[Closed] Music tracks to test a HiFi

This would be one of mine:

Obvs

This one also as it is good for treble. It holds a special place for me as it was the demo track in 1994 when I bought my first pair of B&W 602's from a hifi shop in Leeds:

The bass in this is hellish. Won't play through my laptop speakers.

Shermer75: this would be my reference 90's speaker breaker:

Once you've got the treble sorted you can use this to check the bass

A bit slow posting there...

For me, it would be as follows;

Elgar - Nimrod
Dire Straits - Private Investigations
G'N'R - Appetite. All of it.
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
Rush - Farewell to Kings

Wouldn't you be better off using whatever music you like/listen to the most ?

And to show it's not all D&B or 90's rave, sometimes a little Vincent Price classical is needed:

Wouldn't you be better off using whatever music you like/listen to the most ?

This is, of course, the actual answer. In the meantime, however, rock and roll could never hip hop like this:

[i]Wouldn't you be better off using whatever music you like/listen to the most ?[/i]

Just what i was gonna say!

How about some

but thats some of what I likes in the car

Tested my old Leak speakers with this. Awesome!

Another track that is a key to me. Ever since Zardoz I have loved the first 3 minutes of this track:

If we're talking Jane's Addiction then surely it has to be

You want a high quality source.. don't beat me to death for suggesting this, but an origeonal CD of michael Jackson's 'bad' album is very well produced and has a wide dynamic range.

Id steer away from mp3 format as a demo as they are compressed. Get a genuine CD disk of something you know has been well produced.

I like an awful lot of different music, and have an open mind to good tracks. So ideas from the STW collective are always welcome.

Great driving track from the best driving album

Goodun for QBRTs

Tracks we often use to sell/demo speakers include:

Jamie Woon - Night Air (great bassline)
London Grammar - Hey Now (very well produced for 'pop' music)
Fleetwood Mac - Big Love (acoustic version off The Dance)
Dire Straits - take your pick from Brothers in Arms
Propellorheads - Oh Yeah!
Lincoln Mayorga - Dock of the Bay
Lady Gaga - Just Dance

All of the above are very well produced and can reveal shortcomings in most systems, BUT, only if you know what it should sound like. Ergo, you are far better off using something that you know and like.

About 1:20 in - little bit of base, little bit of drums...

I remember playing this in a B&O shop one time. and you could see the windows flexing 😀

Davidtaylforth, you reminded me! How could I forget this classic:

I've been doing this recently, for home rather than car but the OP said either, my list has been:

Gabrielle - Lamb
Release the Pressure - Leftfield
Angel - Massive Attack
So What - Miles Davis
Blue Train - John Coltrane
Motherland - Natalie Merchant
Karma Police - Radiohead
Crystalised - The XX
Stormy Weather - Etta James
Going Underground - The Jam
Elektro Kardiogramm - Kraftwerk
Come As You Are - Nirvana
Without You I'm Nothing - Placebo

Tried to keep a bit of variety. So far the better the system the more the acoustic and synth stuff shines but the same systems just seem to make stuff like Placebo, Nirvana, The Jam etc sound very uninspiring.

I've used this for decades - I know it so well:

and then there's this:

😀

Dire Straits "Telegraph Road"
Fleetwood Mac & Rumours
Paul Simon & Graceland
Police "Every Breath You Take"

oh....Take Five is definitely on the list now! Love that track and know it well.

if you want to know if the speakers buzz or something try XXYYXX // XXYYXX

Id steer away from mp3 format as a demo as they are compressed. Get a genuine CD disk of something you know has been well produced.

Trust me on this one. If only all remixes were this fearsome. Problem - you'll never want to stop driving...

And this: (evilbadass bass drops at 2min 30, but now you're not sure if you want to be driving or be longboarding...)

[i]That's bollocks. In a car, with wind and tyre noise, it's totally irrelevant[/i]

Virtual hug for CountZero for talking sense

Ps. remind me to avoid going on a road trip with Hadge 😀

Eerm ok then. Just buy a sub, turn it up and stream low quality audio. Because wind noise will spoil anything better. 😉

Not sure being in a car is conducive to decent sound reproduction, but Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel is a great reference track, any Flying Lotus, SBTRKT, Holy Ghost! or Stranger than Earth by Purity Ring.

It used to be Hawaii 5-0 and Curtis Mayfield Move on Up

Ghostbusters
Aerosmith Livin on the edge
Ride of the Valkyries

I had a go at sq a few years ago. The IASCA test cd was used and was perfect for this. Tests everything from correct polarity and channel set up to ability to reproduce low 20s hz. Must be some out there on ebay or talk audio as i had 2 at one point and sold one and most mates doing it had a couple of copies just in case.

As for the guy saying you cant tell difference between mp3 and cd in a car due to background noise dear me. Never heard of dynamat? On a decent system its very clear and so is a poorly produced cd.

I definitely would not take mp3s or any other compressed format. In my experience the better speakers make these tracks show up all their inadequacies. On the other hand if you plan to play mp3s in said vehicle, it might be a good approach.

This one really brings out the tiny nuances in the sound quality.

Last time I used:

Pixies- Debaser
Portishead- Roads (Roseland NYC)
Handel- Part of the Messiah
Aphex Twin Polynominal C

I was going to say Dead Prez too. Bigger than hip hop. It rattles the dead awake that one...

Something very, very simple to start.
Solo voice, classical guitar, violin etc.

If it can't get that right, it's not going to be any good with anything else.

Kristin Hersh (ft. M. Stipe) - Your Ghost

It's got everything solo vocals, duet, acoustic guitar, cello and a then out of nowhere some really low bass thumps.

Also for rock Pearl Jam - Alive

So will you reject the car if the stereo sounds bad ???

Personally my test tracks for proper hifi are

If it sounds good on all 3 tracks it is very likely going to sound good on everything I listen to.

Otherwise Evanescance My Immortal is a pretty good track :

And I noticed that this track is hard for a system to make sound good :

although the seller might give you funny looks if you play it...

Man, nearly 50 posts in and no Cocker

he'd be turning in his grave - if he was dead, that is

Lots of top and mid range, maximalist goodness in this too.

Tubular bells and Chris Isaac's Wicked Game

This one for me. Very smooth bass and crisp highs

Selecting a car based on the sound from the factory stereo. I like, it, but...

...Surely they're all going to be the same? Mid-market units from a handful of manufacturers who all use the same components anyway, connected with any old wires, with speakers fitted into wobbly plastic panels in your doors?

...so if you cared about high-end sound you'd upgrade anyway?

...but then you're playing compressed MP3s, so it wouldn't matter how "good" your stereo is...

...so what is it you're listening for? Do you want faithful, detailed and transparent sound reproduction? Because you won't get it with a factory car stereo playing MP3s.

Have just reread my post. It sounds grumpy. Sorry. **** it I'm pressing send.

Try this

If it doesn't give you goosebumps the hi-fi isn't as good as my Passat's! 🙂
(It may have been just cos i was feelin good coming back from the beach)

.but then you're playing compressed MP3s, so it wouldn't matter how "good" your stereo is

in a BBC dbt listeners were unable to distinguish between 256Kb MP3 and CDs...

FM radio is only 14 bit I think, def chops off at 15KHz

and DAB is even worse as it is lower bit rate and MP2, but that can actually sound fairly decent above 96Kb.

If you're comparing sound systems..be it car stereos or anything else..why use a known compromised source?

Use and album you know is well produced on an original cd or if you must a 320 mp3 or flac file that you know has been ripped properly.

Fm and dab radio both sound terrible to my ear..I suppose you'd have to EQ the hell out of it and it would be ok..But it's no basis for comparing the performance of a sound system.

For a test, any tune that you know very,very well. For me, that's be 'pacific' by 808 State. That was always my reference tune when doing anything music related.

I notice there's a few bassline rippers on the thread. If I may direct you in the direction of Milanese, especially 'Barry Dub' & 'Mr Bad News' :).

Prodigy - Spitfire.

Will easily find any and all trim rattles.

squirrelking - Member
Prodigy - Spitfire.
Will easily find any and all trim rattles

I've got a useful song for that. Godnose by Braintax

Wow, some great suggestions. I won't buy a car/not buy a car because of a certain stereo, but I want to have a test CD so that I can see whether (for example) it's worth paying extra on a BMW i3 for the upgraded sound system. Keep you tracks coming as this could be a in car play list!!

15 Steps by Radiohead will give a hifi a good workout

What rusty said, brass is always very telling re the midband.

I'd have to say tho just buy the car you want and upgrade it's system. It's not difficult or expensive, esp via eBay.

Journeyman from Amon Tobin's ISAM album. Then the rest of the album.

Suntoucher by Groove Armada is a good deep bass tester.

I'd have to say tho just buy the car you want and upgrade it's system. It's not difficult or expensive, esp via eBay.

A lot harder nowadays with everyone using custom units in cars, rather than the old unified form factor.

As long as the head unit is of decent quality though you should be able to upgrade the speakers/power amps.

Some awesome tracks on here. Am spending part of the morning listening to them on my monitors.
My suggestion would be something like nothing else matters by Metallica but the orchestra version, or the goldie timeless with the heritage Orchestra as it has all the bass and treble plus the detail of an orchestra.
Am happy my mazda came with a bose system it's not high end but does sound good

Surely...

Though I like this one better...

Bought some new speakers recently and the tracks we listened to were;

Nightcall - London Grammar
Telephone - Lady Gaga
Rape Me - Nirvanna
22 - Taylor Swift

Seemed to be a good mix of the type of music we listen to, although probably never in that order!

I used this one to sort the wheat from the chaff:

I'm gonna say Tosca - Suzuki in Dub, full album (on vinyl natch)

The Blue Nile - Tinsletown in the Rain

Take music you listen to in the format you intend to use.

This should also rattle trim and windows. All the way to 11.

And this. Good dynamic range and some low frequencies that are not always audible unless you have a good setup.

Edited for slightly better quality video

It's not much good taking music that you are unfamiliar with and that you don't know how it should sound - you may come away impressed that the system played loads of bass, but the music might not actually have all that bass.

I have seen so mamy comments of people complaining about their bassy bose systems, which they probably thought sounded OK when they first heard it.