So what songs do YOU use to test your speakers?

[JohnW63]

Here is an article about some high end Italian speakers that at the very end list songs they use to test with.

Speaker test songs

What are your go to pieces that you test with? Could be headphones too.

 

[adorshki]

i don't "do" headphones. I need an "ambient" experience ideally including subwoofer. Speaker placement is also important, but I assume you know that.

Trying to represent a range:
Sharon Isbin "Concerto De Aranjuez", cd. Good classical guitar w/ orchestra acoustics test.
Miles Davis "Kind Of Blue", vinyl or CD. Excellent for horn reference.
Otis Taylor "Truth Is Not Fiction". First CD that blew me away and convinced me it can be better than vinyl. Recorded and mixed specifically for CD dynamic range capability.
Soundtrack album "Casino Royale" esp. the title tune and "The Look of Love". Vinyl. Album was noted as a reference standard for high fidelity and stereo presence in its day.
Vangelis "Earth", vinyl. Excellent spatial separation of instruments. 3-D sound field.
Surprise: Steppenwolf "The Second". Extremely excellent separation and 3-D field placement of instruments, extreme head-room. A fantastic production job on the original pressing and my primary go-to for my system checking. Up there with "Casino Royale" in my opinion.
John Coltrane "A Love Supreme", vinyl or CD. Excellent production and good reference for acoustic piano, bass, and drums, not to mention mention the horn. Good distortion test.
Simple Minds "Alive and Kicking", vinyl.
Eurythmics "Be Yourself Tonight", cd.
Jimi Hendrix Experience, "Rainbow Bridge", vinyl.

My system btw uses 2 AR28b's (2-way 2.5"/8"); excellent for horns and snares/cymbals, Sansui 3-way 3"/4"/10", brings out guitars, vocals, piano midrange and floor toms , and a 12" subwoofer 65w w/ 3-band bypass, I usually set for 250hz . Really brings out "presence" and stand-up bass at low volumes, 26w system w/ 5-band equalizer. Rarely go past 7. ( 9 w/ woofer on 3-3/4 can be heard cross the street if I leave my balcony door open. )

Oh yeah, according to my understanding, magnet size is very important in speakers.

 

[Guildedagain]

Axis, Bold as Love.

 

[gjmalcyon]

Stereophile Test CD 3
"Deacon Blues" - Steely Dan
"I've Got You Under My Skin" - Patrick Williams Sinatraland CD
The Sound of Everest sampler CD from 1994

 

[Westerly Wood]

Who's Next

 

[JohnW63]

I'll have to think about what my list would be.

My " driving music " test is not one that highlights all the things Adorshki mentioned, but it is " fun with the full pan left and then right " knob on somebodies mixer at about halfway through.



I don't need a subwoofer. The speakers freq range is 38hz - 32khz.

 

[GAD]

Nora Jones. And Headphones > speakers for critical listening.

 

[lungimsam]

1. Paul McCartney and Wings -“My Love”
(Will the speakers reproduce that nice tubby, flabby bass tone?)
2. Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush-“Something's Comin’ Our Way” Thundering drums and soaring guitar solos.

 

[gjmalcyon]

I wonder if Sonus faber puts their speakers through a break-in period before the final audition? The sound of a brand new set of speakers is going to be very different from their sound once broken in.

I have Celestion 5 speakers that spent a week in the attic, wired out of phase and facing each other and playing the Stereophile CD 3 break-in track on repeat. They sounded much better after that exercise.

 

[JohnW63]

^ And did everyone in the house and your neighbors enjoy that exercise?

 

[zulu]

This album to test speakers, wonderfully recorded live on tape. Though the you tube audio quality ruins it for that purpose.

 

[gjmalcyon]

^ And did everyone in the house and your neighbors enjoy that exercise?

Because I connected the speakers out of phase and closely facing each other, there was some sound cancellation and you really couldn't hear them from 10 feet away.

I did NOT hook up the subwoofer, though.

 

[Midnight Toker]

whenever I want to show off my speakers to someone who hasn't had the pleasure yet...

Joe Jackson's Body And Soul on vinyl. Side1, track 4. "You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want)"
Or Jeff Beck's Who Else...tracks "Space For The Pappa and Angel (Footsteps)

I have a pair of Vienna Acoustics. Haydn Grand model. Probably the highest rated speakers in the bookshelf class...ever. They could easily pass for super high end studio reference monitors. I've never owned better. My Bose 901's have been collecting dust in a closet since the day I brought these home. It still boggles my mind how a little 8" ported woofer can punch you in the chest and rattle your rib cage.

 

[Canard]

 

[Canard]

 

[Minnesota Flats]

I just stroll out onto the back 40 and let 'er rip:



(Sometimes our lead singer intrudes onto my frequency turf a bit)

 

[jp]

I usually use older jazz, classical, rock analog recordings on LP to test speakers. I often try to listen for clarity, punch, warmth and as much of the natural room acoustics as I can. So many of these older recordings use simple microphone placement, and tube compression and reverb. I like that you can close your eyes and hear the natural stereo field of the musicians really well.

For jazz I try any of the Miles Davis late fifties stuff like Kind of Blue or '58 Sessions or some of Billie Holiday's later Verve recordings. I also have some great Mercury Living Presence and Deutsche Grammophon records I slap on, especially ones with dynamic volume changes. I have a DG LP with Karajan conducting some Strauss waltzes and polkas--super fun. Invariably, I'll throw on some Beatles and some Pink Floyd, just because those recordings are amazing.

Honestly, I don't have the greatest speakers right now. I currently run a Marantz 2252B and a 6350Q table through a Polk 10" sub, JBL L62Ts, and Polk mini-monitors. It's a power-hungry speaker system. I'd love to get some Dynaco A25s or Pioneer HPMs. I also a need better CD player. My older Denon has issues.

 

[Westerly Wood]

This one would be excellent to test speakers:

 

[twocorgis]

Axis, Bold as Love.

That's a definite, along with these two.

The latter is arguably the best recording that ever came out of Wally Heider's.