[HockeySavants]

What music do you use when you are comparing headphones or tuning your headphones?
 
 
Years and years of listening to Dave Matthews Band, I find myself using "Before These Crowded Streets" an an excellent reference for tuning my speakers or headphones.  Not just an amazing album, but has a fine mix or high and low frequencies.
 
 

 
 
"Bass" are not actually designed to overpower the bass, but to ensure the cleanest but highest output of bass is possible.
 
"Conservo" is my 'conservative' setting which is ideal a flatter sound (primarily with my Vinyl recordings).
 
the "Vocals" is an exaggerated setting I use only for podcasts.
 
 
 
Here's what my MDR-7506 "Bass" EQ setting looks like:
 
(Call me crazy, but I've been using this for years)
 

 
 
For vocals I use:  "Ave Maria" - Maria Callas.  Best rendition of Ave Maria, and her Mezzo Soprano voice is perfect for anything vocals.
 
For Bass:  "All is Full of Love" - Björk and "Remain Nameless" - Florence + The Machine. Both have ridiculous bass which make Dre Beats distort so bad it's hilarious.  On my 7506s and V6s it remains clean.
 
For live performance:   MTV Unplugged are excellent, Florence + The Machine, Maná, Eric Clapton have all recorded fine live albums.
 
And yes, the V6s do infact sound different from the 7506s which is why I have several different EQ sets.

 

[RPGWiZaRD]

I use random songs assuming I know they are well enough mastered/recorded (I mean not abruptly . My ability to EQ based on listening to music has picked up so well at this point I don't need to get familiar with any specific tracks to know how I should EQ. When all music I listen to sounds good, then I know it's the right setting (the "golden middlepath" which is always my aim).
 
I'm still debating whether or not to pick up a hardware 31 band EQ or not though, for some1 like me I'm sure it could come handy but doesn't feel like Q40 would need it that much for my taste but it's hard to find that ideal FR to yourself when upgrading and I'm almost surely gonna find headphones I'm upgrading to sound good in some aspects but not necessarily having that ideal balance to me, then the hardware EQ would make it much easier to find headphones sounding to your liking, one less factor to worry about.