| Artist | Track | What I listen for | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Daniel Licht | Dishonored 2 Main Theme | Details in the strings | |
| - | Music From Warbringers: Jaina | Detail in vocals | |
| - | Zankyou No Terror: Alois | Accuracy of snare hits | As per Z’s recommendation |
| Airbourne | Breakin’ Outta Hell | ||
| Bad Wolves | Zombie | Distinguishabilitiy between vocals and instruments | |
| Battles | Atlas | - | Not sure why it is in here, it just is |
| - | Warcraft: Howling Fjord | Needs to sound wide and open | Was a pain to rip from the games code dead hands |
| Céline Dion | Ashes | Dynamic range | Is it just me, or are there some recording goofs in there? |
| Delta Heavy | Ghost | Bass should not drown out vocals | |
| Depeche Mode | Welcome to my World | Bass response | |
| Dire Straits | Brothers in Arms | The guitar needs to feel right | Gives me goosebumps every time! |
| Embrace | All You Good Good People | - | Another one of the “What for?”-category |
| Feint/CoMa | Snake Eyes | Bass should not drown out vocals | |
| George Winston | Variations on the Kanon by Pachelbel | High to low range | |
| I Ching | Young Girls Heart | ||
| Jack Wall | Mass Effect Galaxy Map Theme | Keep the frequencies sorted apart | Such a nice piece of music! |
| Jack Wall/Sam Hulick | Vigil | Needs to sound open and deep | If space had a theme… |
| Jefferson Airplane | Somebody To Love | Needs to sound “broken” in certain parts | |
| Jeffrey Foucault | 4&20 Blues | - | |
| John Lee Hooker | The Healer | ||
| John Lee Hooker | Sally Mae | ||
| Johnny Cash | Further Up The Road | Warm guitar sound | |
| Justin Johnson | Birth of the Golden Shovel | Long metalic echoes | |
| Justin Johnson | Wade In The Waterl | Distorted guitar sounds | Some headphones just can’t play dirty enough |
| - | Making of Cyborg | Drum hits should not drown out the rest | |
| - | Welcome to Planet URF | Bass test | |
| London Grammar | Hey Now | How high and low does the headphone go? | |
| Lorn | Acid Rain | Deep vibrating bass | |
| Meri the LapisDemon | Loss | ||
| Mick Gordon | Rip&Tear | - | My headphones will see a lot of metal in their life |
| Mick Gordon | At Doom’s Gate | - | see above |
| Mick Gordon | BFG Division | - | see above |
| Nigel Stanford | Cymatics | Needs to sound warm and cold in different places | |
| Nightwish | Storytime | Detail in the microphone clipping | Yes, realy! |
| Nightwish | Over The Hills and Far Away | ||
| Ogre/Dallas Campbell | Beginnings of Decay | Bass test the 3rd | |
| Patty Gurdy | Game of Thrones Theme | Clicks of the gurdy, the sound of the trumpet strings and some other detail | The way GOT’s intro should have sounded |
| Paul Leonard-Morgan | Mega City One | - | Another test for how dirty a headphone can play |
| Scala & Kolacny Brothers | California Dreamin’ | Does this sound like standing in front of the choir? | |
| The Secession | We’ll End this War | Highs and lows | |
| The Secession | Ash | ||
| The White Buffalo | House of the Rising Sun | - | My favourite interpretation of the song |
| Xtigma | Crash City | - | Another bass test, not sure if there is a good version on YouTube. |
| Yosi Horikawa | Letter | All the detail | Another one I picked up from Z |
11 Likes
that makes sense, i did hear from steve guttenberg that even indie rock or other indie underground artists who you would traditionally think to have good recordings have actually gotten worse. the recordings that is. Well with english music, theres some great recordings right now going on in korea, not sure about mexico. Im curious about japan, since theres alot of good music there but i don’t have any particular japanese music that sounds nice and dynamic
My test tracks:
Ludovico Einaudi - Run or Expirience (Instrument timber/tone test)
Nujabes - Luv Sic Part 3 (nice simple test beat)
Leessang - 출사표 (dosent have an english name to my knowledge) (phenomenal dynamic range generally dynamic beat)
The Strokes - Ize of the world (String seperation and guitar solo)
soundstage imaging and micro detail
just for imaging
for that deep bass
for timbre
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Actual test albums with test tracks.
- Emma audio tests
- Focal Competition Sacd
- High-End Audiophile Test Demo Sacd
- Omnimic Test Tracks
Some Music that i like to test systems:
Bass Mekanik, Basstronics
Amy Macdonald, Madonna, M + J Jackson, Jojo, Kari Bremnes, Katie Melua, Metallica, Warriyo, Brandom Heal, HIM & Ville Valo, FFDP, Deadmau5, Nightwish, Leonard Cohen,
Hundreds of songs, too lazy to list the most listened.
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Stereo test I swear the bw2 ost is the ost that plays with the channels the most. This track goes to EXTREME, but it can get crazy with constant channel switching such as this one
Most of the earthbound ost for bass test because I realised with my 58x that it’s a relatively bassy ost, but my favorite track notably gets A LOT better with bass and it’s sanctuary guardian which will constantly thump in the background.
I have many instruments separation test tracks, but the most notable one is this one from the second paper mario game because it’s very catchy and it comes from my favorite ost so i heard it MANY times.
For soundstage test, this one is odd, but when I listened to it on my hd 598 (which really was my first good headphone), I realised the soundstage went WAAAAAY out there so I am curious how my stuff sounds with it since. I still don’t exactly know why a NES song would do this effect, but it is neat to listen to on a good song! Honorable mention goes to the original flatzone song from ssbm
One REALLY good stress test song for whether my gears has murderous highs or not is Maridia from super metroid which first off, it’s kind of picky in terms of quality because if you research this song and you end up on a bad rip, you WILL notice it (the one I linked seemed decent). The main thing with this song however is the highs are EVER SO CLOSE to murder, but they don’t really reach it so a good headphone would reproduce the clarity very well. One honorable mention which I like because it’s one of the simplest track to exist is drought from pokemon gen 3 This one, you might notice sounds harsh on this link and it’s because I can’t find a good rip on youtube, the ONLY version I didn’t find harsh is the ALAC one from itunes that you can buy. So it’s picky AND has very high notes.
For overall test (so just a song to test a lot at once), the classic theme from bejeweled 3 (very underrated ost btw) is my favorite because it lasts for 9 minutes and has multiple phases with different mood in each of them.
Though imo, the best test you can give to your current gear is a long listening session to the majority of your library.
4 Likes
It actually is funny when this type of topics popup.
It’s like maybe under 3% out of answers, people actually use Test songs or albums that are designed to test your system. They are extremely well recorded in studios and different tracks test different aspects and things by actual sound engineers and so on.
Wondering why people don’t use them more since that’s what they are designed for?
They aren’t fun to listen but they are tests for testing purposes.
The most funny comments are those that actually use Youtube as their reference and source material for testing. I just find this funny.
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Well for me, it’s more because the one thing I am the most curious on is does it changes the tracks I listen to a lot? Sure, it might not be the most exhaustive, but it does show me immediate differences. Also, I don’t really use yt for this, I have higher quality versions of the stuff I linked, but yeah, though I will say, yt I think is 192kbps and I tried a while ago to AB myself and it was almost impossible to tell so it mostly depends on the original source that was uploaded…which unfortunately varies wildly.
Depends what you are trying to achieve when testing.
I don’t use play lists, I generally play tracks I’m familiar with and enjoy, because I care what the headphones sound like on those tracks.
I’ll admit I A/B anything new I get listening to the same tracks over and over.
If I hear something specific in the sound signature I either like or don’t like, I’ll move to a track that I think will highlight it.
The big test for anything I get though is if I choose to use it after the “testing” phase.
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Cause that. I link to YouTube so people who don’t know the song can listen. I have everything stored on my computer.
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You would not want to watch hours of test images on TV to marvel at the resolution and color reproduction, would you?
When I find a way to upload the surface of vinyl or a CD to the forum, I will let you know. 
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That’s the thing. I would look a test image and have but as you may know… or do not?
Screen calibration, color settings etc does not take very long.
Listening and testing to different things, setups etc does.
So totally different thing.
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Well testing or “testing” also mean 2 totally different things to dif. people.
True testing usually ain’t that fun. Well i like to find and focus on “flaws or errors” as to say.
After fixing those, you can actually start to have fun and listening song you know.
Works completly different.
It is a matter of mapping input bit patterns to X and Y to represent the same color as the images contain.
If you were to do the same for audio (oversimplified):
frequency = 0b00000000; //2^8 frequencies possible
volume = 0b0000; //2^8 volume levels possible
while(frequency < 0b11111111){
while(volume < 0b11111111){
playTone(volume, frequency);
volume + 1;
}
frequency + 1;
}Edit: So you would listen to volume sweeps for each possible frequency, honestly, I would rather stuff a glowing needle down my ear…
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HAH!
I would be happy invite you to a testing session with sweeps.
Shall i heat up the needle red hot also and what size you usually like? 
I kinda like to be exact.
I can get very large needles if you like really like em big.
Good universal description of the “process” for most of us.
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My question is, how do YOU fix them? By using software to alter the way the song is being resolved? If so, good job! You’ve learned how to make every headphone sound EXACTLY THE SAME. What I prefer to do is test out new shit on the shit I already have to figure out what it’s place is. Is it something I can just relax to, or something I want when I wanna hear every fucking little detail? Do I want something I can wear while playing CSGO or any other game where I need to not be distracted by extra bullshit rather then exactly where everything is? Or do I want something that I can simply enjoy a new world around me? Is there a certain genre of music that it just can’t resolve well? That’s what I do when I’m testing it. Not spending a few hours resisting the urge to blow my fucking brains out by forcing myself to listen to something I’m not going to enjoy.
Well with all the differences there are in different headphones. They still wont sound same, you know. Even if you level out them if that is the “software”?
Try to stay in subject.
i was meaning testing audio/songs in general so you need to take your “headphone only” vision off since testing tracks/songs can be used in many ways with many different systems or gear.
“My question is, how do YOU fix them?”
Well depends. Whatever that you want to test or figure out, learn more OR what might be issues or think that could there be? What is the “issue” then it might be fixable. You can’t just say sound is broken with XXXX. Like what?
Different type of tests and measurements can be made with proper test songs.
Most can’t figure or test various things with “Barbi Girl” tunes. That kinda was the… never mind.
There have been cases where people think something and what it is, totally different. That’s why testing is testing and “testing” is that girl in gym that eats protein bars and looks good.
So anything that’s not a track specifically made for testing is garbage when it comes to trying out new audio gear?
It’s like saying “You can’t truely run a CAD/CAM machine with a GeForce card when Quadros exist”. Yes, that is the kind of work a Quadro is ment to do. That doesn’t mean you can’t game with it, or that you can’t do professional work with a GeForce card (simply using Nvidia as an example).
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That’s not it…
For testing a specific thing, it probably is not usable. Could be.
Still not a Geforce topic. Just pointing out the Real Test songs for Testing.
You can use garbage if that is the level you want test.