[moeburn]

When you first test a fresh built amp, which album/song do you put on?

 

[Garbz]

Depends on what i'm in the zone to listen to. But i usually throw on just a few of my most overplayed songs that i really know the ins and outs of.

Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture (telarc)
Tchaikovsky - Fantasy Overture (Vienna Symphony Orchestra)
Pink Floyd - Hey you (from The Wall MFSL master)
Crash Test Dummies - Afternoons and Coffeespoons
Diana Krawll - Girl in the other room & peel me a grape.

From that i normally get an idea whether i like the equipment or not since it covers most of my usual listening.

 

[diredesire]

Any of my recent favorite songs.
I use Keane - bedshaped as a benchmark sometimes, it's got some reverberant highs and some pretty low/tight bass hits that can sound sloppy coming from some phones.

 

[AtomBoy]

Super Furry Animals - Rings Around The World has lots of diferent types of distortion and a very wide range of sounds. There are some songs I thought were pure fuzz until I got better cans. Every improvement in my rig brings out new details in this CD- and SFA just rocks!

 

[pabbi1]

The Who - Quadrophenia

 

[sbelyo]

Cake- Fasion Nugget

 

[Jazper]

Usually play snippets of things, randomly choosing.

Though most of the time an amp needs to warm up before I start playing stuff on it.

Metallica - For whom the bell tolls (from S&M) is probably one I play regularly as a test track

 

[chrisfromalbany]

Welcome to this World - Primus.

Now is this isn't a challeging piece for a headphones. I don't know what is..

 

[headchange4u]

For bass I use: Gomez - Ping One Down and Army Dub from the In our Gun album

When I test for performance with rock music about any Tool album will do.

Most of my other testing is done with Allison Krauss - New favorite. One of the best engineered albums I have ever heard.

 

[Porksoda]

Opeth - Bleak
For smoothness of highs and ability to resolve instruments clearly.

Opeth - Blackwater Park
For "immersiveness", impact, acoustic guitar presentation, and overall balance. Also it's just an awesome song

Rush - Moving Pictures (the entire album)
For midrange, vocals and general presentation

Sepultura - Dead Embryonic Cells and
Nevermore - Dead Heart in a Dead World
For midbass impact and definition

Nevermore - Narcosynthesis
"Can it make me do the heavy metal salute?" (Dynamics and Impact)

Symphony X - V (the entire album)
Guitar presentation

G. Holst - The Planets - Neptune, The Mystic
Smoothness, blending of instruments, sonic character

Rimsky-Korsakov - Polonaise
Blending of instruments

Prokofiev - Symphony No. 1
Timing and lightness

 

[Jam_Master_J]

They change alot but anyway here's a couple:

Tori Amos - Gold Dust (vocals, strings, intimacy)
Loreena McKennit - The Mystics Dream (vocals, dynamics, bass, transients)
Zakk Wylde - Sold My Soul(average recording, general rockability)
Michael Jackson - Billie Jean (highs, focus)
Extreme - More than Words (focus, soundstage, vocals)
Pantera - Walk ("make you get up and shout" -edness)

 

[moeburn]

For the quick crunchy trebly rock guitar, I use Tool's Aenema, or Nirvana's Very Ape. For bass I use Chili Peppers - Road Trippin, only because I love that song.

But what test is complete without Requiem For Mozart

 

[SiuGuyGuy]

I will put some mono recordings to test if the amp's 2 channels are running well first. Mostly I will choose my mono Heifetz RCA Collection.

If nothing go wrong, then I will put my Beethoven sym no.9 collection

 

[mfueger]

For testing I like songs I know every second of. That would include the complex and demanding John Scofield and Dire Straits.

 

[JimmyDean]

Vinyl rips of -

Ted Nugent - Stranglehold

Yes - Round About

Bright Eyes - We are Nowhere and its Now

Her Space Holiday - Japanese Gum