What is your audio equipment testing song?

Background to question: Just got the Phoebus soundcard and a Shure SRH940 headphone and have been trying to test the sound quality with multiple songs, movies, games.

What do you listen to when you want to test your audio equipment?

What song do you feel helps you test your highs, mids, lows, sound stage etc. ?

 

I mostly listen to metal, I'll dabble in other stuff but yeah metal. Most metal has godawful quality, but there are a couple of bands who do it correctly. I don't have a particular song per se, but pretty much anything from Katatonia, Riverside, some Opeth albums is what comes to mind. Specific songs, hmmmmm Riverside's Parasomnia comes to mind a song with highs, lows, atmospheric space and stuff that is recorded really damn well imo. So I'd choose that if I had too.

 

Klassik....High quality klassik music..Cause there u can really check it out what the diff is..

But only High quality..or FLAC..like here for example:

here u can dll test samples..

klassik has teh most impact on a sound system i think..in terms of quality and high tones, silentness and mid´s..

For my Bass, well i take those bass test samples...there are more then enough to find on google..mostly i use teh so so Def bass allstars Flac´s...

also i use the RightMark Audio Analyzer, it does give u a lot of information and nice test sounds for pretty much all hz - khz and more..

greetz BetA

 

One good way to get great bass etc. is,believe it or not, old disco music. Disco music was all about pounding bass. The more the dance floor vibrated,the better. I remember that stuff.

 

Not what I was looking for in this thread. I wanted more personal preference rather than technical how to test.

 

Beck - Sea Change album in SACD format, using foobar's sacd plugin

regards,
RagDoll.

 

whatever song you're personally well familiar with so it depends

 

You are the winner, your the only person who gave the kind of answer I was looking for.

I recently found out that the Lord of the Rings soundtrack Bag Ends song has a lot of sneaky sounds that are great for testing highs and lows. That is my new test song.

 

I only really use specific songs to test for good bass response, the rest of my collection is used to verify how mid/treble sound.
I use loads of bass test tracks, here are a few:

Enya - Watermark
Enya - Longships
Limp Bizkit - My way
Mish Mash - Speechless
Chemical Brothers - Golden Path
Caliber Subwoofer test CD - Track 2
Republica - Drop Dead Gorgeous
Superman Lovers - Starlight
War of The Worlds - Track 5 (of a particular remix, I've heard other versions too)
Morcheeba - Who Can You Trust
Floyd - Sorrow
And of course, a good old Sine sweep.

Female vocals (edit: and guitar) I find are best for testing mid range and high definition tracks for treble.

 

Cool, yeah that album (Beck-Sea Change) has alot of everything, so it's a good all round test album. Also, it's in multi channel so it really tests the whole system. I might get that LOTR soundtrack aswell

regards,
RagDoll.

 

Any track from Dream Theater's Awake album; "6:00" in particular is a great reference track. Very well mastered. Also, Star One's live album, Live on Earth, is good for testing soundstage and overall sound quality.

 

Good list there Mufflore.

I just swapped out my Motherboard this past week so I barfed my sound card and had to reinstall it so that meant redoing my EQ's Again.

My "Go To Songs" usually end up being:

Amon Tobin "Sordid"
Amon Tobin "Get Your Snack On"
Björk "Human Behaviour"
Aphex Twin "Xtal"
Mystery Machine "Brand New Song"

 

I use albums from:
- Andrea Bocelli
- Susan Wong
- Kenny G
Also
- Rachmaninoff Piano concertos
- Vivaldi Four Seasons
- Handel Messiah

 

I am kind of supprised that people test with whole albums and not just specific songs

 

I kind of surprised that you think people listen to the whole songs in an album when they mention testing with that album. My favorite test song in Andrea Bocelli's album is Besame Mucho, but I also use many other songs in that album. Mentioning them one by one is too much typing..

 

My favorite "song" to "test" with is Sandstorm from Darude....dunno why, but I love that track. There's just something about the feel of the "song". Also use "Diamond Eyes" from Shinedown as well as "Never too Late" from Three Days Grace and "Dirty Road Anthem" from Jason Aldean....and "Somebody that I used to know" from Gotye. Occassionally I'll use "Don't you wanna stay", the Jason Aldean & Kelly Clarkson duet. Yeah yeah, laugh.... I'm not biased. I'll listen to anything if the instrumental/lyrics sound good to me.

 

Holy crap, I was just going to post that tune! I'm no hardcore audiophile, and I haven't listened to Awake in ages (huge DT fan though), but I always think of that album when the subject of great mixes/masters comes up. "Caught in a Web" and "Scarred" also sound incredible.

Another band with amazing sounding albums is A Perfect Circle. I especially love their drum sound - check "The Noose", "Blue", and "Orestes" - lush stuff.

 

The vinyl edition of Mastodon's Crack The Skye. No, seriously... I don't really keep a list of "good test songs" because it's more or less pointless IMO, anyway.

 

Pink Floyd...Dark Side Of The Moon

 

^ Yeah, the original stereo mix of it seems to be a popular choice. The 24/96 version that's on the Blu Ray of the Immersion Box Set sounds great IMO (and so does Wish You Were Here).