Audiophile test tunes?

[Deleted member 160668]

Hi,

anyone have any recommendations for decent tracks to put speakers through their paces....

Some delicious vocal, some punchy bass, some spine-tingling sound?

just about to change speakers and want some pre/post tunes to use. Will of course exercise my own music with vigour but keen to hear if any anyone has reference test tunes you use?

thanks.

 

[busb]

Hi,

anyone have any recommendations for decent tracks to put speakers through their paces....

Some delicious vocal, some punchy bass, some spine-tingling sound?

just about to change speakers and want some pre/post tunes to use. Will of course exercise my own music with vigour but keen to hear if any anyone has reference test tunes you use?

thanks.

Yes - the music you like listening to! Mostly good recordings but a couple that you love but are poor recordings. I see little point in recommending particular "audiophile" tracks of music you may not ever listen to or like.

 

[keeper of the quays]

Anything by mike Oldfield...or classical? Anything on LSO live label..decca also produce fine recordings as do BIS recordings..if you have a charity shop near you? There's usually a naim test cd amongst the cds..

 

[MajorFubar]

You asked what you assumed would be a simple question, but the complication is there's no point anyone recommending music you don't already know. For example my go-to album to test any new equipment is China by Vangelis. I know that album so well that all I have to do is listen to it on any system to know everything I'll ever need to know about how that system will sound with pretty much every other piece of music I throw at it, even though I have eclectic tastes from jazz through popular classical to rock. But if you or anyone else don't already know that album inside out, then using it as a reference is completely pointless.

 

[Bradley747]

for the love of god

 

[spiny norman]

for the love of god

By...?

 

[Bradley747]

Sonny Boy Nelson...

Its the spine tingling bass that does it for me

 

[spiny norman]

Its the spine tingling bass that does it for me

Trouser-flapping, surely?

 

[Al ears]

for the love of god

By...?

Jesus Christ?

 

[Bradley747]

Big JC certainly covered it I know that...

 

[expat_mike]

Its the spine tingling bass that does it for me

Trouser-flapping, surely?

As Andrew would say! *biggrin*

 

[Al ears]

To be serious I don't think there is such a thing as audiophile test records. I know which I use but it's not going to do any good suggesting them to you.

I think the Major hit the nail on the head. When it comes to ideal test pieces you really need to be looking at a) something that is very well recorded and covers the full frequency range, and b) something you are very familiar with.

That's about it. You may need several pieces from different genres to cover that.

 

[lpv]

To be serious I don't think there is such a thing as audiophile test records.

you're totally wrong Al ears... pink noise, norah jones, white noise, dire straits, sweep sine tone and diana krall it's audiophiles bread and butter.

 

[Al ears]

To be serious I don't think there is such a thing as audiophile test records.

you're totally wrong Al ears... pink noise, norah jones, white noise, dire straits, sweep sine tone and diana krall it's audiophiles bread and butter.

No I am not.

Only if you know what Nora Jones et al are actually meant to sound like otherwise they tell you nothing. I will give you Jones and Krall recordings are normally high quality.

Pink noise or any other can hardly tell you if the system is a good one. White noise I can get from my TV...... totally meaningless!

 

[Bradley747]

for the love of god...

 

[Al ears]

for the love of god...

That as well..... But it will not help you test a systems performance.

 

[spiny norman]

As Andrew would say! *biggrin*

Is he known for wearing flares?

 

[spiny norman]

for the love of god...

Again? Is this some kind of ABX test?

 

[busb]

for the love of god...

On continuous repeat?

I like pink noise - it has more bass than white! To the OP - if not music you like, music you know well (hopefully the same thing). The reason for my original suggestion of also listening to something poorly recorded that you like is so you can judge how a system reacts to poor SQ - some systems don't suffer such recordings very graceously, others are not so bad. It would have helped if you had given a few hints to what sort of music floats your boat apart from spine-tingling.

 

[expat_mike]

Hopefully there are some interesting test tracks within this just started thread, listing the tracks members have found that demonstrate the capabilities of their Chord Mojos, to the maximum.

http://www.head-fi.org/t/802832/mojos-greatest-hits

i don't have a Mojo, but i still intend to try some of the tracks to test my gear.

 

[expat_mike]

As Andrew would say! *biggrin*

Is he known for wearing flares?

Well he did write "Over the course of many years of listening, I’ve got used to having to work hard to nail down the differences between different speakers: they’re usually easy enough to hear, once you’ve run some familiar tracks through a couple of times, but putting them into words is the tricky bit. And that’s especially true of you’re also trying to avoid falling back on some of the lazier reviewing clichés, from ‘trouser-flapping bass’ (which surely went out when loon pants were abandoned some time around the mid-1970s, but I guess may have been revived when chinos came back in) to windows being cleaned and flung open."

 

[BIGBERNARDBRESSLAW]

some punchy bass

I'm not really a fan of Michael Jackson, but if the part of the track 'Thriller' when the bass kicks in doesn't make your draw drop, there's something lacking somewhere in your system. Deep and punchy bass it most certainly is.

 

[spiny norman]

Well he did write "Over the course of many years of listening, I’ve got used to having to work hard to nail down the differences between different speakers: they’re usually easy enough to hear, once you’ve run some familiar tracks through a couple of times, but putting them into words is the tricky bit. And that’s especially true of you’re also trying to avoid falling back on some of the lazier reviewing clichés, from ‘trouser-flapping bass’ (which surely went out when loon pants were abandoned some time around the mid-1970s, but I guess may have been revived when chinos came back in) to windows being cleaned and flung open."

I see. I think he was probably alluding to some of the descriptions we used to see in hi-fi magazines of the 70s and 80s, when a few of the 'greats' were writing for the magazines, and which still crop up in some reviews to these days.

 

[expat_mike]

Well he did write "Over the course of many years of listening, I’ve got used to having to work hard to nail down the differences between different speakers: they’re usually easy enough to hear, once you’ve run some familiar tracks through a couple of times, but putting them into words is the tricky bit. And that’s especially true of you’re also trying to avoid falling back on some of the lazier reviewing clichés, from ‘trouser-flapping bass’ (which surely went out when loon pants were abandoned some time around the mid-1970s, but I guess may have been revived when chinos came back in) to windows being cleaned and flung open."

I see. I think he was probably alluding to some of the descriptions we used to see in hi-fi magazines of the 70s and 80s, when a few of the 'greats' were writing for the magazines, and which still crop up in some reviews to these days.

Yes.

 

[knaithrover]

1 album I tend to use is the Flaming Lips:Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots - drum and bass symphonies which stretch any system/speakers. I used to use Abbey Road but realised that it was so exquisitely produced it sounded great on anything..