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What are your top "test" tracks and why?

Roger Waters / Ballad of Bill Hubbard - huge stage, few sounds coming from behind you, if this track is flat and doesn't sound good it's definitely something wrong with the system
DM / Lovetheme - all song just few sounds, great to catch big differences
Kate Bush / Waking the Witch and Watching You Without Me because so many different things on these tracks
Bielka Nemirovski/Col Vert and Makis Ablianitis/Love Secret from Buddha Bar Presents Amnesty International record, both tracks in one go. Wonderful female vocal and sound of flute which I'm very familiar with and plenty of subtle effect which you can't hear when is a bad system
All 4 song of side B of Low / David Bowie
Pink Floyd / Run SACD multichannel - few subtle effects which disappear when something is wrong


 
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London Calling - full album, Aja - full album and if I get bored I jazz it up with the HiFi News test record
 
I have a bunch of test tracks which I use with new equipment to push it to its limits and to spot audibile issues, some of them also to check speaker and listener positioning and bass balance.
This is what's currently in my test tracks folder:

Cassadó: Cello Suite - I. Preludio-Fantasia (Starker, Denon)
Prokofiev: Sinfonia Concertante In E Minor, Op125 - I. Andante (Chang, EMI)
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances, Op45 - I. Non Allegro (Jansons, EMI)
Scriabin: 12 Études, Op8_12 - Étude In D-sharp Minor (Subdin, BIS)
Liszt: Eine Faust-Symphonie, S108 - III. Mephistopheles (Inbal, Denon)
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.4 In F Minor, Op36 - III. Scherzo (Mravinsky, DG)
Beethoven: Symphony No.9 In D Minor, Op125 "Choral" - IVa. Presto (Giulini, DG)
Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky Cantata, Op78 - IV. Arise, Ye Russian People (Mata, Dorian)
Scarlatti: Keyboard Sonata In B Minor, K27 (Ross, Erato)
Sarasate "Zigeunerweisen, Op20" (Mutter, DG)
"Con La Madre" (La Reverdie, Arcana)
Zéspedes: Guaracha - Convidando Está La Noche (The Harp Consort, Harmonia Mundi)

Sarah Vaughan "Great Day" – vocals, mood
Miles Davis "'Round About Midnight" – muted trumpet
Ron Carter "Saguaro" – piccolo double bass
Yussef Lateef "The Plum Blossom" – delicate flute
Paul Chambers "Yesterdays" – bowed double bass (great for testing speaker/room balance)
Benny Goodman "Moonglow" – swing
Bill Evans "The Peacocks" – piano
Anouar Brahem "The Astounding Eyes Of Rita" – el oud, tone, soundstage, relief
Dave Brubeck "Far More Drums" – rythm/ drive, drums, soundstage, relief
Dave Grusin "Shop 'Till You Bop" – rythm/ drive, drums, soundstage, relief
Nina Simone "Sinnerman" – complexity, vocals, tone, clarity
Alice Coltrane "Turiya & Ramakrishna" – complexity, tone, clarity, soundstage, relief

Leonard Cohen "Avalanche" – vocals, mood
Beirut "Elephant Gun" – complexity, tone, clarity, soundstage, relief
The Strokes "You Only Live Once" – rythm/ drive, tone
Yann Tiersen "Les Jours Tristes (Instrumental)" – rythm/ drive, tone, soundstage, reflief
Aimee Mann "Momentum"– rythm/ drive, tone, soundstage, reflief
Lou Reed "Dirty Boulevard" – rythm/ drive, tone, soundstage, reflief
Spain "God Is Love" – complexity, vocals, tone, clarity, soundstage, relief
Ben Harper "Jah Work" – acoustic guitar, vocals, tone, clarity, soundstage, relief
Cowboy Junkies "Rock & Bird" – vocals, tone, clarity, soundstage, relief
Tom Waits "Black Wings" – vocals, tone, clarity, mood
Pixies "Hey" – dynamic swings, soundstage, relief
Rolling Stones "Sympathy For The Devil" – caustic guitar solo

Ruben Gonzalez "Cumbanchero" – piano, double bass
Bert Jansch "Angie" – acoustic guitar
Andy Statman "Dveykus Nign" – clarinet, soundstage, relief
Ladysmith Black Mambazo "Nomathemba" – choir, clarity
Mercedes Sosa "La Maza" – vocals, percussion
Radio Tarifa "La Mosca" – rythm/ drive, soundstage, reflief
Ali Farka Touré "Ai Du" – rythm/ drive, soundstage, reflief
Warsaw Village Band "Do Ciebie Kasiuniu" – percussion overhang, clarity
Brigada Víctor Jara "Laço dos Ofícios" – percussion, bagpipes
A Cumpagnia "Tempi Di Sumenti" – choir, clarity, spatial cues
Ora Sitner "Beer Bassadé" – vocals, percussion
Andy Statman "Bedekens Nign" – soundstage, relief
 
ABBA - "Chiquitita" "The day before you came" & "Super Trooper" from their Gold complication. The second track is the reason I bought the Belles Aria.
N.W.A. - "If it ain't ruff" from Straight Outta Compton
Mantovani - "Charmaine"
Michael Jackson - "Working Day & Night" from Off the wall
Tinlicker's edit of James Zabelia's "The Healing" from Anjunadeep 11
Way Out West - "Anything but you" from Don't look now
Dandy Warhols - "Every day should be a holiday" from Come down
 
Paul Simon - 50 ways to leave your lover.
Mary Black - There is a time.
Mickey Bubbles - The best is yet to come.
Jennifer Warnes - Famous blue raincoat.
Deadmau5 - Raise your weapon. (The one for when the bass aspect needs testing)
Weezer - Hash Pipe.
Pixies - Gouge Away.
Rob Zombie - Thunder Kiss 65.
 
I also have a playlist specifically for this! They're a wide variety of styles and genres that I think give a system a good all-round workout:

01 - Blackest Eyes - Porcupine Tree
02 - Detroit - Marcus Miller
03 - Rimshot (Intro) - Erykah Badu
04 - Magellan - Mike Oldfield
05 - Colour To The Moon - Allan Taylor
06 - Flying in a Blue Dream - Joe Satriani
07 - Hotel California (Live) - Eagles
08 - Raise The Roof - Bob James
09 - Midnight Walker - Davy Spillane
10 - Marc Cohn - Baby King
11 - The Grave and the Constant - Fun Lovin' Criminals
12 - Watercolour - Pendulum
13 - Saigo No Bansan - Mouse On The Keys
14 - Move On - George Michael
15 - Sylvia Hotel - Cheryl Wheeler
16 - Living In The Pocket Of A Drug Queen - Dust Junkys
17 - On Her Majesty's Secret Service - The Propellerheads
18 - The Power Of Goodbye - Madonna
19 - Rainmaker - Keb' Mo'
20 - Money For Nothing - Dire Straits
21 - Mona Lisa - Martin Taylor
22 - Mary - Patty Griffin
23 - Played Twice - The Fred Hersch Trio
24 - Sweet Georgia Brown - Monty Alexander
25 - Flight Of The Cosmic Hippo - Bella Fleck And The Flecktones
26 - After the Fall - Incognito
27 - 101 Eastbound - Fourplay
28 - Flatlands - The Aristocrats
29 - Midnight Blues - Snowy White
30 - Long After You're Gone - Chris Jones
31 - Brothers In Arms - Dire Straits
32 - Where Will I Be - Emmylou Harris
33 - Just A Little Lovin' - Shelby Lynne
34 - Coming Home (Extended Cut) - Aporia Soundtrack
35 - Benefactor - Mirror's Edge Soundtrack
36 - Trouble's What You're In - Fink

I've just created it in Deezer (minus the Cheryl Wheeler track which isn't on there), click here to have a listen: https://deezer.page.link/Fzq3UFSvxcLuJN9b9
 
For detail it is K.D.Lang's "Constant Craving" - There is a shaker or maraccas sitting in the mix. Some speakers make them sound VERY quiet others bring them out more fully. The best I have heard in the former were my old Naim SL2's where they became a major percussion instrument.

For imaging it is Van's "Caravan" from ITLTSN - Van moves around the stage introducing the Caledonia Soul Orchestra who are all in their semi-circular arrangement and for pure bass PRAT probably "Leftism"

For big grin enjoyment it is the old boys - Aja, DSOTM and Kind of Blue etc not because I feel the music is "better" but it is so familiar

I shall be using all of these tomorrow picking the bones between Spendor A7's and Neat Ekstras.

Ron
 
Just 3 for me

April in Paris by Thelonious Monk from the album Monk to check how his grunting is reproduced or not
Miles in the Sky to check that the Tony Williams drum dynamics and subtlety are reproduced
King Priam by Michael Tippett to check classical dynamics, and sound of brass, bass, singing, woodwind, violins etc

It never occurs to me to check for soundstage and imaging - not important to a flat earther
 
timpy said:
ABBA - "Chiquitita" "The day before you came" & "Super Trooper" from their Gold complication. The second track is the reason I bought the Belles Aria.
N.W.A. - "If it ain't ruff" from Straight Outta Compton
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Brilliant! My musical tastes are just as diverse.
 
Stanley Clarke first album and Journey to Love but all early analogue ones seem to do the job.
Sheffield Drum Record Xrcd.
Billy Cobham albums
Level 42 World Machine and Dune Tune from second album
Three way Mirror - reference recordings
Anything on Altarus records but early editions in particular.
Acoustic Guitar on Delos and Stradivarius records
Naim Cd's recorded in Analogue
Pentangle first Album SACD
Art pepper smack up and meets rhythm section DCC Gold
Stan Getz - Cool Sounds Japanese cd
Espana - Chasing the dragon

could add loads more but that will do for now
 
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I value tonal integrity, vocal intelligibility, dynamics, and the ability to play loud above all else. In common with most of you, familiarity is key - if you know a piece of music well, it's easy to spot even subtle changes in presentation, so, to that end -

The Yardbirds - Roger The Engineer ('Over, Under, Sideways, Down'), 1980s CD: a 'classic' case of a label taking a 1960s tape edited for radio play and mastered with vinyl EQ and ripping it direct to digital without any compensation, thus producing an appallingly bright, shrill recording. If it sounds appallingly shrill, then your system isn't rose-tinting anything; if it still sounds listenable, that's mainly because the Yardbirds were pretty awesome...

Slint - Spiderland, vinyl reissue: A massively dynamic recording throughout, but deliberately EQ'd down to whisper-quiet levels which means using way more volume than usual, thus revealing any intrusive system noise. If you can decipher Brian McMahan's background mumblings - especially in 'Breadcrumb Trail', you have an exceptionally resolving system. In 'Washer' the sometimes dense multitracking should never get tangled, but equally, should still cohere into a recognisable track. Likewise, if the dynamics don't occasionally scare you into diving for the remote, something is awry.

Górecki - Symphony #3, Zinman, London Sinfonietta, Elektra CD: If you're not crying at some point, sell your hifi / buy-back your soul.

Marissa Nadler - Songs III, ('Diamond Heart' and 'Dying Breed'), CD: Girl + Guitar = Audiophool cliché, but your system needs to play this stuff well. Marissa's morbid vibes are spotlit, supersized and feature a number of clunky tape-edits, vocal gaffes, as well as some steered-effects in track 2, and it should all sound as right-but-Rong as intended.

Leonard Cohen - I'm Your Man; 'Tower of Song': if Marissa hasn't got you throwing a rope over a sturdy beam, then Laughing Lenny surely will; you should hear the phlegm at the bottom of his capacious lungs, and the bass should agreeably rumble the couch. Perfection is achieved if the Mrs has to sit on a towel by the time you get to this track...

Abney Park - From Dreams or Angels, 'Breathe Acoustic' - Schlocky goths manage an atmospheric track despite recording it on what sounds like a Nokia 3310 in a garden shed. That's really is how it should sound, complete with godawful amateurish edit at the very end to cram it as an afterthought onto the CD. The rest of the album serves as bait for a system which becomes bright and congested when music gets busy. Don't panic though when it sounds like something's about to go up in smoke - it's actually *their* equipment that's distorting horribly. Play it loud on other people's hifi and watch them cry when they think you've welded their voice-coils for them... ;-)

Cornelius - Sensuous: Soundstaging matters, it's one of the Great Lies of 1980s British Audio that it doesn't - if your system isn't doing it, then it's also not doing lots of other important things. The run of tracks 'Omstart', 'Beep It' and 'Like A Rolling Stone' feature a variety of steered stereo effects, notably in the segue between the first two, which after wandering around your room for a while, should ultimately position themselves around a metre behind your head in free space. Big Fail if no-can-do. 'Gum' / 'Scum' are a brilliant test of a) dynamics, b) how well your system copes with dense recordings, and c) your nerves.

Thirteenth Floor Elevators - Levitation / Live in Concert, Thunderbolt CDTB 147: Your system needs to be able to play lousy recordings of great music or you will just end up listening to a carousel of audiophile clichés. This is a terrible copy of a terrible bootleg of a band smashed off their tits on every recreational substance known to man. If it sounds tolerable, your system's doing something right. If it sounds good: contact the Vatican - it's a miracle.

Orbital - The Altogether, 'Doctor?' - This is purely here to cheer you up after some of what you've just endured. Fun bass mind.

Muddy Waters - 'Folk Singer' - One of the all-time great recordings, peak Chess, peak Muddy, a young Buddy Guy, plus Willie Dixon and Clifton James - admittedly this sounds good on anything, but on a good system, you're in the studio with them.
 
Not necessarily my favourite tunes my ones I am familiar with.

Love & Affection - Joan Armatrading . Listening out for two acoustic guitars playing in separate channels, how well defined is that on playback and Joan's voice.

Fire & Rain - James Taylor - Listening out for how organic and acoustic Russ Kinkel's drums sound being played by brushes and can you hear the deep bowed acoustic bass playing throughout.
 
My old standby was "Could've Been Me", the opening track from John Martyn's "Well Kept Secret", UK vinyl.

I haven't had occasion to purchase anything new for years, have made no major changes to the system, so haven't had much need for test tracks recently....
 
Hannibal LP of Nick Drake's Bryter Layter because after so many years I know it very well. I have the original pair of KLH5 studio monitors BL was recorded on available for listening duties.

Nick Cave's Boatman's Call on CD because it is one of the best CD recordings I've heard - if the kit doesn't realise that, we have a problem. Ditto NC's 'Idiot Prayer' for the piano and atmospherics of that big stage at Alexandra Palace.

Same as @chiily I also like to give Japan's Tin Drum a spin to see what the kit makes of Mick K's bass on Sons of Pioneers and Cantonese Boy. Happily, this gives me another opportunity to listen to Tin Drum.

Steely D is in the mix too - I'm waiting to see what the kit will make of the drums on Aja and if it can place those big arrangements on Can't Buy a Thrill and Pretzel Logic.

Neil Young's Harvest and After the Goldrush to see how we go with vocal harmonies.

There's a LP 'Best of...' collection from James Taylor in a plain white sleeve which has an uncanny ability to make any half-decent cart sound like a silky MC. Fabulous recording / mastering. So I usually give that a spin just to ensure a cart knows what's what - it's hard to get wrong. Al Green's LP 'Let's Stay Together' does a very similar thing, so that goes on too.

Might throw in a spin of Dexy's and Specials. Just to ensure the kit knows how to enjoy itself.
 
Interesting thread. I have to say that whenever I go to a hi-fi show or shop the test tracks chosen by the vendors are usually female vocals with sparse instrumentation or jazz and while both genres are obviously worthy they're not my first choice when it comes to home listening. I strongly believe that listening to tracks you love and are familiar with is better than selecting tracks that are firstly and fore-mostly well recorded as obviously you are going to listen to the former more than the latter. Of corse tracks you love that are also well recorded is the best combination, but life is not always like that. Anyway my current selection would include:

Chicane - Middle Distance Runner - CD (Giants album)
FGTH - Relax (Sex Mix) - 12" single
Joy Division - Atmosphere -12" Single (US pressing - thanks Tony L).
This Must Be The Place - Talking Heads - LP (Speaking In Tongues album)
This Woman's Work - Kate Bush - CD (The Sensual World)
Mercy Street - Peter Gabriel - CD (So album)
My Own Soul's Warning - The Killers - CD (Imploding The Mirage album)
Radio Activity - Kraftwerk - LP (The Mix)
 
1000RPM said:
There's a LP 'Best of...' collection from James Taylor in a plain white sleeve which has an uncanny ability to make any half-decent cart sound like a silky MC. Fabulous recording / mastering. So I usually give that a spin just to ensure a cart knows what's what - it's hard to get wrong.
Click to expand...
That is a great record which is almost flawless in the playing and production.
 
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My test track, apart from some of the above mentioned stalwarts, is Old Man by Help Yourself. Ken Whaley’s bass should roll along, be fairly prominent and help to keeping the momentum going.
 
I use different albums, depending on my musical taste at the moment. But one album I use every time is Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness. This can sound pretty crap on many highend systems as it's not the best recording ever. If a system can handle this, then HQ recordings are a piece of cake.
 
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