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Have now installed the new Q Acoustics speakers and started to run them in.
Quality so far is light years ahead of the old Mordaunt Shorts so can't wait to get them cranked up (I will wait though...)
So, what are some good tracks to test them out properly?
I've gone for the floorstanders as I'm hoping to get away with out a sub (for a while).
I am in no way an audiophile but whenever someone shows me a new speaker set up I always play Dead Prez Hip Hop...
Release the Pressure (Leftism track one)
In the spirit of IHN's post
https://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/friday-bass-possibly-in-your-face/
Try the first couple of tracks on The Yellow Shark album by Frank Zappa.
One of the first song I'll always fire up is "On & On" by Erykah Badu
Diane by Therapy?
Winter (Four Seasons) - Vivaldi
Mustang Sally - The Commitments
YYZ or La Villa Strangiato.
Venga Bus by the Vengaboys, natch.
[url=
is always a good test of any system.
I use Led Zeppelin's Celebration Day live album for "oomph", and this for nuance and detail etc:
https://www.amazon.com/Young-Heart-Tony-Williams-Trio/dp/B00000D9TG
There is a song on the first Scissor Sisters album with a very strange sub-tone riff that absolutely destroys my speakers like no other track. Not sure which one of top of my head (just checked it is "can't come quickly enough"). Not an especially great track but seems to find the limits of my speakers at relatively low volumes.
Otherwise I like Red Hot chilli Peppers, "Under the Bridge" to test speaker quality across the full range.
The first few bars after the white noise of this for deep-down bass. The rest of it is forgettable
Bolivian folk music
Yes Yellow Shark is a good one as is "Ship arriving too late to save a drowning witch" if you want a more rock vibe.
Frankie's "Pleasure Dome" too but if you want to know how accurate your setup is try the BIS recording of Durufle's "Four motets on Gregorian themes". No it has nothing to do with baked goods.
Brass and female vocals for the crucial midrange.
Most dance etc tracks have heaps of bass but it isn't always that fast so my not show up the bass response. Back in Black a good one?
Something you enjoy listening to?
Thanks. Building a Spotify playlist 🙂
A couple of good'un for testing the bass. Crank it up to eleven and see if you can cause some structural damage to your house 😀
That sounds fun. Force yourself to listen to them all, right the way through 🙂
So many choices....
Radiohead - No Surprises
Bjork - Hyper Ballad
London Grammer - Hey Now
The ProdIgy - Breathe
Gregory Porter - Liquid Spirit
Loyle Carner - Ain't Nothing Changed
Massive Attack - Protection
Nick Cave - The Mercy Seat
Noname - Blaxploitation
Out on the weekend by Neil Young or the aliens ate my buick album by thomas dolby
Test your cistern while you're at it
Release the Pressure (Leftism track one)
^ this
Plus
[i]Songs to Test Headphones[/i]
Crikey - 150 songs to choose from there. Good stuff. (Except Phil Collins 😆 )
Nobody dislikes Collins more than me, but including him in a headphone test kind of makes sense - his sort of music is all about production.
As an aside, a modern day Judgment of Paris type question:
If you met Sting, Bono, and Collins but you could only punch one of them in the face which would you choose
Ed Solo - Age of Dub
Have this on 12" for just such an occasion, never felt anything quite like it on a decent system.
for something different - I found this was perfect when I bought my system many moons ago...
Philip Glass - Akhnaten
Step into a world by KRS1. Such a clean bassline and a stunning high end vocal sample. Its my go to set up test track
Lamb - In Binary (first track on Backspace Rewind)
As an aside, a modern day Judgment of Paris type question:
If you met Sting, Bono, and Collins but you could only punch one of them in the face which would you choose
I’d punch Bono in the back of the head but tell him that Phil did it. Sting is a Geordie so as soon as Collins hit Bono back, he’d jump in too. Then I’d stand back and admire my work
Your best bet is to listen to a load of stuff you're really familiar with, that will tell you if they're making a good representation of the music versus just hearing how loud they go. Posted a couple of YT links, may be to your taste or not but I find them a good test. You'll want to use decent quality streaming or preferably flac files if you can though, youtube will likely be the weakest link in your chain.
These three are a solid bass test:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/xvmhhNiGZr0
https://www.youtube.com/embed/p_pg29keUCU
https://www.youtube.com/embed/oGRxdKaW9DE
And the next two have those vocals that should sound as if they're right in front of you:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/6bMC5lGLlAA
https://www.youtube.com/embed/BME88lS6aVY
Bonus filth, this just sounds like a mess on subpar speakers:
https://www.youtube.com/embed/1SEgoi7kjw8
Enjoy your new kit!
Edit: of course I didn't embed the videos properly
Edit edit: turns out trying to embed doesn't work, just posting the link does, happy days
A couple of good one in there. Thanks people.
I particularly like the Dead Prez and the David Arnold thing (you need to listen to it in it's entirity all of it).
I'd like to know which scissor sisters track it was, I prefered Abbot's version of Atmosphere and I completely got rickrolled (again). I didn't try the brown thing.
Who broke the thread posting a load of videos in one post? No one will watch them anyway! and it crashes ipads. Duh!
get a proper toy
can’t wait to get them cranked up (I will wait though…)
What are you waiting for?
When I demo'd the amp I bought recently I went with a fair bit of Pink Floyd, some Massive Attack for bass, The Ghost of Tom Joad by Springsteen for acoustic stuff and some Beth Orton (Blood Red River) for mellow female acoustic.
Thanks. Building a Spotify playlist
I see you have spotify. Here you go. 😀
There's 11 hours of everything from bass heavy songs to deep acoustic stuff, electric guitars that will make your hairs stand on end.
Everything from this
through this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYIAfiVGluk
to this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRDgihVDEko
Enjoy!!!
New speakers you say?
Loveless is the answer…
Let Leila wake those f@@kers up!
I have 3 tracks I use to assess a system or system change :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uv7y6PKEYms
Can tell if it's for me with those three, probably before having to play all of them
This is also instructive :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5anLPw0Efmo
I've heard one set of power amps that seemed to smooth out her voice and remove the 'yearning' element from it.
Who broke the thread posting a load of videos in one post? No one will watch them anyway! and it crashes ipads. Duh!
Works ok on mine...
LED down, Tipper.
When I was messing about with crossovers and re-voicing my speakers, these were my test tracks.
Amy Winehouse : Lioness Hidden Treasures
There’s a slower version of Wake Up Alone.
Nirvana: MTV Unplugged
Whole album sounds lovely, great soundstage and imaging.
Katie Melua : Pictures
Ghost Town
As someone with Mordaunt short fronts and a liking of q acoustics ... Which actual speakers did you go from and to please @steveid?
When I was messing about with crossovers and re-voicing my speakers, these were my test tracks.
The guy who runs Harbeth using a recording of his daughters voice for voicing crossovers - assumes that you have very good recording gear though
One above is a remix with a great range
Wait, I don't get this, surely you just play stuff you like. I mean if you've bought nice kit, everything will sound OK/better, so if you're having to find bits of music that go to extremes, what are you "testing for"?...This is like buying a 170mm travel enduro bikes when you live in Norfolk, or a Porsche when you just drive in 30/40 zones...Listening to Phil Collins* just because there's some techno/nerd part where you can hear "x "low frequency is a pretty sad thing to do...No?
* Unless Phil's yer thing, in which case, crack on, obvs.
Depends what your testing for. If it's sound quality then the source, amplifier and speaker / listener location is far more important.
Listening to MP3s or something played through a PC will never sound any good quality wise.
Song wise, I've always gone for the below as a basic guide *
Yello - The race (and all of the Flag album)
Dire Straights - Money for nothing
Michael Jackson - Beat it
Fleetwood Mac- tango in the night album
Roachford - Cuddly Toy
And loads more if your after this type of thing.
* yes I am old.
For years Dark Side of the Moon used to be the go-to album for testing systems. I sounded out my system with Beggar's Banquet, Bach's cello suites and some Van the Man. I think you've got to really know and like the piece of music to be able to spot the subtle differences if for no other reason than that's what you'll be playing.
Might be a contentious suggestion but Michael Jackson 'Bad' album is brilliantly produced and one of my go to sound tests.
Which actual speakers did you go from and to please
Gone from MS302 satellites/304 centre + 308 sub to Q 3050 floorstanders, 3090 centre with 3010 surrounds on Partington stands.
Cheers, I have 302s for the rear and 902 fronts which are actually pretty decent on sound, but I do like the idea of some floorstanders with a bit of a kick to them!
Also had the 308 sub, but it went bang last year, so got replaced.
just because there’s some techno/nerd part where you can hear “x “low frequency is a pretty sad thing to do…No?
There is a whole universe of utter bollocks when it comes to hi-fi equipment. And hardly any of it has anything to do with musical taste.
Not a world I bother trying to understand.
First 2 tracks, Jambi and Vicarious from TOOL 10,000 days
You are welcome.
I used to work Saturdays in a hifi shop in town, family owned, dad used to look after the running, son looked after sales, etc, so got to try out all sorts of kit at home.
I was round his place one evening, listening to some new albums, and there were some very low frequency thumps, like someone walking across another room. As we were the only people in the house, it was a little spooky! We replayed the track, same result, there some very low frequencies being played, that were barely audible, more felt than heard. The track is ‘Gravity’s Angel’, on Laurie Anderson’s album ‘Mr Heartbreak’.
Don’t even think about streaming it, if it’s even available, that sort of frequency won’t show on streaming media. Not sure if we were playing a CD or vinyl, it’s a 1984 release, but you’ll need some pretty good kit to resolve that level of low-frequency detail, and really good quality pressing if playing vinyl, ‘cos it’s very subtle.
I think we were using the Logic DM101 turntable I’ve now got, but I’ve got a different arm on it, a Zeta. With the AT m/c cartridge on it, that’s £2.5k...
Bet you weren't using a turntable to get that low bass...
If the sound coming from my eldest lads room is anything to go by then 21 pilots "Fairly Local" has got some decent bass but also covers everything else off too.