[FullRangeMan]

+1 on 1812 and Tocatta BWV565.
Also lots of familiar repertoire of bad recorded music on CD, its very importat you know how your speakers will sound in your room w/bad recorded music.

[simoon]

No rock or processed music for me thanks.

I completely agree with this. Even though I listen to quite a bit of rock (prog rock of various genres), I don't use it to test speakers initially. I use music from the other genres I listen to, 20th century and contemporary classical and jazz, to judge audio equipment.

With mainstream rock, there is no way to judge whether the speaker under test is in any way accurate. There is so much studio manipulation that goes on after the musicians record, there is no baseline to judge if what you are hearing it accurate. You don't know how the electric guitar, bass, drum kit, etc sounded when the musician played tem. Delay, EQ, compression, panning, reverb, overdubs, etc, etc all serve to obscure what the instruments and vocals actually sound like.

With classical and acoustic jazz, you are hearing what instruments actually sound like. There is a real world examples of violins, pianos, upright bass, drums, etc, that can be heard live, to compare how the speakers are able to reproduce them.

Even before I was not a fan of classical, I would still use classical recordings to evaluate speakers, because I know what non-amplified, acoustic instruments sound like player live.

Once I have a baseline if the speakers are reasonable accurate on classical and jazz,  then I can see how they will sound on the genres of rock I listen to.

[PeteG]

2xHD Audiophile Speaker set-up and Audiophile Hi-Res System Test

Just a shoutout to these outstanding and well put together test albums. I have most set-up/test CD's but these two I really enjoy more than others, if you get a chance to pick them up you won't be disappointed. Highly recommended. They can be downloaded in DSD or PCM and make sure you download the PDF booklet.






https://dsd-files.s3.amazonaws.com/2xHD/2XHDFT1095/2XHDFT1095/2XHDFT1095.pdf
https://dsd-files.s3.amazonaws.com/2xHD/2XHDFT1042/2XHDFT1042/2XHDFT1042.pdf

[Mag]

I have Clean Mates cd laser/lens cleaner cd disc that also has calibrating features for use with cd,cd-r,cd-rw,cd-rom,dvd and video game disc players.

Stereo Imaging & Channel ID Check
Polarity Check
Sweep Test
Pro logic Imaging & channel ID check
System Balance Check
Rattle Test
System Purity

[Hoiman]

To test lthe ow frequencies, London Grammer "Hey now", after 1.15 min. it goes really low.

[Elizabeth]

Best is recordings you really really know well.
Then, if you hear something NEW!!
You will be surprised and pleasantly so.
If a speaker can give you new insight into a recording you already know well. Then you KNOW it is a good speaker.
Same thing listening to other electronics.
As others mentioned, a good female vocalist is one to use.
Stringed instruments like a quartet.
Something very dynamic.
Piano.
But above all, they have to be well known to you.

[Russell Dawkins]

I used to use a track by Leontyne Price to test midrange dynamic capabilty and smoothness of response. Most speakers will break up completely at some point in her fortissimo glissandi. I have it on vinyl (an RCA Red Seal) and can't find it online, but here are a few I found that might perform the same function:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOWCa1HkfBM&index=5&list=RDmiq4WNIByd8
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFNJez611R0&list=RDmiq4WNIByd8&index=2

She has a lot of power in her voice, and these recordings are clean; they should not sound strained at any point.

I also absolutely love her voice, as did she (and with justification!)

[Wind Chaser]

Best is recordings you really really know well.

What she said! 

[johnto]

Jazz Variants by the O-Zone Percussion Group, lots of different percussive instruments on all frequency ranges and definitely some sonic boom.

[decal]

What she said! 

Ditto 

[bodhiboy]

Run Like Hell from Pink Floyd's Pulse recording.  Most cone excursion I've ever seen on the big Matrix 801 woofers.

[alvinnir]

i tend to have a series of "test tracks" that I burn onto a cd that I can take with me. All of it is music I love and know well and each track has a focus.

One may be solo piano, one may be voice, one may be some dynamic jazz fusion. That way I can see how any speaker deals with each of the criteria I value but within the context of music I know well. I also include music that I like that is not too well recorded because I don't want to own a speaker that is overly revealing of poor recordings. Otherwise all you can listen too is "audiophile" pressings which is rather limiting.

Those recordings are fun to impress, they make any system sound as good as possible, but that's not what I want to listen to when at home, the lights are low, and I have a fine glass of wine in my hand.

[Alpentalic]

I tend to like to bring a variety of things including female vocals, male vocals, reggae, jazz, orchestra.  I feel like with these areas covered I can make a pretty good assessment.  I always bring what I consider well recorded music.

[Plato’s Mojo]

Right now I’m using Gallo Strada 2s and a pair of subs. For the speakers, I like to use Enya “Watermark”. I like the dynamics of the album and it covers the mids and highs I look for when making placement adjustments. For sub placement, I like the album “The Ways We Separate” by Beacon. It is electronica with a heavy base beat throughout the songs. Keeps me from having to go back over and over to reset a song. The album also has some nice mids to high melodic passages where I can check the subs’ integration with the Stradas. Always cool to see what others are doing.

[Theronbo]

1. Listen to music you know well... then you can really hear the differences.

2. YouTube has a bunch of Audifile test playlist that are fun, full variety of music recorded lossy or 24bit 96Hz.

3. This seeming pretentious album:
https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-ultimate-demonstration-disc/261629584

It seems humorous at first, except that going through it I found it was useful...
Plus, I really enjoy the music.

Oh, I’m not an audiophile...

I just built some X-Static’s I wanted to test.

[Russell Dawkins]

1. Listen to music you know well... then you can really hear the differences.

2. YouTube has a bunch of Audifile test playlist that are fun, full variety of music recorded lossy or 24bit 96Hz.

3. This seeming pretentious album:
https://music.apple.com/us/album/the-ultimate-demonstration-disc/261629584

It seems humorous at first, except that going through it I found it was useful...
Plus, I really enjoy the music.

Oh, I’m not an audiophile...

I just built some X-Static’s I wanted to test.

Thanks for the link. I used to own a Chesky test disc that had an amazing "up and over" track to test speakers and positioning. If everything was good, you would hear a scratchy 'white noise'-type sound start in the left speaker and seemingly go up from there and over in an arc to the right side, then down into the right speaker.
Apart from careful speaker positioning enabling good phantom image creation it seemed to require flat response through the midrange because duplicating the typical ears' pinnae's influence on tonality with vertical movements of sound sources.

I can't find the disc now, either in actual reality or online.

[rollo]

  Familiar piano music or any other acoustic instrument.


charles