[mrsal]

dream theater, epica, nightwish, coheed and cambria and so on...

 

[meticadpa]

I like Fade To Black by Metallica.

 

[joomongj]

Pretty everything in my library I listen to on a daily basis.

 

[David.M]

Can't go wrong with Led Zeppelin

 

[jax]

I tend to go for genres that I like the most, and cuts that I am very familiar with. I test my speaker system with the same material. I tend to like vocals and simple, acoustic instrumentation. It's important to me that vocals sound natural/real, and I'll usually try a variety of male and female vocalists that are well recorded:

Antony and the Johnsons - Could be one of many, but one of the more challenging for a system to reproduce when the music begins to get dense and layered is "Hope There's Someone" from I am Bird Now

Rickie Lee Jones - "Bye Bye Blackbird" off of Pop Pop

Casandra Wilson - anything off of Blue Light 'Til dawn

Cash - Any of the Rick Rubin recordings

Greg Brown - Perhaps something form Essential Recordings

16 Horsepower - Folklore, "The Outlaw Song"

For soundstage, atmosphere, and the sound of individual instruments I've been using:

Holly Cole - "The Train Song" from Temptation

"The Spell" off the excellent ECM recording, Achirana

El Cant de la Sibil-la - Jordi Savall

Le Pas Du Chat Noir - Anouar Brahem

"Shore Leave" off Swordfishtrombone by Tom Waits (some deliberate sizzling sibilance there to see how tolerable it is...amazing staging)

Qalam Kar - Trio Chemirani - usually use the first cut, "Geisha Djan"

 

[Leliana]

Some of my go to albums when I get my headphone home are (all Flac)
 
Metallica : Black Album (Metal)
Pink Floyd : Dark Side of the Moon (Progressive Rock)
Mind.In.A.Box : Crossroads (Progressive Techno/Future Pop)
Rom Di Prisco : Cryptidalia (Electronica)
Opeth : Still Life (Metal/Acoustic)
Gavlyn : From the Art (Hip Hop)
ne obliviscaris : Portal of I (Symphonic Metal)
Queen: Queen Rocks (Rock)
Stevie Ray Vaughn : Texas Flood (Blues)
Dream Theater : Greatest hit and 21 other songs (Metal/Ballads)
Judas Priest : Painkiller (The remasters) (Metal)
Godspeed You Black Emperor: f#a# infinity (instrumental/post rock)
[size=smaller][size=larger]Joni Mitchell's : Court and Spark (folk rock/jazzy)[/size][/size]
[size=smaller][size=larger]Al Stewart's : Year of the Cat (rock/folk rock)[/size][/size]
Miles Davis : Kind of Blue (jazz)
2NE1 : To anyone (Kpop)
Katy Perry : Teenage Dream (guilty pleasure/mainstream pop)
Pink Floyd : Pulse (live album) (prog rock)
Mass Effect 2 soundtrack (blend of orchestra and electronic ambience)
Troy Soundtrack
Last Samurai Soundtrack
Lord of the Rings Trilogy soundtrack
 
Yes, that is a lot, but before I can determine my preferences with a headphone, I would go through that many albums or equivalent. Obviously this can show up many weaknesses or strengths in a headphone. I would not have listened to that much in the past when I was not trying >400 dollar phones.
 
When I listen in a store I go for 30 minutes odd of songs from these. Nowdays I won't buy without very extensive research.

 

[020Assassin]

Old thread, but I don't see a point in opening a new thread for this:
 
My main stays for testing headphones are:
 
Stanley Clarke - School Days
Nils Petter Molvaer - Khmer
Bjork - Debut
David Sylvian - Brilliant Trees
Miles Davis - In Person at the Blackhawk
Hank Mobley - Soul Station
Kenny Drew - Undercurrent
Yes - Close to the Edge
John Mayer - Where The Light Is

 

[Shaffer]

I used to like a number of test tracks, but not anymore. These days, I play whatever I'm listening to at the time and know well. The gauge is relative. This being said, I've been using side-2 of Rhythm of the Saints for speaker setup for ages.

 

[zazex]

I use very well recorded music with which I'm very familiar.
CD's preferably.

 

[020Assassin]

I use very well recorded music with which I'm very familiar.
CD's preferably.

For example:???

 

[Figjam-NYC]

This is my first post here and was looking for reference tracks to try out.

I remember doing sound comparisons for vinyl and CDs back in the early '80's and one of the go to tracks was 'Private Investigations' by Dire Straits.

I've recently starting using TIDAL and I'm going to reference a number of the tracks listed in this thread to try out my new system:

TIDAL > Schiit Bifrost > Schiit Valhalla 2 > Senn HD650 (felt like that was a good place to start).

 

[funkymartyn]

I just play my normal music, but not to loud. Well i tend not to play anything to loud on headphones ever.......different when using speakers.
So i play jazz, jazz funk, jazz fusion, soul, nu jazz , soulful house.....etc....And i jyst carry on like normal, never really giving them a set burn in time.
Sometimes using my schiit magni 2 amp, other times the cd or hifi amp headphone output.

 

[excolatur]

I listen to Yosi Horikawa's Vapor EP to test soundstage.