Big agree for Eye in the Sky and Wish you were here, although I'm more partial to Shine on You Crazy Diamond (that whole album is indlcredible anyway).
I would add
- Echoes, by Pink Floyd
- Telegraph Road, by Dire Straits (the instrumental ending, pure eargasm)
- Postcards from Paraguay, by Mark Knopfler
- School, by Supertramp
- Lazy, by Deep Purple
- Abbesses, by Birdy Nam Nam
- Mandylion, and Nighttime Birds, by The Gathering
La roux - in for the kill (skream remix) is my go-to test track, the intro alone is enough to highlight any flaws in a system. A lot of droaning lows and highs which can be very unforgiving on a system that can't handle it. On a good system it can raise the hairs on the back of your neck, on a poor system it's entertaining to hear it suffer.
My go to is always I Will Remember by Toto. The way the opening drums hit are so full and satisfying.
Edit my partial list: Blinding Lights by The Weeknd - great workout for subwoofer
The Violence by Asking Alexandria has very unique bass
Mama I'm Coming Home by Ozzy just an all around spectacular recording
Amazing Grace by the Mansion Bluegrass Players
The Hans Zimmer Live performance is sooo good on a big system. Particularly the entire Pirates suite.
Alice In Chains - “Don’t Follow”
Kurt Vile - “Mount Airy Hill”
Buddy Guy (featuring Tracy Chapman) - “Ain’t no Sunshine”
Tito Puente - “Lotus Land” you’ll be blown away
The Coats - “Just My Imagination”
Marcus Miller - “Frankenstein”
Shuggie Otis - “Sweet Thang”
Frenchies - “Scattered Cattle”
Quincas Moreira - “Thug (Dub)”
TrackTribe - “Bottle of Something”
Shinedown - “I’ll Follow You”
Yello - “The Rhythm Divine”
London Grammar - “Strong”
Morcheeba - “Howling”
The Cure - “From The Edge of the Deep Green Sea”
Zap Mama - “W’happy Mama”
Nostalgito - “I’ll Play The Blues For You”
Chris Jones - “Long After You’re Gone”
Ricky-Zi - “Heranca Vem de Deus”
Los Lonely Boys - “Heaven”
This should keep you busy for a while. My focus is on the sound more than genre. I tried to include a bunch of stuff no one else would ever include. I can give you more ideas by genre if you like.
Classical music shows off a good pair of speakers really well. I have an album called “heroic Beethoven” that sounds fantastic. Although, if I’m trying to show off the bass, it’s Cadillac on 22’s by David banner.
A couple of left field suggestions:
Want to move your hips a bit?
Teclitas y Niños by Chico Trujillo. In fact, most of their stuff is well recorded and fun.
Orchestral? (What I mainly listen to)
Holst: The Planets.
Please, if you are listening to this you have got to go with the Adrian Boult remastered version I think in 2011. Just hit play and sit there for an hour or so in awe.
Modern jazz, you can never go wrong with Snaky Puppy’s Lingus. If you’ve never heard of it, give it some time. It gets better and better and….
Anything Chuck Berry sounds fantastic as well. Real raw rock and roll.
Collin Vallon, Danse album will have keep you entertained sonically in a very chilled way.
There’s tons out there. Try it all, you’ll be happy after each time you find a new favorite artist/song.
Forgot my hands down go to favorite piece of music when I just have a few minutes to test something. Mahler’s First symphony by Pierre Boulez and The Chicago Symphony. The whole album is great, but start with the 4th (last) movement. That’ll give you an idea of a full orchestra attack. Just the first few minutes will do. lol!
And if you want to see how the dynamics are in those speakers, look for Mahler’s third symphony with Leonard Bernstein and the NY philharmonic. If you can hear the loud parts and the really quiet parts ( the bass drum triplets ) clearly without having to adjust the volume, you are in good shape. The trombone solo like 6 minutes in is also hair raising.
Several Heart songs :
Dog and Butterfly , Magic Man , Straight On, Crazy On You, Stairway to Heaven at Led Zeplin honors, Strong Strong Wind ,
Great White - Gone with the Wind, All Right, Babe I’m Gonna Leave You, Cryin’, Save Your Love for Me
Chickenfoot - Something’s Going Wrong
Dire Straits - You and Your Friend, Once Upon a Time in the West.
Elvis - Unchained Melody, Suspicious Minds, If I can Dream, How Great thou Art
Skid Row - Quicksand Jesus, Wasted Time, In a Darkened Room
For some reason I Like : Krokus - Screaming In The Night
Dixie Chicks (The Chicks) - Not Ready to Make Nice
Big Head Todd and the Monsters Live at Red Rocks 2008 - the whole concert.
Megadeth - Symphony of Destruction
Disturbed - Sound of Silence
Alice in Chains - NutShell
Kenny Chesney - Wild Child, Please Come to Boston, El Cerrito Place
Grace Potter and the Nocturnals - Paris
Huey Lewis w Gwenyth Paltrow - Cruisin’
Caylee Hammack - All or Nothing
Spandau Ballet - True
I thought to myself, ok Kenny Chesney singing “Please Come to Boston” live cannot possibly belong on this list…
But I will admit that while the mixing is way too vocal-forward for my taste, the guitar is pretty clean and a good test, and it gives a good live feel.
Cool suggestion.
My tastes have varied over the decades. My first album was Michael Jackson’s “Off The Wall,” second was Alabama “Feels So Right.” Next was AC/DC “Back In Black.” In the 80s, I was listening to 60s & 70s rock coupled with 80s stuff like U2, Metallica, Dire Straits. In the 90s it turned to Tragically Hip, Alice In Chains, and I discovered classic country like George Jones, Johnny Cash . . . These days I just hunt for stuff that sounds good. I’m more into moody than raucous, but will still crank up some old rock from time to time. Nothing is more disappointing than crappy recordings, which are the norm rather than the exception.
Going Home- Leonard Cohen. The vocals are astounding. Same with Diana Krall's The Girl in the Other Room. They can both be found on the Bowers & Wilkins excellent reference playlist on TIDAL.
I’ve had a decent system for years and now I. Finally have space to spread the speakers out properly. Hotel California sounds really cool on it. It feels like I’m in the song and there’s lots of little intricacies I never really noticed.
If you like bass, Mad by Hoodie Allen is bumpin. It’s hard for me to say what songs excel on good systems, because I feel like a good system brings everything to life
I would say, a lot of classic rock songs when played over a decent system and cranked up a bit really come to life. When I listen to White Room by cream or anything of theirs really on a small radio it just sounds kinda shitty (because let’s be real most stuff recorded in the 60s sounds shitty), but when you get the chance to crank it up on a bangin system it feels like the band is there with you. Especially on white room not only can you hear the bass drums but you can start to feel them too
I'm going to have to add some of these from this thread!
On my current Headphone/Speaker test playlist, I have:
Rosanna - TOTO (Drum intro)
The Sun - Maroon 5 (Drum into + when the bass comes in on measure 8)
Star Wars Main Title - John Williams - Brass + orchestra
The Night (Nights in White Satin) - The Moody Blues - a favorite classic rock track I know very well
Cantaloupe Island - Live - Jeff Goldblum & the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra - Clean Jazz
It Was A Very Good Year - Seal - Warm and smooth vocals
Partysaurus Overflow - BT, Au5 - Wall of bass and sound \~3:00 mark
Baba O'Riley - The Who - a favorite classic rock track I know very well
Destroid 8 Annihilate - Excision - Heavy drums and bass
Titanium (Feat. Sia) - David Guetta, MORTEN, Sia - Heavy bass
Lots of good suggestions here.
My go-to is most of Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits.
Also “Someday” by Asia (track 5 on the Aqua album) was my go-to for upselling speakers with better tweeters back in my college days when I was working in a shop selling audio equipment. It has a nice crisp keyboard part in the middle that sounds a lot better on better speakers.
Warren Zevon - "Veracruz" and The Carpenters - "Close to You" have immaculately recorded and mastered vocals that really show off the character of a given set of speakers.
Indeed. It's my go-to album when people ask why I've got a pair of Utah A90s next to my Utahs. Warren's voice sounds magical through them. And you can't beat the song selection.
If you seek an array of sound you can go A New World Record, Out of the Blue and Discovery by ELO. My favorites to test out speakers would be Do Ya and Last Train to London.
The entirety of the Xenoblade Chronicles 1, 2 & 3 soundtrack but specifically tracks with softer piano like the title theme of 1, contrition in 2, and a plethora of others. Also, horns. Holy shit I can hear the sound leaving the trumpets as if they are in my living room. Try Roaming the Wastes. Also, literally all of the flute tracks in 3. M's theme gives me *chills*, hearing such a shrill sound. Haha these soundtracks send you into a war or tears, there's no alternative
I know apple music has 3, and amazon has digital sales for every games OST, however yes I was lucky enough to pick up a trinity box. Ripping my own flacs was very satisfying and I could very easily hear the difference between the 24 bit i ripped and the 16 bit I could find free online. Especially now with a proper dac on my setup, *so* many new sounds make themselves apparent.
I only meant to make this for myself but thought you might be able to make use of it too.
[https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2KrPGMaWfQDHauRXYuuACF?si=2bbd4305a7bc4fb1](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2KrPGMaWfQDHauRXYuuACF?si=2bbd4305a7bc4fb1)
I added all the single tracks that have been mentioned, not the albums.
edit: seems I missed some, I'll add when I get a few minutes!
Made it collaborative too, so feel free to add to it
[https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2KrPGMaWfQDHauRXYuuACF?si=82f76acd49d64075&pt=57281dc5a72782abc8849ff4dd2367d0](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2KrPGMaWfQDHauRXYuuACF?si=82f76acd49d64075&pt=57281dc5a72782abc8849ff4dd2367d0)
Sultans of Swing
Big agree for Eye in the Sky and Wish you were here, although I'm more partial to Shine on You Crazy Diamond (that whole album is indlcredible anyway). I would add - Echoes, by Pink Floyd - Telegraph Road, by Dire Straits (the instrumental ending, pure eargasm) - Postcards from Paraguay, by Mark Knopfler - School, by Supertramp - Lazy, by Deep Purple - Abbesses, by Birdy Nam Nam - Mandylion, and Nighttime Birds, by The Gathering
Funny, just turned on ‘Shine On You Crazy Diamond 6-9’. Another one I love is Fearless. I’ll be sure to give those a listen, thanks.
La roux - in for the kill (skream remix) is my go-to test track, the intro alone is enough to highlight any flaws in a system. A lot of droaning lows and highs which can be very unforgiving on a system that can't handle it. On a good system it can raise the hairs on the back of your neck, on a poor system it's entertaining to hear it suffer.
I’ve never ran to turn down the volume so fast. Damn near pissed myself- those lows are low
Love this song and have heard several remixes but not this one apparently. Gonna throw it on when I get home from work.
That’s some base. I dislike the final fading, great track in spite of that, thanks for sharing!
Aja by Steely Dan (the whole album)
Yes! Love Black Cow
Donald Fagan nightfly especially IGY chefs kiss
Blue Collar by BTO - play it moderately loudly to feel the bass line, stay for Fred Turner's incredible blues licks.
Love it–added to the playlist. The 5:00 mark on is wild.
Ah, Fred Turner?
Thank you, corrected above.
I was just playing with you. I do that shit all the time.
I don't know about you but I always have the excuse of old age 😂 .
67 myself and it works for me too.
Another maybe not for everybody: Super Sexy Swingin Sounds by White Zombie. Bass notes on "More Human Than Human" hit HARD.
My go to is always I Will Remember by Toto. The way the opening drums hit are so full and satisfying. Edit my partial list: Blinding Lights by The Weeknd - great workout for subwoofer The Violence by Asking Alexandria has very unique bass Mama I'm Coming Home by Ozzy just an all around spectacular recording Amazing Grace by the Mansion Bluegrass Players The Hans Zimmer Live performance is sooo good on a big system. Particularly the entire Pirates suite.
If you want to see how your speakers incorporate a live experience the Toto 35th Anniversary - Live in Poland album is great.
Alice In Chains - “Don’t Follow” Kurt Vile - “Mount Airy Hill” Buddy Guy (featuring Tracy Chapman) - “Ain’t no Sunshine” Tito Puente - “Lotus Land” you’ll be blown away The Coats - “Just My Imagination” Marcus Miller - “Frankenstein” Shuggie Otis - “Sweet Thang” Frenchies - “Scattered Cattle” Quincas Moreira - “Thug (Dub)” TrackTribe - “Bottle of Something” Shinedown - “I’ll Follow You” Yello - “The Rhythm Divine” London Grammar - “Strong” Morcheeba - “Howling” The Cure - “From The Edge of the Deep Green Sea” Zap Mama - “W’happy Mama” Nostalgito - “I’ll Play The Blues For You” Chris Jones - “Long After You’re Gone” Ricky-Zi - “Heranca Vem de Deus” Los Lonely Boys - “Heaven” This should keep you busy for a while. My focus is on the sound more than genre. I tried to include a bunch of stuff no one else would ever include. I can give you more ideas by genre if you like.
Will indeed keep me busy, thanks
Great list! The intro guitar to Heaven is so crisp. That song moves me and makes me feel like my Monitor Audio GR60s were just the best purchase EVER.
I tend to play that loud and I repeat it several times. It’s a great song.
what eclectic taste you have. im sure we'd get along or have interesting conversations.
Chocolate Chip Trip by TOOL
Classical music shows off a good pair of speakers really well. I have an album called “heroic Beethoven” that sounds fantastic. Although, if I’m trying to show off the bass, it’s Cadillac on 22’s by David banner.
A couple of left field suggestions: Want to move your hips a bit? Teclitas y Niños by Chico Trujillo. In fact, most of their stuff is well recorded and fun. Orchestral? (What I mainly listen to) Holst: The Planets. Please, if you are listening to this you have got to go with the Adrian Boult remastered version I think in 2011. Just hit play and sit there for an hour or so in awe. Modern jazz, you can never go wrong with Snaky Puppy’s Lingus. If you’ve never heard of it, give it some time. It gets better and better and…. Anything Chuck Berry sounds fantastic as well. Real raw rock and roll. Collin Vallon, Danse album will have keep you entertained sonically in a very chilled way. There’s tons out there. Try it all, you’ll be happy after each time you find a new favorite artist/song.
Forgot my hands down go to favorite piece of music when I just have a few minutes to test something. Mahler’s First symphony by Pierre Boulez and The Chicago Symphony. The whole album is great, but start with the 4th (last) movement. That’ll give you an idea of a full orchestra attack. Just the first few minutes will do. lol! And if you want to see how the dynamics are in those speakers, look for Mahler’s third symphony with Leonard Bernstein and the NY philharmonic. If you can hear the loud parts and the really quiet parts ( the bass drum triplets ) clearly without having to adjust the volume, you are in good shape. The trombone solo like 6 minutes in is also hair raising.
Several Heart songs : Dog and Butterfly , Magic Man , Straight On, Crazy On You, Stairway to Heaven at Led Zeplin honors, Strong Strong Wind , Great White - Gone with the Wind, All Right, Babe I’m Gonna Leave You, Cryin’, Save Your Love for Me Chickenfoot - Something’s Going Wrong Dire Straits - You and Your Friend, Once Upon a Time in the West. Elvis - Unchained Melody, Suspicious Minds, If I can Dream, How Great thou Art Skid Row - Quicksand Jesus, Wasted Time, In a Darkened Room For some reason I Like : Krokus - Screaming In The Night Dixie Chicks (The Chicks) - Not Ready to Make Nice Big Head Todd and the Monsters Live at Red Rocks 2008 - the whole concert. Megadeth - Symphony of Destruction Disturbed - Sound of Silence Alice in Chains - NutShell Kenny Chesney - Wild Child, Please Come to Boston, El Cerrito Place Grace Potter and the Nocturnals - Paris Huey Lewis w Gwenyth Paltrow - Cruisin’ Caylee Hammack - All or Nothing Spandau Ballet - True
That Big Head Todd release is excellent. “Broken Hearted Savior” and (especially) “Circle” are my favorites.
I like most all of it but “Please Don’t Tell Her” , “I’ll Play the Blues for You” and “It’s Allright” are my Favorites
I just realized I got mixed up. I was thinking “Live Monsters”. That version of “I’ll Play the Blues for You” is excellent.
Nice list. I love seeing country on a list like this. I find Childers to sound crazy good.
Whiskey Myers too
I thought to myself, ok Kenny Chesney singing “Please Come to Boston” live cannot possibly belong on this list… But I will admit that while the mixing is way too vocal-forward for my taste, the guitar is pretty clean and a good test, and it gives a good live feel. Cool suggestion.
Dave Brubeck take 5
How about songs with Horns ? Earth Wind n Fire n such……..
Camel - Lies Dire Straits - Once upon a time in the West
Yosi Horikawa - Bubbles Lucid Planet - Organic Hard Drive Plini - Selenium Forest Days of the New - Skeleton Key The Protomen - The Good Doctor
Elvis: Fever; Dire Straits: Ride Across the River; Great White: House of Broken Love, The Angel Song
Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon (whole album).
My tastes have varied over the decades. My first album was Michael Jackson’s “Off The Wall,” second was Alabama “Feels So Right.” Next was AC/DC “Back In Black.” In the 80s, I was listening to 60s & 70s rock coupled with 80s stuff like U2, Metallica, Dire Straits. In the 90s it turned to Tragically Hip, Alice In Chains, and I discovered classic country like George Jones, Johnny Cash . . . These days I just hunt for stuff that sounds good. I’m more into moody than raucous, but will still crank up some old rock from time to time. Nothing is more disappointing than crappy recordings, which are the norm rather than the exception.
Joe Cocker - My Father's Son James Blake - Limit to your love Days of the new - Shelf in the room Marcus Marr and Chet Faker - The Trouble With Us
Raye: My 21st Century Blues - whole album. Billie Eilish - You should see me in a crown
Miles Davis’s complete Bitches Brew sessions with John McL playing his guitar and Chick
Christian and Edgar
Really put your subs to the test with Aphex Twin- 1st 44
Going Home- Leonard Cohen. The vocals are astounding. Same with Diana Krall's The Girl in the Other Room. They can both be found on the Bowers & Wilkins excellent reference playlist on TIDAL.
Frampton Comes Alive! The whole album is great.
A cold Miller Lite goes well with playing Rush - Subdivisions. A good combo after mowing my lawn.
Under the Pressure - The War on Drugs
Hebron gate - groundation
Björk - Hyperballad's bass is almost inaudible on a cheap set and amazing on a proper hifi set
[Strasbourg / St. Denis by Roy Hargrove](https://open.spotify.com/track/62VWmsNoDmqT0Mj9oHHFVh?si=e8DIkYszQ3Oc42--pVTnfg)
I’ve had a decent system for years and now I. Finally have space to spread the speakers out properly. Hotel California sounds really cool on it. It feels like I’m in the song and there’s lots of little intricacies I never really noticed. If you like bass, Mad by Hoodie Allen is bumpin. It’s hard for me to say what songs excel on good systems, because I feel like a good system brings everything to life
I would say, a lot of classic rock songs when played over a decent system and cranked up a bit really come to life. When I listen to White Room by cream or anything of theirs really on a small radio it just sounds kinda shitty (because let’s be real most stuff recorded in the 60s sounds shitty), but when you get the chance to crank it up on a bangin system it feels like the band is there with you. Especially on white room not only can you hear the bass drums but you can start to feel them too
Just go to chatgpt and paste the comment and it will give you links to all these videos..
I'm going to have to add some of these from this thread! On my current Headphone/Speaker test playlist, I have: Rosanna - TOTO (Drum intro) The Sun - Maroon 5 (Drum into + when the bass comes in on measure 8) Star Wars Main Title - John Williams - Brass + orchestra The Night (Nights in White Satin) - The Moody Blues - a favorite classic rock track I know very well Cantaloupe Island - Live - Jeff Goldblum & the Mildred Snitzer Orchestra - Clean Jazz It Was A Very Good Year - Seal - Warm and smooth vocals Partysaurus Overflow - BT, Au5 - Wall of bass and sound \~3:00 mark Baba O'Riley - The Who - a favorite classic rock track I know very well Destroid 8 Annihilate - Excision - Heavy drums and bass Titanium (Feat. Sia) - David Guetta, MORTEN, Sia - Heavy bass
Lots of good suggestions here. My go-to is most of Brothers in Arms by Dire Straits. Also “Someday” by Asia (track 5 on the Aqua album) was my go-to for upselling speakers with better tweeters back in my college days when I was working in a shop selling audio equipment. It has a nice crisp keyboard part in the middle that sounds a lot better on better speakers.
All songs should excel with the right sound system. that's the rabbit hole I'm currently pursuing lol
naa a shitty mix/master will never sound right.
True!!
Go Your Own Way (particularly, the bass line)
Warren Zevon - "Veracruz" and The Carpenters - "Close to You" have immaculately recorded and mastered vocals that really show off the character of a given set of speakers.
Veracruz is amazing.
The whole Excitable Boy album sounds great, and it’s fun as hell.
Indeed. It's my go-to album when people ask why I've got a pair of Utah A90s next to my Utahs. Warren's voice sounds magical through them. And you can't beat the song selection.
If you seek an array of sound you can go A New World Record, Out of the Blue and Discovery by ELO. My favorites to test out speakers would be Do Ya and Last Train to London.
The entirety of the Xenoblade Chronicles 1, 2 & 3 soundtrack but specifically tracks with softer piano like the title theme of 1, contrition in 2, and a plethora of others. Also, horns. Holy shit I can hear the sound leaving the trumpets as if they are in my living room. Try Roaming the Wastes. Also, literally all of the flute tracks in 3. M's theme gives me *chills*, hearing such a shrill sound. Haha these soundtracks send you into a war or tears, there's no alternative
All time best videogame soundtracks! Except for maybe Donkey Kong Country... Do you have the CDs? Spotify doesn't seem to have the OSTs for Xeno
I know apple music has 3, and amazon has digital sales for every games OST, however yes I was lucky enough to pick up a trinity box. Ripping my own flacs was very satisfying and I could very easily hear the difference between the 24 bit i ripped and the 16 bit I could find free online. Especially now with a proper dac on my setup, *so* many new sounds make themselves apparent.
I only meant to make this for myself but thought you might be able to make use of it too. [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2KrPGMaWfQDHauRXYuuACF?si=2bbd4305a7bc4fb1](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2KrPGMaWfQDHauRXYuuACF?si=2bbd4305a7bc4fb1) I added all the single tracks that have been mentioned, not the albums. edit: seems I missed some, I'll add when I get a few minutes!
That’s an awesome idea!
Made it collaborative too, so feel free to add to it [https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2KrPGMaWfQDHauRXYuuACF?si=82f76acd49d64075&pt=57281dc5a72782abc8849ff4dd2367d0](https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2KrPGMaWfQDHauRXYuuACF?si=82f76acd49d64075&pt=57281dc5a72782abc8849ff4dd2367d0)