Here is my 50 track, 3+ hour headphone evaluation playlist. I don’t generally write full reviews and focus on music over equipment. I seek an accurate presentation of music that lets me forget about the hardware. This list is oriented toward evaluating presentation, the suitability of a setup for different genres, and assessing fatigue. Fatigue is a big issue for me, and many of my purchases were driven in a quest to be able to listen all day without ringing or unpleasantness.
These are TEST AND EVALUATION tracks. I don’t like some of the songs or genres, but they are good for a narrow purpose. Some tracks are the flavor of the day and will eventually be swapped for others, but they provide variety to avoid boredom.
Given the goal of minimizing fatigue over long sessions, the playlist has a logical order:
- The first 10 tracks should sound reasonably good on any setup. If not, then there’s a big issue somewhere. These are mild, mainstream productions.
- Tracks 11-13 highlight the impact of the Loudness Wars era and should all be easy to bear…#12 Californication isn’t easy for me…
- Tracks 14-34 span different genres and technical productions. This includes percussion, deep bass, panning, spatializing, overdubs, and other studio tricks (if not for being overplayed, one could substitute Jimi Hendrix, The Beatles, Beach Boys, etc.). None of these tracks cause me much fatigue.
- Tracks 35-50 can cause fatigue with some setups, and some have caused fatigue/tinnitus with everything I’ve ever tried. This could be idiosyncratic (for me alone), or there could be a miracle setup that works for everything and everyone. Most of the tracks in this section have high-end shrillness or some sort of distortion.
| Index | Song | Album | Artist | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | China | Little Earthquakes | Tori Amos | Smooth production should be fine on any system. Problems here indicate big issues! |
| 2 | Don’t Know Why | Come Away With Me | Norah Jones | Smooth production should be fine on any system. Problems here indicate big issues! |
| 3 | Close To You | Gold – Greatest Hits | Carpenters | Smooth production should be fine on any system. Problems here indicate big issues! |
| 4 | Savior (piano version) | MassEducation | St. Vincent | Smooth production should be fine on any system. Problems here indicate big issues! |
| 5 | Desperado (2013 Remaster) | Desperado (2013 Remaster) | Eagles | Smooth production should be fine on any system. Problems here indicate big issues! |
| 6 | The Girl From Ipanema | Sinatra/Jobim | Antonio Carlos Jobim | Smooth production should be fine on any system. Problems here indicate big issues! |
| 7 | Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes | Graceland | Paul Simon | Smooth production should be fine on any system. Problems here indicate big issues! |
| 8 | Sun Giant | Sun Giant EP | Fleet Foxes | Insane layers of vocal echoes get muddy and lost with less resolving systems |
| 9 | Riptide | Dream Your Life Away | Vance Joy | Acoustic ukulele intro good for nuances in volume and air of recording (45 seconds) |
| 10 | Tamacun (Remastered) | Rodrigo Y Gabriela | Rodrigo Y Gabriela | Acoustic guitars flattened in the Loudness Wars: How well do they hold up? |
| 11 | I Hung My Head | American IV | Johnny Cash | Vocals flattened in the Loudness Wars: How well does it hold up? |
| 12 | Californication | Californication | Red Hot Chili Peppers | Vocals BUTCHERED in the Loudness Wars: Can any hardware save it? |
| 13 | Levi Stubbs’ Tears | Must I Paint You a Picture? | Billy Bragg | Pre-Loudness Wars forward vocals: Compare to prior tracks [Note strong UK accent] |
| 14 | Crazy Rhythm | The Beat Of My Heart | Tony Bennett | Vocals on right side, but resolving setups reveal clear ghostly echoes of the words on the left |
| 15 | Just One Of Those Things | The Beat Of My Heart | Tony Bennett | Jazz percussion and cymbals from 1957 – production techniques of an earlier era |
| 16 | BirdFlu | Kala | M.I.A. | Intense 2007 studio percussion |
| 17 | Islands | XX | The XX | Deep bass, really deep bass and more musical than the “Why So Serious?” track |
| 18 | WAKING UP DOWN | WHAT WE DREW | Yaeji | Contemporary heavy bass / club sound |
| 19 | Blood In The Cut | Every Where Is Some Where | K.Flay | Contemporary heavy bass / club sound |
| 20 | Bizarre Love Triangle | Brotherhood | New Order | Landmark in production methods: How does potentially brittle 1980s music sound with setup? |
| 21 | Break-Thru | Lamp Lit Prose | Dirty Projectors | Studio musicians spending a lot of time on mixing, staging, and effects (alt example) |
| 22 | Donna | Sun Machine | Rubblebucket | Studio musicians spending a lot of time on mixing, staging, and effects (alt example) |
| 23 | My Girls | Merriweather Post Pavilion | Animal Collective | Studio musicians spending a lot of time on mixing, staging, and effects (alt example) |
| 24 | What’s That Perfume That You Wear? | Life Will See You Now | Jens Lekman | Studio musicians spending a lot of time on mixing, staging, and effects (alt example) |
| 25 | Empire Ants (feat. Little Dragon) | Plastic Beach | Gorillaz | Studio musicians spending a lot of time on mixing, staging, and effects (alt example) |
| 26 | Souk Eye | The Now Now | Gorillaz | Listen to the last minute: How long before the chimes fade away? [Varies by setup] |
| 27 | Let Down | OK Computer | Radiohead | Studio musicians spending a lot of time on mixing, staging, and effects (alt example) |
| 28 | Time to Pretend | Oracular Spectacular | MGMT | Studio musicians spending a lot of time on mixing, staging, and effects (alt example) |
| 29 | Sultans of Swing | Sultans of Swing – the Very Best of Dire Straits | Dire Straits | Baseline expectations for Rock ‘n’ Roll: Guitar by an expert |
| 30 | Pride and Joy | The Essential Stevie Ray Vaughan | Stevie Ray Vaughan | Baseline expectations for Rock ‘n’ Roll: Guitar by an expert |
| 31 | Flight of The Bumblebee | The Greatest Classical Masterpieces! | London Philharmonic Orchestra | Classical: Dynamics, clarity, strings, brass and harshness or hiss [Nostalgia: School field trip] |
| 32 | The Ride Of The Valkyries | Wagner – Ride Of The Valkyries | Royal Philharmonic Orchestra | Classical: Dynamics, clarity, strings, brass and harshness or hiss [Nostalgia: School field trip] |
| 33 | Rhapsody in Blue | Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue & An American in Paris | Leonard Bernstein | This track is iconic, and provides good examples of orchestral and piano content |
| 34 | No Rest for the Wicked | World on Fire | Yngwie J Malmsteen | Technical heavy metal – contemporary update to the soul of classical and a check for clarity |
| 35 | Lovefool | First Band On The Moon | The Cardigans | Sharp and chipper female pop: Can be sibalant, too bright, and painful with some setups |
| 36 | Go Outside | Cults | Cults | Sharp and chipper female pop: Can be sibalant, too bright, and painful with some setups |
| 37 | You Don’t Get Me High Anymore | Three | Phantogram | Sharp and chipper female pop: Can be sibalant, too bright, and painful with some setups |
| 38 | Steve Jobs | Wonderland | Steve Aoki feat. Angger Dimas | EDM that can be harsh or unpleasant (starting at 1:30); compare with next two tracks |
| 39 | All The Time | Bahamas Is Afie | Bahamas | Melodic but heavy guitar distortion; compare with prior and next track |
| 40 | Little Cream Soda | Icky Thump | The White Stripes | Extreme guitar distortion and quasi-heavy metal; compare with prior two tracks |
| 41 | Du Hast | Sensucht | Rammstein | Mainstream metal production – baseline for genre and should perform well |
| 42 | Walk | Vulgar Display of Power | Pantera | Mainstream metal production – baseline for genre and should perform well |
| 43 | Crown On The Ground | Treats | Sleigh Bells | The absurd level of constant distortion can reveal dynamic issues and limitations of amps |
| 44 | The Queen And The Soldier (Live) | RetroSpective | Suzanne Vega | Listen for (a) clear background crowd noise, and (b) fluctuating volume of voice [Varies by setup] |
| 45 | Woman On The Tier | RetroSpective | Suzanne Vega | Novel percussion using trash cans sometimes induces tinnitus, weirdness, or unpleasantness |
| 46 | This Devil’s Workday | Good News For People Who Love Bad News | Modest Mouse | Bright and brassy – unpleasant with many setups (Ow, this entire album is so bright it hurts!) |
| 47 | Leave Your Body Behind You | Standing At The Sky’s Edge | Richard Hawley | Underlying distortion can induce hiss and make the presentation fall apart [varies by setup] |
| 48 | Answering Machine | Let It Be | The Replacements | Cheap studio equipment and a shrill high end often induces tinnitus |
| 49 | You Really Got Me (2015 Remaster) | Van Halen (Remastered) | Van Halen | Shrill around 0:30, 1:00 and elsewhere – extremely high pitched tones induce tinnitus |
| 50 | Soon | Loveless | My Bloody Valentine | Entire album is more noise than music: known to lead to tinnitus in creator Kevin Shields |