Your Favorite Songs to Test a Soundsystem?

Do you have some specific artists or songs you always keep on mind when wanting to test a new soundsystem? Or do you just play whatever is at hand?

The whole 'Shedding the Past' album by Shed has been a favorite of mine since last year. Songs like 'Estrange' and 'Slow Motion Replay' have the hability to make you immediatly distinguish a good soundsystem from a bad one.

Other songs I tend to use:

Siriusmo - Wow
Uakti & Philip Glass - Paru River
Dungen - Mina Damer OCh Fasaner
Dungen - Ingenting Ar Sig Likt

I don't, but I used to know a guy who swore by Dire Straits' Love Over Gold.

Aja and Breakfast in America are stereo store classics

To test a new system I usually play the song with the loudest/most ridiculous bass signal in my collection. Which to-date is still Raw Fusion's Live From the Styleetron.

why?

Mine used to be "Bombscare" by 2 Bad Mice. Now I don't have one. ;_;

i chose my cd/dvd player after having listened to joy division's "unknown pleasures" on it in the shop. it was stupid i guess as at home it didn't sound as good as in the shop. i should have bought the speakers and not the player.

(and I choose that one because it has both ridiculous subfrequencies and very crisp, high-pitched snare hits and covers a pretty wide sonic spectrum)

haha oh I dunno because it sounds best when played insanely loud! Plus if a system can handle that much bass without blowing a speaker then it will probably do allright with whatever else I run through it.

I confess I am not much of an audiophile when it comes to stereos tho obviously

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i guess as a "stress test" it sort of works

i just think it's sort of weird to test something by playing something that's really odd or has weird characteristics as compared to the average record you listen to

personally these days i would probably do a classic jazz LP or nice CD remaster...i figure if it can handle the subtle stuff it will do rock or rap or techno just fine

oh I have much MUCH weirder sounding records I could use. I guess like Dan's example the Raw Fusion album covers a nice range of frequencies - starting with super low-end and up through the higher end of the spectrum. It's not that unusual sounding a record, it just has this amazing low end to it. Now throwing on some super-mid-rangey 80s metal or scratchy old Carter Family records - that would not make any sense.

i usually use two albini recordings--the blackened air by nina nastasia and blessed black wings by high on fire.

blessed black wings by high on fire.

good choice - amazing sounding record

it is def one of my favorite-sounding records, and the first song is so perfect for audio tests--you got that insane drum part fading in slow, then one guitar, then a doubled guitar, then full onslaught.

what's a good album to test 5.1 surround with? (probably criteria is differnt than regualr sounding great.)

presumably something that was mixed in 5.1

yeah any good ones out there? did anyone like that flaming lips one karateka or whatever it was that had 8 things at once?

Gotta be LP5 by Autechre (Still!)

Zaireeka is amazing, such a great unique thing... but that's pre-5.1 if I'm not mistaken...?

some talk about how to fake it here:

http://www.hydrogenaudio.org/forums/lofiversion/index.php/t21095.html

lots of good suggestions here:

What album would be good to test out my new stereo setup?

When I used to DJ gigs, I usually tested the sound system with "Once Again Back" by Hardfloor. That tune has an incredibly deep and hard bassline, plus some squelchy 303 action, so if a soundsystem could handle it, it could probably handle anything.

Since I used to DJ mostly in dingy student parties with sounds systems that weren't exactly state-of-the-art, my main concern was how much the system could handle, not how great the sound was.

To test a new system I usually play the song with the loudest/most ridiculous bass signal in my collection. Which to-date is still Raw Fusion's Live From the Styleetron.

Haw! I went through a phase where I would do this. I got a stern talking-to once in Best Buy when I used DJ Food's "Kaleidescope" to test Aiwa bookshelf systems. Likewise, that album has a great range of frequencies, but I was exploiting the bassier, early tracks on the album. Oh, and the one that starts out with a huge pool break sample. I was still kinda into freakin' out the squares back then.

"Fine Time" by New Order

I use some compressed, mid-ranged nu-metal crap.

More please.

DIRE STRAITS - MONEY FOR NOTHING
(deserves all caps)

Instead of some super-slick ultra-produced record, I prefer to use something really organic sounding. It's easier to tell what's real and what isn't. Slates by The Fall works really well for this.

prob couldn't tell the difference between slates on a hi-fi and slates on a boombox but whatever

i mean "I prob couldn't tell the difference", not you, everything

my boyfriend always uses "blood sugar sex magik"

ughhh