I’ve been dribbling out one or two tracks at a time in this thread, along with my rationales. This is happening as I create a playlist to cover a wide range of (not pleasant) testing plus enjoyment topics. My draft playlist has about 50 tracks and follows a “delay fatigue as long as possible” format.
It starts with smooth and easy pop, vocals, and instrumentals/acoustic to get a feel for the tone and presentation of a given setup. It then moves to vocal tracks ruined in The Loudness Wars era, percussion, deep bass, overly-complex studio confections (e.g., staging), EDM & noise-pop, rock & metal, Way Too Bright female pop, a few random tracks to spot details and oddities, and finally Headache Tracks. The last few songs almost always make my ears ring, sometimes within seconds.
Okay, I think I need to add this one to my rotation. It’s got deep driving bass, electrical guitars, ethereal synths, and some good percussion. It’s kind of like Daft Punk meets Coldplay with a touch of Gogo Penguin thrown in. I like it!
I like Andrew Robinson. He doesn’t cover headphones per se and I don’t always agree with his opinions. However I think this a good selection of popular music tracks to test headphones with.
A couple of years ago at the beginning of my audio journey whet I had the first gen LCD-3 I had a chance to listen to some live acoustic guitars.
I was thinking with the TOTL Audeze I knew how it should sound, I was badly off mark, the guitars sounded real duh but compared to the LCD3 it has so much more body, hearing the individual strings vibrating was an eye opener, the headphone mushes the together and adds a heavy coloration. No chance of being as fast or the right low end weight.
Fast forward 10 years and I can have my personal guitar experience whenever I want. Want to see if your system has what it takes? Single acoustics guitar played fast, hear it live then on headphones.
I like this guy. I’ve seen some of his other videos.
I’ve had a similar experience except with drums. Because I’ve played drums, I know how they are supposed to sound and I’m paying close attention to the drummer in the music. I don’t listen to drum solos, which means I’m also particular about how clearly the drums present against the rest of the band.
Thanks for suggesting this. I started using this track for evaluating tube rolling, a lot of interesting things to follow and just a fun piece to listen to. I havent put in any of my bright tube complements to test the “adventurous” portion but I can hear what you mean.
Oh gosh, there are so many I like. I’m certainly no expert either. I learn about drummers all the time that I’ve never heard of but are awesome nonetheless.
For their style, I really like Matt Cameron, Stanton Moore, Bun E. Carlos, Martin “Axe” Axenrot, Keith Moon, Bill Bruford, Phil Collins, and Gavin Harrison. But the one that’s head and shoulders above any other for me is Danny Carey. However he’s not so much a drummer as he is “The God Of Time And Thunder”.
I’m a noob to critical listening, but the more I learn about what to listen for, the more I do find myself paring down my carousel of goodies when trying out new phones. I like to listen to this abridged list, most of which are probably head-scratcher to yous audio experts. Anyways, in no particular order:
Stevie Wonder - Sir Duke (I ritually start with this when I plug in as homage to music)
The O’Jays - For The Love Of Money (legendary bassline…boy…)
Clara Nunes - Canto das tres Racas (simply sublime)
Beirut - Nantes (this band’s instrumentation is ; was fortunate to see this band live a couple of times a few years back; so every listen is an attempt to recapture that magic)
Jack and Meg White - Ball and Biscuit (may Whomever bless and keep this man and his talent forever)
Sonny Rollins - Without A Song
Lionel Hampton - Vibraphone Blues
Gary Clark Jr. - Bright Lights
City & Colour - The Girl (one of my favorite Canadians second only to Neil Young)
The Foreign Exchange - Happiness
The Pharcyde - Runnin’ (Stan Getz would be proud of Jay’s arrangement)
Great selection, and a couple of unfamiliar bands I need to check out.
Sir Duke would make for an excellent test track! For that matter, a lot of Stevie Wonder’s music from that time in his career - also Innervisions and Talking Book, say - would be awesome for listening to dynamics, imaging, and other things. At the moment I use David Bowie’s Right as a test track - Sir Duke would go really well with it!
Beirut’s stuff is excellent, as well, especially when testing for timbre and for layering and separation.
I’ve idly wondered about using the White Stripes as a kind of stress test, to see how well an audio system can cope with the raw, stripped down sound. I have my HD 6XX and LCD2-C to be able to listen to alternative rock that would otherwise be too painful to listen to on brighter headphones. The Pixies’ Doolittle is great for testing for fatigue and wince-inducing snare hits. I have yet to see if these headphones can make De Stijl bearable!
Edit: oh, and I’ve recently taken to listening to Neil Young to get a handle on new headphones; not necessarily for evaluating any one audio characteristic but to get an overall sense of what a new headphone does to the sound. Cortez the Killer and Down by the River are great for this (as nice, long noodly songs, you can get really immersed into them).
Thank you @Tchoupitoulas ! As you can tell, I’m still at the stage of using well known, beloved, and enjoyable tracks (to me) for reference when trying out new cans or IEMs. @Resolve’s list I bookmarked because it provides such a great insight into what to look for in songs that I don’t necessarily listen to (thank you Andrew!). I still need to figure out which tracks or which masters/remasters/versions thereof are well recorded as that would actually help when listening critically.
I will take a listen at the other bands and songs you recommend! If there’s a bright light to this pandemic, it’s that I get to full-throttle explore this hobby and “meet” amazing people like you guys on this wonderful albeit expensive journey!
Yes, it’s his creativeness that appeals to me so much. There may be drummers who are more technically proficient, but Carey is able to blend with the rest of Tool while still giving me many moments of “I hear what you did there… nice!”
To get this back on topic, here’s a track I use to evaluate headphones. The entire Fear Inoculum album is one of the better rock recordings for drums. Yes there are many technical issues with the overall sound quality that are readily apparent like hiss, clipping, and a general lack of dynamics so prevalent in modern releases. But I submit that there isn’t a better recording of Carey’s drumming.
I think this is the most accessible track on Fear Inoculum as well, so I’d hope that even if you are not a Tool fan it may appeal to you.
Things to listen for:
The biggest is tone. Carey never uses muting and tunes his kit to the key of each song. His drums ring with a distinct tone even during quick fills.
Cymbals are almost a cliche in evaluating headphones, but it’s worth mentioning. It should be obvious when a china is used vs a standard crash.
The snare drum hits are hard and sharp. Good for evaluating punch. Like most other Tool songs, Carey doesn’t engage the snares and that should be obvious.
Clear, impactful kick drum. Carey uses two kick drums tuned to two different tones and you should be able to distinguish between them. Also a good area to judge punch.
The opening of the song is just guitar and is decent for assessing detail. I definitely hear more “pluck” here with better headphones.
I’ve seen some people say the clipping on the guitar is on purpose. I don’t know this for a fact, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s true.
I’m mainly annoyed by the lack of dynamics. I think the correct term is macro dynamics. The songs often reach a crescendo but the overall volume is the same which robs the moment of much of its impact. Maybe this is intentional too.
; was fortunate to see this band live a couple of times a few years back; so every listen is an attempt to recapture that magic)