Tracks/Songs for Auditioning HeadPhones

[xeonster 0]

these are generally the tracks i use whenever i audition earphones/headphones/speakers/hifi setups...

 

 

Mids/vocals

Amanda McBroom - Crimes of the heart, Ghost in this house, Baby (beatbox)

Alison Kraus & Union Station -> variety of tracks, silky voice, picked acoustic guitar melodies, mandolin + double bass

Carole King - variety of tracks

 

Pure Digital music

Don dorsey - rage over a lost penny, moonlight sonata 3rd movement (pure synthesizer music, digitally produced pure sound, no microphone usage)

 

Electronic music + vocal

Pole folder - abrasions (clean low pulsating bass notes, good test for positioning of speakers)

pole folder - fall in violet (clean vocals with blend of heavy background electronic beats/bass, often easily muddied if speakers dont represent them well)

 

piano dynamics

opus 4.1 - track 4, steinway D piano, played heavily, helps to keep un-desired piano-clanginess in check

 

timbre & stage

opus 4.1 - track 1, wind ensemble in a church, airy and space filling

hugo records - great gate at kiev (nearly killed a pair of speakers with the dynamics of this song.. tweeter started buzzing :/)

hugo records - broken zither string (this guy was playing a zither during recording, halfway, string snapped, and the string's wooden bridge dropped)

 

Percussion

Sheffield labs - Percussion test disc, track 2 -> electric bass + percussion, to determine distinction when bass guitar plays at a pitch very close to percussion bass drum

track 5,6, pure percussion recording on specially selected drumsets.. most earphones failed me at track 5 and 6, due to the inability to achieve the desired bass drum depth

 

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anyone mind sharing what they use to audition as well?

need to add to my collection

thanks

Edited August 29, 2005 by xeonster

[1bit 0]

where can you get all these tracks btw?

[xeonster 0]

where can you get all these tracks btw?

bought most of them in cd form..

 

nowadaes cd shops dont carry much audiophile recordings anymore..

 

the only recent one i saw was as united square basement near the escalator