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Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu
For testing speakers, Infected Mushroom, Tame Impala and 20syl/AllttA are always good choices. Maybe Tool as well (10000 days). Song depends on what I'm most familiar with atm.
For a new library, I'd probably just choose whatever I listen to the most. Which would be The Fearless Flyers and Aesop Rock rn.
Mindful Solutionism is probably my favorite track from Aesop even after black hole superette came out, such a banger
Fellow IM enjoyer in the wild! 🍄
One of the THX Deep Notes
„Rumors“ by Fleetwood Mac.
The Chain
This song was made to test new setups lol. It has such a wide overlapping range. It can truly be appreciated in hi-res
Probably A Night at the Opera by Queen, which was the first album I ever bought with my own money. A ton of classic tracks, lots of tonal range, weirdass spatial effects from early-era screwing around with stereophonic production, and a hell of a good time any day of the week.
Led Zeppelin II in its entirety
But Damone said side 1 of Led Zeppelin IV should be played “whenever possible!” /s
Evil Empire by Rage Against the Machine
Never gonna give you up
Hotel California by Eagles
Guitar mass but infected mushroom.
If the speakers have no problem with that they'll play anything else I listen to
“A Fever You Can’t Sweat Out” by Panic! At the Disco. It’s been my favorite album since it came out. I never get tired of it. Specifically “Camisado” is my favorite track on it.
Dark Side of the Moon and now I feel old.
I was surprised how much I had to scroll for this. I thought a lot of people still test with it. E.g. I was born 10-ish years after DSotM was released, listened to it first in my teens, but it has been my go-to album for every audio upgrade ever since that.
Sound and Fury - Sturgill Simpson.
Cat Stevens - Wild World
Hells Bells by AC/DC.
Amon Amarth - Twilight of the Thunder God
Welcome to The Black Parade.
After restoring a vintage reciever, it was the first song thst made me feel, unprompted, that I had gotten it right.
Polygamous by Breaking Benjamin. Followed by the rest of the Saturate album.
Well if im trying out new speakers, it's usually vega core from doom
If im playing new music in a playlist, it'd probably be something by quadeca tho.. maybe godstained, or Sisyphus
"6:00" by Dream Theater. It begins with a sick drum fill that pans across stereo speakers and then builds up with drums, then keyboards, then guitar/bass. It sounds fantastic cranked up on a good set of speakers!
T.Rex - 20th Century Boy.
Finlandia by Sibelius
TBH when testing new audio equipment the first thing I play is probably something none of you have ever heard of but it has good range and is one of my favorite workout songs (great adrenaline drops). Ready to Go by Klaypex
It's so cliche in the speaker world, but the live recording of Hotel California by The Eagles. On solid speakers, it is like you're there in the audience.
Electric Ladyland
Dire Straits - Walk of Life.
Voodoo by Godsmack
Overture 1928 - Dream Theater
Bear with me on this one.
I like to use the maestoso from Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3 in C Minor, often called the Organ Symphony, for testing speakers. Turn it way up and blast that organ sound. Also reminds me of the movie Babe since they used the theme from this movement for that movie. 😁
(Links below are YouTube Music, but I’m confident you can find the same recordings on Spotify.)
Here’s a good recording, listen to at least the first 1:45, though the full movement isn’t very long (a bit over seven minutes). Again, volume is your friend for this movement. It’s MAJESTIC, and on a good set of speakers it’s incredible.
Another good orchestral work for this type of showing off is Holst’s Jupiter, or the fourth movement of Dvořák’s New World Symphony
(There are many more but these are some relatively well-known-without-people-knowing-they-know-them ones.)
New speakers? Maurice Ravel, "Bolero". No better music to test an audio system.
Rage Against the Machine?
46 and 2
DJ Shadow - Endtroducing
I have listened to this album more times than anything else I own. I'm on my third copy of it after wearing out the original pressing I have from the 90's and the repressing from 10 years ago. I know every sample, every soundscape, and it almost brings me to tears every time I drop the needle on it. So many memories of good times where this was the soundtrack. So many friends, now gone, walk next to me again when that album plays.
I miss you, Isaac.
... it's the money
Damn. It must be nice to have nostalgic music to listen to. I don't have (at least that I am aware of) any such music. I usually cry because the symphony of the vocals is good.
This album is good but probably more so for you than me because of the nostalgia.
colors by btbam
Steely Dan - Aja
It's a perfectly mastered album from start to finish.
Opeth - Blackwater Park
If I got new speakers, better quality ones than the ones for my old RCA thing or the ones in my Bria radio CD player thing, or even my beats headphones, I'd have a hard time choosing an album. Would probably go with whatever I'm in love with at the moment. Currently that's a 3 way tie between R.E.M.'s Out of Time, Alice in Chains Jar of Flies, and New Radicals Maybe You've Been Brainwashed. Would struggle to lick between those 3.
As for individual songs, I got a couple I'm currently absolutely in love with that I'd love to play on very high quality speakers:
Deafening - The Nixon Rodeo ( emotionally hard rock, at least I think so )
OR
Someday We'll Know - New Radicals ( for some reason this just became my absolute favorite New Radicals song immediately after hearing it once on CD )
AC/DC - "Back in Black"
I'll find a few new songs to be the first in my new library. I love finding new music, and transitioning from one library to another helps me take some time away from songs that might be getting stale to focus on new stuff. It also gives me the opportunity to rediscover songs from previous libraries after some time, and fall in love with them again. Just today I added a song to my library that I used to have on my old iPod, and I'm listening to it a bunch now that it's been several years since I've last heard it.
Bass Test by The Chemical Brothers ofcourse.
Here's a screenshot of my headphone testing playlist. Songs I like, but also having either deep bass, bright highs, or both. Plus, they're songs I've listened to a million times, so I know how they're supposed to sound.
As for music I'd want to get first when starting over: Dark Side of the Moon.
