Playlist for checking out steroes

October 15, 2009 1:50 PM

What are the best (or your favorite) songs to use when checking out stereo systems?

I'm setting up a list of songs that can be used to checkout/show-off a stereo system. The main goal is to use them while hunting a new stereo system so that I can have a consistent set of examples that highlight different audio characteristics.

Crisp highs, full lows, clean vocals, extended volume and tonal ranges, live recordings, electronically produced elements, etc... Any genre is fine, but if you have recommendations for classical, please include the specific performance/recording since that has such a huge influence on the quality.

(Looks like there are some good answers via this question but it's focused more on headphones.)

posted by StimulatingPixels to media & arts (32 comments total)

Dark Side of the Moon is a favorite for this, especially Breath and Time. Low, thumping heartbeat, ticking clocks, ringing alarms, resonating bells, shimmering guitar solos, layers of vocals.

I also like a few tracks from Paul Simon's Graceland. The Boy in the Bubble is good, as well as Homeless for vocals.

I also think Zoe Keating's One Cello x16: Natoma is a great test album. Choose any track. Lot's of subtlety to hear and a wide sonic range.
posted by The Deej at 2:02 PM on October 15

Steve Vai with the Holland National Orchestra. Particularly For The Love Of God. Or, in retro mode, Billy Thorpe's Children of the Sun
posted by Redhush at 2:10 PM on October 15

The Beach Boys - Good Vibrations.
posted by nomisxid at 2:17 PM on October 15

I think anything that you know well is particularly good, because you know how you want it to sound. I try to pick maybe 2 songs, one that uses a wide frequency range (for me, I choose The Great Below by Nine Inch Nails), and something else thats quite percussive with lots of attack type sounds that test the speakers responsiveness to rapid changes in dynamics. A lot of people recommend Peter Gabriel stuff for this.
posted by Admira at 2:19 PM on October 15

Radiohead - Paranoid Android
posted by Jaltcoh at 2:21 PM on October 15

I prefer the complexity of the twelve inch remix of Ministry's "Stigmata." You can scream yourself hoarse while you drown in the sound. Also, Kate Bush, "Running Up That Hill" is good if you want sort of a constant drone to test. Various bits of The Creatures' Boomerang are great for surround sound. Basil Poledouris' Conan theme for something stompy and classical. Wendy Carlos Williams' soundtrack for A Clockwork Orange is nice for its purity.
posted by adipocere at 2:26 PM on October 15

My favorite album, which I use to test stereos is "Everything Everything" by Underworld.
posted by Lynsey at 2:30 PM on October 15

If you use itunes and an ipod, just sort by play count, pick the top 10 songs, and that should get you started. I find it is much more important to use something that you have heard a million times before than to listen to something that is a great recording (although if all you listen to is 80's bootleg punk music copied from 3rd generation cassettes, that might not be the way to go). If you find a system where you hear things you never really noticed before, you know you are on to something.

I personally use tracks by Porcupine Tree (Blackest Eyes), Fiona Apple (On the Bound), The Velvet Teen (Penicillin), and Miles Davis (Kind of Blue)as my standards, because I know exactly what they SHOULD sound like, and if I'm not hearing that, than I know something isn't right. Each one has something else I am listening for, be it clear bass, nice midrange response, clear high end, etc.
posted by markblasco at 2:30 PM on October 15

"Linoleum" by Tweaker on the album "The Attraction to All Things Uncertain". This track has subtle glitch, low frequencies, and crisp vocals. Low fidelity systems will not reproduce the glitch well, if at all, and the vocals will bleed into the bass tones. I also highly recommend this track as a benchmark for bit rate coding on mp3s and other digital audio formats. This track looses all of it's details if coded at anything less than 256kbs, 44hz stereo.
It is also a very soulful piece of music.
Tweaker (Chris Vrenna) was a drummer for Nine Inch Nails.
posted by Oireachtac at 2:39 PM on October 15

Aphex Twin's SAW (linking to volume 2 'cause I haven't heard the first)
posted by mannequito at 2:40 PM on October 15

A lot of stereo testers swear by The Very Best of Dianna Krall

Not a huge fan, but the recording is amazing.

Also, this thread (Under audio->2ch) on AVSforum has some great recommendations.
posted by wongcorgi at 2:41 PM on October 15

Daniel Chorzempa "Das Wohltemperierte Klavier", Philips LP
Brian Eno "Before and After Science", track 2 "Backwater" and track 5 "King's Lead Hat", EG LP
Bic Runga "Beautiful Collision", track 6 "Election Night", Columbia CD
Flim and the BBs, "The Further Adventures", track 12 "Rokeby Garden", DMP CD
posted by jet_silver at 2:55 PM on October 15

Nearly all the sound guys I know use Steely Dan. I am SO sick of Steely Dan.

One sound guy I know uses Stravinsky's Rite of Spring. Great booming low drums and that horrible shrill picciolo.
posted by mollymayhem at 3:00 PM on October 15

Upon re-reading the question: I've no idea about which specific recordings of Rite of Spring are better than others, sorry.
posted by mollymayhem at 3:01 PM on October 15

The first movement of Mahler's 8th Symphony.
posted by Lutoslawski at 3:22 PM on October 15

Kraftwerk's Tour De France (the 2003 album) for general clarity and stereo image. Anything by Skream for bass response/power.
posted by phrontist at 3:22 PM on October 15

Oh, and the Fleet Foxes.

Really, it's not just about the content of the record, it's about your familiarity with it. You need something you've listened to a ton on a good system (or good headphones) so you know how it's supposed to sound.
posted by phrontist at 3:27 PM on October 15

The opening track on Pink Floyd's The Division Bell (Cluster One) has become one of my standard stereo checkout tracks. It was the first thing that revealed a midrange driver going bad in one of my speakers. Distortion of the normally very clean piano notes was the clue. Since then, I play this track fairly loud to test out new equipment I'm considering buying, to see how it handles loud midrange.
posted by FishBike at 3:29 PM on October 15

Here is my 2 cents pick a good spread of very different recording styles, genres don't pick your favorite tracks. When you listen to the tracks listen for the greatest difference between the recordings. The differences between the recordings will tell you allot about what the system is doing to the signal.
posted by jade east at 4:41 PM on October 15

Pere Ubu's The Modern Dance. Very low noise, wide dynamic range, wide frequency range (including some very loud bass), weird electronic sounds, clean vocals, plus some extra sound effects like glass breaking and crowds cheering. And an amazing album, to boot.
posted by equalpants at 5:26 PM on October 15

MollyMayhem's answer made me laugh - I was going to suggest Steely Dan because that's what my husband always takes with him and let me assure you, he is the pickiest of picky when it comes to good audio equipment. There's a reason audio geeks use Steely Dan; the recordings are reference quality. I've also seen him bring along old and new King Crimson, especially "Lizard", M.I.A. "Kala", Stereolab, Pink Floyd, Sade, Supertramp, Sufjan Stevens, Thomas Dolby, Yes "The Yes Album", XTC's "English Settlement", Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk", Xiu Xiu, and Spoon.

And I'm talking vinyl, by the way. Yes. I went there.
posted by LuckySeven~ at 5:39 PM on October 15

The opening of Laurie Anderson's "Monkey's Paw" is one of the best tracks for enjoying the full range of a sound system. It begins with crisp percussion which is joined by high, clean vocals, and then a wonderfully sonorous bass line comes thundering in. It's just magnificent.
posted by itstheclamsname at 6:40 PM on October 15

Jerusalem, from the Emerson Lake and Palmer "Brain Salad Surgery" album.
posted by rmd1023 at 6:47 PM on October 15

Excellent list. Thanks folks.

Happily I own a bunch of the tracks listed. My struggle has been that I have so many songs in my library it's tough to think about them from the quality of sound instead of just how much I enjoy the tracks.

I'll also add two tracks that I've been thinking of: the theme from Superman and the first two tracks from Morphine's "Like Swimming" album "Lilah" and "Potion" which don't have a break between them so they feel like one song.
posted by StimulatingPixels at 7:01 PM on October 15

Don't know if you're still looking, but I would add Beirut's "The Penalty", Yo Yo Ma's track off the first KCRW: Sounds Eclectic collection, and Radiohead's "Everything In It's Right Place".
posted by hue at 7:27 PM on October 15

Ha. I always use either "New Frontier" by Donald Fagen (sorry, mollymayhem) or "This Is The Picture (Excellent Birds)" by Peter Gabriel & Laurie Anderson, mainly because I know them inside out, and they are very particular sounding recordings.
posted by mintcake! at 9:27 PM on October 15

One thing to remember is not just frequency range (bass vs. treble), but dynamic range. Does the system sound as good when playing a loud passage as it does playing a quiet passage? Is there any distortion or cropping when the input is coming in at a very low level?

With that in mind, I like using this recording of Rhapsody in Blue. Like most studio recordings it is made up from several takes spliced together. The thing is, there are differing levels of background noise in different takes. When I can hear people suddenly stop milling about in the middle of the piano solo I know I'm in a pretty good listening situation.
posted by clorox at 12:28 AM on October 16

I always go with Beatles.

That said, though, I really think you should go with a song you know very well, because then you can really hear the differences in the sound system.
posted by alona at 1:27 AM on October 16

What about Suzanne Vega?
posted by Who_Am_I at 6:41 AM on October 16

Well, this was made for that... But, yeah, don't go without something you're very familiar with.
posted by Finder at 12:11 PM on October 16

We used to use Yello's album Flag. "The Race" hits all the stereo-test high points.
posted by Lazlo at 4:14 PM on October 16

One of my best friends is a frequent SQL (Sound Quality League) finalist. He recommends anything mastered by Quincy Jones. Michael Jackson's Thriller album is a popular candidate, he says.
posted by Sutekh at 5:29 PM on October 16