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Best songs to test speakers


Ryklipsch

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  • 5 years later...

Jeff Buckley is pretty damn awesome. The fidelity of his voice is incredible and the album Grace is regarded as one of the top 500 albums of all time by Spin and Rolling Stone If you really want to punish your speakers with bass, try Infected Mushroom. The bass is sooo deep yet still really clear. Hallucinogen, GMS, Astral Projection, and Celtic Cross are other good psy-trance/goa music with good bass and deep layered sound. I also like Joe Cocker, Pink Floyd, Dave Matthews Band, Stevie Wonder, and Aerosmith too for all around testing.

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Rickie Lee Jones first (self-titled) album on LP or CD. Songs 2, 3 and 4, Night Train, Young Blood and Easy Money have good acoustic bass, as well as interesting soundstaging with drummers at various distances and positions and moving chimes. As well, her slurred phrasing is a good test of intelligibility for any system.

For rock music, The Cure is pretty good. The Lovecats has a good acoustic bass intro, while Close to Me has an electric bass intro plus handclaps. Both songs are on The Cure Greatest Hits, along with Lullaby, which has a really deep bass line running through most of the song. Those tunes will show how realistic the system can make the music sound.

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don't overlook music DVDs. they tend to be true 5.1 where the music CDs are not. the Beattles remixed Love DVD has a lot of nice stuff.

last time I took CDs to an audio shop I took Queen's Greatest Hits for wide ranging loud stuff and a Modern Jazz Quartet CD for a quiet mix of bass, piano, vibes, and drum work that includes a lot of high cymbal tones.

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A few of the folks who made it to the last Pilgrimage might remember, Fim and the BB's, Big Notes. This is the most dynamic recording I've ever found. I've never found a speaker, Other than Klipsch, that can handle the entire range of dynamics this song can dish out.

I have to agree with Eagles DVD "When Hell Freezes over" particularly the bonus music track, "Seven Bridges Road".

Pink Floyd is ususally a good bet, and believe it or not Toby Keith's Shock N'Yall is a good one too, There's a track called " The Critic"

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Chris Rea - The Road To Hell (album)
Someone else mentioned Phil Collins - I don't care anymore - I would suggest that along with other select tracks from Face Value
Jan Hammer - Escape From Television 1.2 (album)
Craig Chaquico - Acoustic Planet (great for acoustic guitar lovers) (album)
Andreas Vollenweider - Dancing with the lion (album)
Liquid Soul - Dysfunction (track)
Anita Lyons - Mein Lippen sie Kussen so Heiss (track)
Global Village - Nobody's Business (track)
Finger 11 - Paralyzer (track)
The Cure - Lullaby (track)
Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms (track) Ride Across The River (track)
Lindsey Buckingham - Unplugged (album)
Payolas - Eyes of a Stranger (track)
Rick Leon - Theresa (track) Black Mercedes(track) 2 Stakeouts(track)

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Well if we are sharing favorite CDs and DVDs, some include:

 

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James Newton Howard & Friends

Probably the standard by which almost all other stereo CDs can be measured.  Mr. Howard is actually backed up by members of the band Toto (the Porcaro brothers and David Paich).

 

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Silver Rain by Marcus Miller

He has a recording history including David Sanborn and Miles Davis. This CD really gets your attention, but I'm a little biased with the Jubs sitting in my room. BASS, and more BASS - and this isn't hard bop--funk and soul here.

 

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Blues Singer by Buddy Guy

This one is a sleeper - acoustic blues but you should see the guys backing him, including Clapton, Keltner, B.B. King, etc.. This one grabs everyone's attention with its "in the room" feel. I'm not a blues aficionado, but this one is in my top ten for sure.

 

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Best of Chesky Jazz- Vols. 1 and 2

Well, what can I say. If you want to know what your system will do, try these. They blow away other "test CDs" I've heard.

 

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Stepping Out by Diana Krall

Wow - this one was an instant hit in our place, but I like swinging piano jazz.

 

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Something Cool by Tierney Sutton

The recorded sibilances are good on this one (female jazz vocalist).  Also try her Dancing in the Dark CD.  Her pianist is superb.

 

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Swingin' For The Fences (DVD-A) by Gordon Goodwin's Big Phat Band

The 5.1 DVD is a real treat--a true surround sound experience. This is 21st Century big band--tight and demanding of your sound system.

 

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Live in Paris - by Diana Krall (DVD-V)

I would say the word "sultry" sums this one up. By the time you get to the 10th number in their set, they've forgotten the audience and they're pumping out the improv like a locomotive.

 

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Famous Blue Raincoat - The Songs Of Leonard Cohen (Gold Edition)

Many tracks off this album are extremely good for female voice with various accompaniments. 

 

Chris

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As others have said, it is good to have test records/cds that you know well, as well as a range of sonic types. My personal list, which I just trotted out this past week to test my newly acquired KG 5.5's was:

1.Dire Straits--Brothers in Arms(LP) --good overall mix of sonic qualities.

2.Soundrack to Ska movie "Dance Craze"(LP)--good percussion mix

3.Boney James--Ride(CD)--wild range of vocals and dynamic, lots of detail on this one

4.James Taylor--JT(LP)--subtle acoustic work, nice bass, obviously lots of voice work

5 Del Amitri--Twisted(CD)--lots of dynamic shifts

I toss this list out only by way of example of how I put a mix of test tunes together. Hope that helps.

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forgot to mention Bruce Springsteen Live in Dublin. It's a cd for car testing and dvd if you are testing home audio and is quite surprising for Bruce. lots of folksy songs with a band with violins, guitars, piano, and brass including some Sousaphone stuff to test the lows. the band comes off as a cross between dixieland, country, and Klezmer. great fun even if you think it's not a perfect test vehicle for your tastes. I just got a new set of speakers installed in my car over the weekend and I listened to this cd today driving to work and was not disappointed.

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I know I am going to catch some flak for this - but just take a listen before you tear into me :)

I came home to find the wife jamming Madonna's "Confessions on a Dance Floor" album on the system - and it actually sounded pretty impressive. I took a more critical listen, and the following tracks will put some speakers through their paces, all across the spectrum. Her voice has a lot of forward presence on these tracks, and everything else on the tracks (though quite a bit of is electronic) is very tight with a lot of extreme transitions across the frequency spectrum and pretty good imaging.

Track 1 - Hung Up
Track 3 - Sorry
Track 11 - Push

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A few of the folks who made it to the last Pilgrimage might remember, Flim and the BB's, Big Notes. This is the most dynamic recording I've ever found. I've never found a speaker, Other than Klipsch, that can handle the entire range of dynamics this song can dish out.

This is a really nice one, at least on my speakers...

Chris

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