OST
Love, You Should've Come Over - Jeff Buckley
Suliman - Infected Mushroom
Six Blade Knife - Dire Straits
Mombasa - Hans Zimmer (Inception)
Time - Hans Zimmer (Inception)
Run - Leona Lewis
I'm In Here (Piano) - Sia
Sun In The Winter (Estiva Remix) - Max Graham
Billie Jean - Michael Jackson
Here We Go Again - Angus & Julia Stone
Money - Pink Floyd
The Golden Age - Beck
Lithium - Nirvana
Little Motel - Modest Mouse
Through Her Eyes - Dream Theater