which music do you use to test headphones?
Dec 13, 2009 at 8:24 PM Post #62 of 88
you may die in the desert/ bears in the yukon
eric clapton/ layla (acoustic)
dinosaur jr/ in a jar
chad vangaalen/ molten light, clinically dead
beck/ modern guilt
gorillaz/ clint eastwood ( for a bassy track )
 
Dec 13, 2009 at 8:34 PM Post #63 of 88
I tend to bring an odd pile to test:

- Suzanne Vega - Tom's Diner (with the acapella vocal version, and the dance remixes for thumpety thump thump thump! testing!)
- Delerium - Karma (thumpety! thump! thump! thump test again!
- Schubert - Death & the maiden - Busch Quartet (1940's recording - for transparency testing
- Cowboy Junkies - Trinity Sessions - for resolution
- Innocence Mission - Birds of my Neighbourhood - mid-range clarity; test for fatigue
- Szymanowski String Quartets - Carmina Quartet - one of the best recorded CDs I have at Chateaux des Fonds in Switzerland. If this don't sound right, nothing will
- Myaskovsky Cello Concerto (Rostropovich EMI recording) - for drone/hiss/sibliance at the string end)
- Violet Burning (eponymous) - dynamics/bass music

- Grant Lee Phillips - Virginia Creeper - for comfort and separation of instruments
- Black Rebel Motorcycle Club - Baby 81 - dynamics
- Indigo Girls - Nomads, Indians & Saints (acoustic)
 
Dec 13, 2009 at 9:29 PM Post #64 of 88
Rush - The Spirit of Radio: very complex song, lots of good soundstage.

Tool - Jambi: Lots of bass and mid bass.

Bob Dylan - All Along the Watchtower: If it can make Bobs harmonica sound good its a pretty good pair of phones IMO

Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell: The guitar solo's test the treble pretty well.

Pink Floyd - Echoes: 23:31 of awesome complex psychedelic music. Pair with the last chapter of 2001: A Space Odyssey for full effect.
wink.gif


And other songs I just know very well.
 
Dec 13, 2009 at 9:35 PM Post #65 of 88
For guitar riffs, the Ramones.. IMO, the SA5000 does drums the best out of all the headphones I own/owned.. The weight & impact just feels right to me.. For any instrument that I need great separation & authenticity I grab my DT48.. bass guitar, Piano solo, sax, even hand clapping.. Jazz & acoustics.
 
Dec 13, 2009 at 9:36 PM Post #66 of 88
Quote:

Originally Posted by lozanoa11 /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Rush - The Spirit of Radio: very complex song, lots of good soundstage.

Tool - Jambi: Lots of bass and mid bass.

Bob Dylan - All Along the Watchtower: If it can make Bobs harmonica sound good its a pretty good pair of phones IMO

Meat Loaf - Bat Out of Hell: The guitar solo's test the treble pretty well.

Pink Floyd - Echoes: 23:31 of awesome complex psychedelic music. Pair with the last chapter of 2001: A Space Odyssey for full effect.
wink.gif


And other songs I just know very well.


PF very hypnotic sound.
 
Dec 13, 2009 at 9:52 PM Post #68 of 88
I just play some favorite recordings, which I know to bits, in no particular order.
Steely Dan - Aja
Radiohead - OK Computer
Prince - 1999
Miles Davis - In A Silent Way
Return To Forever - Romantic Warrior

And maybe some other stuff which I know has a lot going on, like Moloko's Statues or Scofield's Uberjam. I also fire up the track Why So Serious from the Dark Knight OST, it usually helps me.
 
Dec 28, 2009 at 2:37 AM Post #69 of 88
Quote:

Originally Posted by funkyj /img/forum/go_quote.gif
Uncommon Ritual by Edgar Meyer (acoustic double bass), Bela Fleck (banjo) and Mike Marshall (guitar & mandolin) is my reference album for bass. Several tracks on this album have beautifully recorded long low growling bowed bass notes.

Not only are the musicians consumate masters but the sound engineer hit a home run on this album. This is one of my favorite recordings and it is what drove me screaming from Shure E2cs and E3cs. Finally when I tried E5cs the low bass frequencies were no longer missing.

There are also several tracks on Short Trip Home that I use for evaluating bass response. Bass wise, Short Trip Home is more or less the same at Uncommon Ritual.


Holy ***** on that Uncommon Ritual piece. I think I can hear the guy breathing on my Klipsch Image S4's. They took me aback when I realized the clarity exuding from these puppies.
 
Dec 28, 2009 at 4:49 AM Post #70 of 88
I've got an iPod (Make your judgments if you must) with 4400 songs, some of them lossless, some of them 256k and some of them that craptastic 128k. When I test headphones, I put the iPod on shuffle and just flip through random tracks. It's good to know how headphones reproduce classical, jazz, rock, blues, folk, a capella, tribal stuff, country, hip hop and Steve Martin (Steve Martin gets his own category, along with Eddy Izzard, George Carlin and Steven Wright).

Some tracks border on the sibilant. Some are muted. Some were recorded in the old days, when the drums were in one speaker and the guitars were in the other. Some tracks sound good with anything; some will probably never sound that great no matter what you throw at 'em. It's good to get a wide selection of tunes. I've got tracks that make me feel like I've got the best bass on the planet and others where I wonder what went wrong. The source material plays a huge part in what you hear.

Bose knows this, which is why they have a manual and a CD full of specially-selected tracks, tracks their people know will sound good on their phones (and great on just about anything). After going through one of those Bose tours, I went online and found the tracks used in the demo. Then, I downloaded those tunes straight off iTunes (the ones that iTunes had). When I played them on my headphones - great and small - I was surprised at how much sparkle they gave to even $4 phones.

You want to be careful about material that sounds good no matter what you're playing it on. That's the stuff that really won't help you assess the quality of a headphone. Right now, there are people walking around with a pair of Bosers strapped to their ears - and all on the basis of sparkle that came out of the right selection of tunes. It makes you hear carnival music in your sleep.
 
Dec 28, 2009 at 5:34 AM Post #71 of 88
I find that Kraftwerk is pretty decent for testing.
Their older stuff (as in their Krautrock stuff) is pretty good since theres a mix of acoustic, electronic, and electronically manipulated acoustics.
Another quality of their early stuff is the light use of heavy bass, so it's nice for testing mids, and highs (Kraftwerk 1, Kraftwerk 2 is what
I'm talking about, although Autobahn, and Radioactivity both fit this somewhat).

The work during Kratwerk's prime (Trans Europe Express, The Man Machine, and Computer world) utilizes punchy upper, and mid bass kicks, while still going pretty high up.

Kraftwerks newer material, and recent remixes of their older work goes a bit lower than the older material, or the originals (elektro kardiogram starts of pretty low). I also find that Tour De France is great because it's a very energetic album, and if it for some reason doesn't sound somewhat upbeat and energetic, somethings wrong...

As for sound stage and all that jazz, I find that those neat sounding Binaural recordings to be an interesting test for sound stage, and positional accuracy.

I also try out some String music, but that's not what I listen to regularly, so it's not something I'm too concerned about.
 
Dec 28, 2009 at 6:34 AM Post #72 of 88
I have always started with Steely Dan as my first test for any new audio equipment I get. Aja or their later Two Against Nature are great ones. Also any of Donald Fagen's solo CDs are great as well. All their recordings are excellent.
 
Dec 28, 2009 at 6:47 AM Post #73 of 88
I use songs I know well and like and then I listen for specific things within the songs that I am looking for in the headphone. Some of the songs have big bass, or midrange, or treble, or specific instruments I like, some songs will demonstrate the difference in the soundstage of a headphone. I don't think there is a specific song a person can recommend because it is up to the individual to decide what they like and why.
 
May 2, 2010 at 6:54 AM Post #75 of 88
Quote:

Originally Posted by wibowo /img/forum/go_quote.gif
hi guys... i'm wondering which music or song you guys use to test your headphones.

which song is good to test the bass response? which one is good for testing treble? mid-range? anything else?


I use what I listen to, I have a few select songs from FFDP, NiN, Metallica, etc. But overall I will go through a couple hundred songs easily testing headphones I've purchased...give them a fighting chance and then some. If they pass the "bass/treble/mid" tests yet don't sound right for your style of music, then there was no point in the tests at all. Pick something that works for your environment, comfort and tastes in music, you can't have 100% in all in a realistic budget for the masses, but you can find the best mix of all of them for your needs and budget. At least that's my opinion. Use your favorite songs as you'll know when the mids, trebel, or bass notes you enjoy from that song are performed and whether or not it's what you want. Then you can decide to invest in better equipment to drive said headphones or find something to better suit your needs with what you already have.

Yes I realize this is quite a few pages on..but just read the OP and answered it.

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