Best tunes to test your stereo? Highs, lows, detail, clarity, range, etc.

 

This is more of an individual preference item. Certainly not rap. Most rap recordings are done in basements on home equipment. Now days, many mainstream recordings are done in home studios with less than optimal equipment and environment. I think you'd be better off choosing something from the 80's but again, personal preference.

It really comes down to something that you are most familiar with AND have a familiar high quality home/studio system to compare it to. Let's face it, a lot of you guys spend thousands on your car systems but in the end, they are just car systems and will NEVER be equivalent to a good home or studio setup. I personally prefer any high quality classic recordings that i am very familiar with on my home system. Then I have a proper frame of reference.

 

You kno its funny that you say dont use rap cause there is two raps songs i listen to on every system i do to help with tuning a little bit

 

Tons of stuff. What type of music do you like?

Really well recorded stuff from places like the IASCA test disc. Sheffield labs ("drive" is a great one) telarc etc.

Specific tracks?

Billy jean MJ (good midbass test)
Sultans of Swing Dire straits (good instrument tuning)
Nora Jones, Celine Dion (female voice, I know I know)
Gravedigger (dave matthews solo album, good for male voice)
Metallica Black Album (lots of double kick drums and guitar stuff)
2 pac All Eyez on me album (good for some sub tuning and highs)
Hotel California Eagles (hell freezes over, great dynamic range)

Tons of stuff .. read this thread: http://www.diymobileaudio.com/forum/...ighlight=songs

Fej

 

Eagles definatly. Their farewell I tour as well has the same great sound.

to check overall clarity, anything done by a orchastra will give you a super clean signal provided it's not a compressed file.

 

i like to use dave matthews, some rap, and i decided to try norah jones per fej's suggestion and i like using it now too. 30 seconds to mars has some good stuff too.

 

norah jones is super easy to hear clipping with as well, although i just pop in some cd's i like and go by ear. First song I play is alwasy Who - who are you and/or Dire Straits - Money for nothing (i want my mtv)

 

I agree it does have a lot to do with personal preference and what songs you really know. I don't have a reference home system yet (i have some definative technology bp speakers but still looking for a worthy amp) but I do have some amazing beyerdynamic dt880 250ohm open cup headphones and a tube headphone amp that gives me a great baseline.

King's X -dogman album is recorded very well and I always throw in the song 'dogman' when evaluating a system.

some fun songs though:
30 seconds to mars -capricorn
and disturbed song off the first album
lenny kravitz- live
tool- prison sex
Pink Floyd- a new machine part 2
van halen- 1984
rush- tom sawyer
nora jones-
totally agree with fej on sultans of swing. that is always right next to dogman for me

 

That dire straits song is great with the drums in the beginning of the song

 

Notice that most of the suggestions above are from the 80's.

This is because that's the last decade we had most albums still produced in professional recording studios on high end analog equipment.

Aside from that, it really is a personal choice of what you are MOST familiar with so that you can compare. If you listen to good headphones all the time, then you know what sounds good and what doesn't because it's all relative. You know what it's SUPPOSED to sound like. If you never have a base system that you do 90% of your listening on, you will never have a true reference.

 

You should have engineered your system around the type of music you like to listen to. Then you just pick your favorite and jam on.

Personally I think you can test the full range using two picks:
1) Frankenstein - Edgar Winter Group
2) Inagoddadavida - Iron Butterfly

Yea, the second one sounds odd but you get solos from every instrument so you can concentrate on setup for each.

JMHO

 

The problem with Iron Butterfly is that was recorded in 1968 and the balance of the audio spectrum is not up to today's standards. I'm not sure that was even recorded on a multitrack. But otherwise, a good thought.

 

ok robvuk...you've peaked my interest by your posts. what are your credentials? you seem pretty new to the car audio sub-forum, so welcome to the dark side!

 

Tracy Chapman has some of the best recordings out there. Simply outstanding. I'm going to have to find out who does her mixes and find some more! Give that a try and you will not be disappointed - promise.

"Forgive me" - will test any Jazz set up to perfection.

 

HA! You noticed. And thank you for the welcome.

I've been hanging around the Z06, tech and roadrace forums which is already too many. Yes, it's really funny that I've been a member here for around three years and never visited here. Quite frankly, I have very little interest in car audio. On the other hand I've been a recording engineer, producer, sound designer and installer for almost 40 years (retired from that biz) so I have a great interest in sound in general and love to talk tech. I was a previous owner of one of the few major pro audio dealerships for a few decades. So although I have very little knowledge of car audio, I AM an audiophile of sorts. I say "of sorts" because I am not one of those fanatical esoteric guys who thinks he can hear the difference in a wire.

I think I'll waste some of my time here for awhile, it seems like fun so far. I can answer most technical questions about sound systems as I also had a manufacturing company that made high performance touring sound systems as well. I worked closely with a couple of top speaker manufacturers about performance and designs. I toured with many groups mostly in the 70's and 80's. Just don't ask me if brand A is better than brand B because I really don't know car products. When I want to do serious listening, I do it at home or in the studio. For me the car is just background entertainment and the Blose system is just fine.

 

well welcome aboard. you'll find that the 15 or so of us that hang out here regularly b.s. a lot and i can count on our fingers how many times we've had any sort of tension over here.

 

Godsmack, the drum beat slams the woofers.

 

I noticed that you have a profession that fascinates me. At one time in my early years I was a film editor for a company in Chicago. If I thought I could make money at it at my age, I'd learn to do more. I used to make a lot of CAD drawings for studio designs.

 

thanks this field doesn't leave much room for building my system though :-(

i'm working 12 hour days and I haven't had a day off since march 17th and my next day off may be april 1st or the 7th (at which point I won't have any work ). I gotta admit, i do have fun though. I'm actually talking to a company right now that is funded by GM. It's not a feature film company but it may be fun for 6 months or so until speedracer or mummy 3 ramps up