News Be a part of What Hi-Fi?'s Ultimate Audiophile Playlist

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Dire straits, sultans of swing.
As soon as the song kicks off it gets me everytime.
Love it, great rhythm, great drums, great guitar solo, whats not to love!

 

[Paz]

Nick Drake Pink Moon.

 

[MarkDerb]

Never Going Back Again - Fleetwood Mac. I appreciate it doesn't full exercise all of your speakers components given its just voice and guitar, but it's always my go-to, and impresses most listeners.

 

[WELLDAFT]

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Hello What Hi-Fi? Community!


As you may know, What Hi-Fi? updates our official playlist with a new selection of the music we've been listening to (and testing with) in the past month. As a forum launch celebration, we’re asking the community to put forward songs to add to our official Ultimate audiophile playlist.


🎵 Getting involved is super simple, just post a title of your song (one per member), and a description as to why it’s a good recording. We’ll find it on Tidal and handle the rest.


🎧The rules for our playlist are that you can only post once, and we can’t have the same artist twice, so make sure you pick the best song for the playlist.


To have a look at some of the tracks we’ve chosen previously, we’ve linked to them below. Happy listening!

To listen to the playlist via the streaming service of your choice, just click on the relevant link below to load up on new music.

Listen: What Hi-Fi? Spotify playlist 2019

Listen: What Hi-Fi? Tidal playlist December 2019

Listen: What Hi-Fi? Deezer playlist December 2019

Listen: What Hi-Fi? Qobuz playlist December 2019

We’re looking forward to hearing what you are listening to!

Future Community Team🎼

I'd like to propose a favourite track of mine , The title track of a GREAT album
Jennifer Warnes
The Hunter
The Strings, The Bass, and the voice is all so well balanced, the obsessive approach to making albums Jennifer Warnes is renowned for shines through , a magnificent track, and sounds so great played through my Marantz MCR 6011 and Eltax speakers.

 

[MortalWombatUK]

Desire, by Talk Talk on the album Spirit of Eden. An evocation of all that music can do, and a workout for any serious HiFi!

 

[Gizward]

Tides by Nitin Sawhney I listen to every time I'm auditioning new hifi if this track doesn't move me it's a no go from me

 

[Thomasbhartwell]

Eyecration Text by Nile (from In Their Darkened Shrines)...superb and creative metal, with a hugely dense production. If your system can make sense of this track it’s a good one!

 

[Felix442]

Over and Over by Hot Chip, fantastic separation and should give your speakers a work out, also a great track

 

[crgoodwin]

Shofukan, by Snarky Puppy from the album, “We Like It Here”. Why? First, superb musicianship. Second, the recording was made with all the band playing together; the subtle dynamics are a there because the musicians are interacting with each other. Third, the incredible range of instruments, dense percussion, very deep and musical bass, horns, and an otherwise dense sound field make it a great recording for testing the full range and resolution of your speakers.

 

[TONYBURKE62]

I've been immersing myself in Master Quality reissues of classic albums on Tidal for a few months now, and few albums sound as fresh as Stevie Wonder's brilliant streak of album releases in the early 70s, so I would nominate Living for the City from Innervisions ; great to listen to on headphones with all of the NYC street sounds etc. as well as the layered synths, but it's Stevie's vocals and the drums that make it such a great audiophile experience

 

[Woody]

I vote for Radiohead - Exit Music (For a Film)
It's beautiful & haunting with great dynamic range & detail.

 

[HeavyCoolLounge]

"Leave It" by Yes, from 90125 - It's got a lot of elements that would ably demonstrate the powers of any battleship, including some acapella, strong bassy drums, heavy fuzz guitar riffs, some virtuoso guitar playing. This has been my test track over the last seven years for all things audio.

 

[nStefanin]

My vote goes to:
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Tin Pann Alley (AKA Roughest Place in Town)

 

[Arimandel4]

Adele - When We Were Young (live at the Church Stidios)

 

[Moppit]

This sounds amazing on ANY hifi and the sense of space and dynamics improve as your hifi does. Grab a large scotch/lemonade etc. sit back and enjoy...turn up loud...

Fink - 'Troubles what you're in' from their live album 'Wheels turn beneath my feet"

 

[wonderob]

Golden Lady - Stevie Wonder is just gorgeous!

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NA6OCGLCUec

 

[polkadotmouse]

12” mix of Rotation by Herb Alpert. I used to soundcheck it when I was a club DJ many years ago. Multi-layered & totally unforgiving

 

[DCarmi]

Time - Pink Floyd
Highs, lows and complexity, which will provide a great aural test.

 

[Dragonfly]

Pink Floyd comfortably numb

 

[Dragonfly]

Neil Young crimes in the city

 

[Dragonfly]

Temptations Papa was a rolling stone
Morrissey Every day is like Sunday
GLADYS KNIGHT help me make it through the night

 

[davidlazera]

This was hard but if it has to be only one I suggest Heaven by Emma Ruth Rundle.

This song starts with Emma's amazing vocals and wonderful handling of the acoustic guitar. Throughout the track there is a constant increase of depth with the introduction of drums and eventually the electric guitar. In my opinion it is full bodied track that pushes any system...as long as it is a lossless version!

 

[Yggdrazil]

My nomination is "Gods of War Arise" with Amon Amarth. The song features various tempo changes and have different passages of gituar solos and drum solos. The song sounds terrible on low end equipment as the growling vocals mashes together with the drums and other instruments, however on a more high end system the instrumental separation is truly wonderful.

 

[lacuna]

Epica - "Design Your Universe (A New Age Dawns, Part VI)"

This is the title track from Epica's Design Your Universe album from 2009. The album is superb throughout but the final track is the crown jewel.

The song is a general indictment of the human condition of extreme greed, vanity and ignorance towards the cost of this but also that it isn't too late for individual realisation and change.

Anyway, the song starts with an acoustic guitar that builds slowly with an orchestral backing to the heavy guitars and drums at Epica's core. Vocals are, as always, lead by the operatic Simone Simons with a backing choir for the chorus. The sound is energetic, powerful and thought provoking throughout. Obviously the key here is that it is a great demonstrator for a good system with some incredible low frequencies; the drum hit before the choir kicks in with the chorus will leave you breathless at reference levels. There are dramatic changes in pace and scale that will give any system a good workout.

Epica have an excellent history for recording quality and were early adopters of the SACD format (although sadly didn't continue with it.

This track may be a little challenging for some but I think it is definitely worthy of the playlist

-Chris

 

[DavidTunstall]

The first CD I heard on a decent hifi system 30+ years ago still has the ability to send shivers through me.
O Euchari from the album 'Feather on the Breath of God'. Music by abbess Hildegard if Bingen.
Pure voices, superbly recorded.
The CD players were about £600+ if I remember right 😧