Reference Recordings / Test Tracks

What music do you use when "testing" a set of headphones? This list is not to be confused with "perfect recordings". These are tracks you use to test gear, which often means recordings which challenge transducers or upstream gear, or which have problem spots which can show you problems in gear/headphones. Perfect recordings test certain aspects of gear, but will only show you so much. Bad recordings can be just as useful for testing gear as great recordings.

note: Since this is a sticky, I have comandeered this part of this post to direct the thread. Original post below.

-RD



My list changes from time to time, but below is what I keep coming back to. (I can post links or pictures to specific versions I have, if there is a need.)

Cowboy Junkies - Trinity Sessions / Trinity Sessions Revisited
Diana Krall - Live in Paris
Eric Clapton - Unplugged
Jim Hall - Concierto
Led Zeppelin - 4 Disk Box Set
LOTR - Fellowship of the Ring
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
Pearl Jam - 10
Pink Floyd - DSOTM, Wish You Were Here, The Wall
Ray Charles - Genius Loves Company
Steely Dan - Gold
Tord Gustavsen Trio - The Ground
U2 - Achtung Baby (specifically Mysterious Ways)


As for classical, there are quite a few I use, but the main ones are:

Bach Cello Suites - Zuill Bailey
Bach Goldberg Variations - Murray Perahia
Brahms Violin Concerto - Anne-Sophie Mutter
Brahms Piano Concerto #2 - Fleisher & Szell
Tchaikovsky Violin Concertos - Hilary Hahn


Aside from the classical, I'm not sure how well all of the above are mastered. I'm sure that the CJ's Trinity Sessions (in fact all of the CJ stuff) as well as Clapton's Unplugged are very well mastered.'

Any thoughts on how well these are mastered?

-Tim

 

Classical

Vivaldi - Concerti Op.8 (a.k.a The Four Seasons) by Avison Ensemble
Vivaldi - Concerti per violino V 'Per Pisendel' by Il Pomo d'Oro
Vivaldi - Concert for the Prince of Poland by Andrew Maze
Vivaldi - Concertos for the Emperor by Andrew Maze
Vivaldi - Vivaldi: I concerti dell'addio - The Farewell Concertos by Fabio Biondi
Handel - Messiah by Stephen Layton (2008)
Beethoven - Piano Concerto No.5 & Choral Fantasia by Ronald Brautigam
Mozart - 16 Sonatas for Violin & Harpsichord by Julian Haylock, Blandine Verlet and Gerard Poulet

Non-classical

Eagles - Hell Freezes Over (both DVD-A version and redbook version)
Nightwish - Once
Nightwish - Century Child
Santana - Supernatural
Seal - Seal

Nightwish albums are quite compressed, so they are ideal for 'testing' gears.

 

Zhang Hui Mei or stage name A-mei;
Maybe not many of you are familiar with her, but her songs are some of the staples that I use on 'testing'.

Here's one example:


From the "R U Watching" album, track #5 titled "我最親愛的" - Wo Zhui Qin Ai De (trans. My Dear)

at Youtube:

 

Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

 

Two of my favorite evaluation tracks are the first two movements of the Baltimore Symphony recording of the Dvorak "New World" Symphony. The first movement for dynamic range and imaging (all of the instruments should lock into where you know they are supposed to be under the standard stage layout of a full orchestra). The second is an interesting test for getting instrumental timbres right. The duet in the first 1:30 of the movement is played on this recording by English horn and bass clarinet; if it sounds like oboe and standard b-flat clarinet, RUN AWAY! Those may be fairly subtle differences, but if you know what to listen for, good gear should make it obvious.

 

A recent addition to my list of evaluation tracks is "Narthis," the opening track on Antonio Sanchez' album Three Times Three. Sanchez plays an absolutely huge drum kit, with about five different tom-toms and one of every kind of cymbal known to man. Good gear will let you hear all the differences.

 

Not exactly reference material, but what I like to use none the less:

Pink Floyd - Animals
Robbie Robertson - Robbie Robertson
Xploding Plastix - Devious Dan EP
Supertramp - Crime Of The Century
Camel - Mirage

 

Dire Straits - Money For Nothing
James Brown - Funky Drummer
Miles Davis - Kind of Blue
King Crimson - 21st Century Schizoid Man
Gore - Heart Gore, Mean Man's Dream
Bach - Organ Works
Iron Maiden - any given album I like at the time!
The XX - XX (When a headphone is good this should sound very engaging. That intro alone...)

Female vocals depend but when a headphone has a pleasant midrange more vocals do pass my ears. The Soul Divas from the sixties and seventies and Kate Bush in particular. Florence + The Machine of course too.

 

Just got my copy of King Crimson In The Court Of The Crimson King OEM Monday after ordering it out of the UK. Sounds pretty good. Look forward to hearing it through my Multifrost upon its return.

 

I like to use as metal as real metal tends to sound like shit. It's usually haphazardly recorded and undermixed. The records might sound fine on a neutralish pair of speakers or nearfields but can having severe problems when played through inferior setups like cars, ghetto blasters, earbuds, and v-shaped closed cans. Treble problems will come out right away most of the time and wonky mids can be highlighted instantly by how accurate guitar tones sound which reveals what the "magic" Shure and AKG mids really are. The older, analog recordings often have grain that can be smoothed over on electrostats. Shelved but separate basses can be merged with guitars on cans with poor instrument separation. Here are some inferior recordings I use to test for other issues:

Immortal - Pure Holocaust The tv static rhythm guitars and cymbals of the tape sped drum track will reveal high end problems instantly.

Classic Motorhead Does it sound like a studio tech is holding a compressor mic up to Lemmy in a bathroom stall? If not, then your headphones probably don't have a natural soundstage.

Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse Undermixed but if your headphone has poor instrument separation (due to whatever) and soundstaging, the keyboards and guitars may be inseparable. They're discernible on near fields and this was recorded, mixed, and mastered at the Bergen Philharmonic's house studio so they were definitely separate in mixing.

Iron Maiden - "Aces High" off of Powerslave. I use the Toshiba Black Triangle CD. The bass is prominent in the mix and almost louder than the rhythm guitars as it's Steve Harris's band. The levels will reveal any excess warmth or midbass humps. Anything more than speakers in a room HD 600/ current 650s tends to shelve the guitars. The black driver HD 650s fail this one for example

Angel Witch - Angel Witch - "Angel Witch" This has a shelved distorted, downtuned rhythm guitar for some reason with prominent bass and leads. It's metal so you expect them to f**k up somewhere. If a setup fails "Aces High" and I can't hear the rhythm guitar here, the headphone must be way too warm with a massive midbass hump.

Incantation - Onward to Golgotha One of the best albums of all time. A proper hole in the ground, analog production. However, opposite of Angel Witch, some of the cleanish leads are shelved this time. If you have a sucked out midrange in your V shape or wonkly mids, the leads may be hard to hear.

Dismember - "Override the Overture" off of Like an Ever Flowing Stream Do the extremely high gain, fat, and out of control rhythm guitars sound accurate? Are they frequency masking everything else when they come on? If not, you have an uneven frequency response that's bringing out other instruments in the mix as this record wasn't brickwall mastered.

Mercyful Fate in general and Demilich - Nespithe If a headphone has sibilance problems, King Diamond's air raid vocals will reveal them especially if you're listening to the original LPs which minimized the sibilance through equalization in mastering on more neutral setups. So will Demilich's clipped drum kit as they didn't put limiters on the mics.

Immolation - Dawn of Possession This album is actually fairly well recorded with actual drums. Since they are actual drums the death metal double kick work will run together into mush if your setup has ridiculously slow bass transient response.

Suffocation - Effigy of the Forgotten Subbass rumble to check for bass extension and farting. This is the only test the HD 580/600/650 won't pass if not very well amped. If there is excessive bass, the downtuned guitars will often be frequency masked.

Order from Chaos - An Ending in Fire and Pig Destroyer - Prowler in the Yard If these albums don't sound like they were recorded in basements, then your headphone is super smoothed over or has resolution problems as they were recorded in basements.

Blasphemy - Fallen Angel of Doom If the clipped cymbals don't sound ridiculously harsh and sibilant, then you have a problem. They sound harsh even on HD 650s.

Carcass - Reek of Putrefaction An extremely fucked up recording. Can I hear the riffs?

 

Tool-Stinkfist, Eulogy (Anemia),The Patient, Lateralus (Lateralus)
Pink Floyd-All of The Darkside of the Moon, Wish You Were Here, Animals, and The Wall
Eagles-Hotel California (Hotel California)
Radiohead-Airbag,No Surprises, Paranoid Android (Ok Computer)
Led Zeppelin-The Ocean,Over the Hills and Far Away (Houses of the Holy), What is and What Should Never Be(II), When the Levee Breaks (IV)
Porcupine Tree-Anesthetize (Fear of a Blank Planet), Russia on Ice (Lightbulb Sun) Blackest Eye (In Absentia)
Rush-The Camera Eye (Moving Pictures), Subdivisions (Signals)
The Mars Volta-Roulette Dares, Cicatriz ESP (De-Loused in the Comatorium)
Cake-The Distance, I Will Survive (Fashion Nugget)
Yes- All of Close to the Edge
A Perfect Circle- The Package, The Outsider (Thirteenth Step)

These are tracks I know very well and have a firm idea of how they should sound. I pretty much cycle through these songs whenever I evaluate any changes I make to my system.

 

Sheffield Labs - Die Wallküre, Tristan Und Isolde
Eric Clapton - Unplugged (whole album)
Spitz - Robinson (ロビンソン)
Eagles - Hotel California
Bill Evans Trio - Waltz For Debby (whole album)
MJ - Bille Jean

 

I'm going to add Rickie Lee Jones: Pop Pop with a disclaimer that I've just recently discovered this recording. It is expertly recorded and a jazz/folk pieces with mostly covers. The arrangements are minimal and intimate. Rickie Lee's vocal is haunting and beautiful.

 

Charles Mingus' Ah Um is always one of my first albums to listen to a new component.

 

Just found "The Nat King Cole Story" dsd sitting on my harddrive. Forgot that I even had it. How is it that I've never listened to this beautiful recording. This one is seriously good. The vocal quality of King's voice is superbly recorded. I cued it up and listened for two hours before I realized what was happening.

 

I don't use test tracks, as such. I play whatever I'm listening to at the time, but there are exceptions:

Speaker setup: side-2 of Rhythm of the Saints

Quick vacuum tube evaluation:

Highs and mids - Amanda Palmer - Amanda Palmer Performs The Popular Hits Of Radiohead
Bass - sshhiitt - today's underground scene is tomorrow's shopping mall

 

This has to be considered in some way. The entire album is incredible, but this track alone should make my point.

 

Although the show's content itself was great, the soundtrack made the whole experience fantastic. Need to get that Blu Ray box set...

 

The Beatles, Abbey Road side two: This is great for a multitude of reasons. First, it's a very clear classic rock recording, with a good mix of acoustic/electric. Additionally, the medley changes pace several times, allowing you to get a feel for how the headphones sound with music at different speeds and energy levels. The three guitar solo in The End is a great way to test for imaging. Here Comes The Sun and The End are both excellent tests for euphonics and cohesion. If I could only do one test, it would be this.

John Coltrane, A Love Supreme: The dynamics of Coltrane's masterpiece allow me to test for peaks and general feel. If they can't get me feeling Coltrane, they don't belong on my head.

AC/DC, Highway to Hell: Another very clearly recorded album, this lets me see if the headphones have the energy I want for rock and roll, as well as seeing if they can accurately convey the grit of Angus's guitar. If pressed for time, I will just test the track "Touch Too Much".

Tom Petty, Full Moon Fever (MFSL gold CD): This is just an incredibly textured, nuanced record that should feel very full and detailed.

Kate Bush, Never For Ever: This album is beyond intricate. Anything that can handle the ethereal "Army Dreamers" while also showing the full force of "Violin" is worth my time.

Peter Gabriel, Security: Just one of my favorite albums, period.

I'm still determining what I want to use as my reference classical tracks.