Songs to test your setup

[Flevoman]

Which CDs/songs do you use to test your set? 
Specific songs to test the bass, or to test if all instruments and vocals are properly positioned, etc.

I don't mean to just give you a list of songs that sound good on your setup, but rather songs that you specifically use to test a particular aspect of the sound in your setup and for what are you using this song. 

 

Personally, I use the song "Too Much Rope," track number 8 from the album "Amused to Death," as a guideline for speaker placement. 
You can hear a sleigh moving from completely outside the left speaker to completely outside the right speaker.
By adjusting the rotation and placement of the speakers, I try to achieve the smoothest possible transition of the sleigh from the left to the right speaker.

[MicroMara]

 

Good evening to Almere in the netherlands 😁

 

I agree , Amused to death is a great audiopile production for test purposes , but the world of music is full with audiophile productions , an endless story imo !

 

You may try for testing the hights from your set up this one

 

 

 

For an overall musical experience this one

 

 

an classic experience is this one

 

 

[the real Duke Spinner]

I will used to have a burned  CD Billy Idol  Yes. MSG

I will have to think  on this

[Ceptorman]

To impress my friends, I'll play "Don't Give Up" by Peter Gabriel, with Kate Bush singing with him. It's loaded with low end, plus Kate's voice piecing the upper end. It will test your equipment for sure, especially the bass guitar at the end.

[Iteachstem]

Stevie Ray Vaughan - Chitlins Con Carne

[Iteachstem]

 

[CCG]

8 hours ago, MicroMara said:

 

Good evening to Almere in the netherlands 😁

 

I agree , Amused to death is a great audiopile production for test purposes , but the world of music is full with audiophile productions , an endless story imo !

 

You may try for testing the hights from your set up this one

 

 

 

For an overall musical experience this one

 

 

an classic experience is this one

 

 

Love the selections. The time when Kool and the Gang are making real classic albums. #3 song brings out the 300b sound.

[Flevoman]

Nice, I see a few interesting songs to listen to myself.
But I wasn't referring to songs that sound good, but rather songs we use to test our setup 😉

Which songs do you use as test songs, and what exactly are you testing with these songs?

[Flevoman]

9 hours ago, MicroMara said:

 

Good evening to Almere in the netherlands

 

Who betrayed this!!!!... 😡😉

[MicroMara]

1 hour ago, Flevoman said:

 

Who betrayed this!!!!... 😡😉

Ask @Travis In Austin  😂 he got friends in the netherlands as well ...btw ...the globe > the continents >europe<netherland>germany>Almere > Witten is approx 280 km distance only 😉

[MicroMara]

1 hour ago, Flevoman said:

Nice, I see a few interesting songs to listen to myself.
But I wasn't referring to songs that sound good, but rather songs we use to test our setup 😉

Which songs do you use as test songs, and what exactly are you testing with these songs?

honestly speaking @Flevoman .....I gave up testing anykind of tracks , I just listen to the music , whatever it is ..and enjoy it . After more than 45 years dealing with hifi / or high end I´m tired of anykind of audio listening tests as well as technical discussion w/in a forum. Hair splitting unlimited is guaranteed 😂 

[Flevoman]

51 minutes ago, MicroMara said:

btw ...the globe > the continents >europe<netherland>germany>Almere > Witten is approx 280 km distance only 😉

🤜🤛 ... Hi neighbour !!..
But yeah , that's also a way how you can see things.
Perhaps some day i will be at this same point , but not for now 😉

[Klipschtastic]

The Chain-Fleetwood Mac

Can hear the decay on the strings, lots of bass dynamics present as well

playing God-Polyphelia

Has it all, heavy bass, layering of instruments 

one Night in Bangkok-Murray Head

I would call it ambiance, lots of eighties synth effects floating around

Sara-Hall and Oates 

Great sound, clean recording, taught bass, not sure, just like it

Perhaps Perhaps-Cake

Horns with dynamic hits, gravelly male vocals should have body, fun song

cranium-Slothrust

deep bass, female vocals, dynamic swings

Alice In Chains Unplugged-great live recording. Do you feel like you’re there?

Any Led Zepplin-I love the way the drums sound on Klipsch, dynamic and big, plus everything else IDK…lol

[Flevoman]

15 minutes ago, Klipschtastic said:

The Chain-Fleetwood Mac

playing God-Polyphelia

one Night in Bangkok-Murray Head

Sara-Hall and Oates

Perhaps Perhaps-Cake

cranium-Slothrust

Any Led Zepplin

And what are you testing in your setup when using these songs? 

[billybob]

Like to use music I already know to hear the difference between speakers.

[Klipschtastic]

45 minutes ago, Flevoman said:

And what are you testing in your setup when using these songs? 

Edited post to explain. Not too good with audio vernacular but tried. 

[KT88]

I was a stage hand in the 80s alongside my university training. I worked in a team that set up rock concerts in the biggest halls and football stadiums in North Rhine-Westphalia, Cologne, Dortmund, etc. I helped to build the stages for all the famous bands and musicians of that time. Even then I was very interested in audio and so I specialised to help setting up the sound system. At that time everything was still analogue but the sound was often impressively very good! I especially remember the sound of Lionel Ritchie, Prince, Deep Purple, U2 and many other artists. The sound was in its way more "real" and fuller than today's line arrays with their digital technology and their often more sterile sound. Maybe it's just nostalgia because I was young and life was good. But we never had as much compression as we have today. And it sounded like a "stadium" and not like a "hi-fi system". 

On the subject, what impressed me very much was that no matter which team set up the PA, it was mostly UK teams, only the stage equipment was at US artists US teams with 110 volt equipment, the PA teams always! really always had two songs as a test of the PA system, no matter from which brand the PA was and no matter in which venue. The good sounding PA systems were from Turbo Sound, Clair Brothers, Meyers and some more. The only digital device was a Sony discman to check the overall sound by playing music before the sound check started with the bands. 

The two songs were: "The happiest days of our life" by Pink Floyd from the album „The Wall“, with the helicopter and the loud staccato from the band. They were testing the dynamics, the pressure, the authority of the sound. The other song that was really always played as a reference was "IGY" by Donald Fagen.  It showed the transparency of the sound, the different layers, the clarity of the mix and so on. It's still one of the best recorded songs and also good for checking hi-fi systems, I know it by heart.

 

Today my references for classical music are Murray Perahia, the Bach keyboard concertos, because his right hand sounds breathtakingly powerful on the UJ, then Ann Sophie Mutter, Brahms violin concerto. For jazz still Art Farmer with Benny Golson "It Ain't necessarily so", from 1960. not a high end recording but I know it. I know the sound structure of many 1960s recordings. They sound better on heritage speakers than on modern hi-fi speakers anyway.
For rock music, I like to use the studio recording of Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water". Depending on the system, the drums can sound normal and unspectacular, but a really good system shows the rhythmic tension and the super timing of Ian Paice on the drums.

[Bubo]

CD version should be very plucky, the entire lp is....

 

 

[willland]

Just about any Steely Dan especially the album Aja.

 

[CCG]