Albums for testing new headphones with

[TAK]

.

[brownninja97]

nero doomsday

varien scarlet dawn

persona the movie- fate is in our hands instrumental

The prodigy- climbatize

hotline miami- hydrogen

claymore- kusenshi

shiki- eau de vie

 

That covers a pretty wide spectrum of music so you can pretty much test all parts of the headphones.

[Guest Onlynormalgamer]

So, I just got my new Grado SR80e's and was in need of some album suggestions for testing them with, any genre will do, but I mostly listen to rock & metal. Classical suggestions would be really appreciated.

 

Prefer something I can get from a legal source, so links to those also appreciated.

Well everybody like something different,not everyone like the same thing.

But here is something that first came up on my mind:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7loY2a2SaE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UOgPThi88I

First listen to this song: 

and if you like it you will probably like other too.

 

[c3p0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7QbxqaIH00

 

 

 

 

Should keep you busy

[c3p0]

More to come

 

 

 

 

 

 

thats it

[Kevinkt]

Wow so much scream/metal. Just old rock/jazz imo. or anything Binaural 

 

 

 

If you know how to look for high dynamic range music, look for that. can be kinda hard if you don't know what is, but it sounds better than most music being put out in the last 20 years. alot of 30+ year old music have good dynamic range

[solitudeisbliss]

I find the first album by Graveyard to be a very good album to test anything with.

[Dylan lol]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-X

[ImBleu]

Its always been said to test headphones with Bohemian Rhapsody as it has the most broad range of Highs and Lows and covers almost everything from vocals to Guitar to Drums and back again.

 

I'd recommend starting with that.

[BoredErica]

I'm assuming you buy better headphones because you love music. Then, you should have a decent library of music already, songs you know relatively well. If something is off or you hear something with the new headphones you've never heard before, you would be in a position to notice. You might want to play your old songs to see if they sound new.

[Lauen]

What dark_wizzie said.

But I most often use Megadeth's album TH1RT3EN because of the guitars, bass and drums, especially the bass drum.

And I also like to use the song Between The Hammer And The Anvil by Judas Priest because in one of the solos, there's a little scratching noise in a divebomb (I think it's called) just to see if the headphones can make the sound, which most can in my experience.

[Cupitor]

KevinKt is right on here. The poster, if I understand his request wants music recommendations which will test (okay, some speculation on my behalf) the performance of the Grados (my personal fav-brand by far). If it was "to test my new Beets-Headfonez", the music recommended would be 100% spot on.

The recommendations heard on Grados would likely disappoint severe-like, giving the poster that "ugh..." feeling we all know (variation of Buyers' Remorse).

Oh yeah! None of this is a jab at anyone's musical taste. (see KevinKt post above).

The genres recommended...a large part of the sound of many of the bands is ironically, the purposeful lack of dynamic range. That's not a derogatory statement BTW. The style would sound screwy if it had a crazy dynamic range.

Sometimes ppl confuse "dynamic range" with frequency range. The latter is how bassy the bass can be up thru the audible spectrum to how the "air" or high end freqs sound.

The recommended music is terrible for Grados. I can say with impunity, the production style (almost no dynamic range/very big frequency range) is anti-grado. The kind of speaker/hp the music was mixed/mastered to be listened to ain't Grados, it would most likely make both the headphones and music sound 2x bad.

Don't wanna get dorky on it but I want to make suggestions so you can test out those cans.

Buuuuuut! If the music makes you want to drink a lye smoothy, nothing will matter much, no matter how headphone appropriate it maybe.

You mentioned classical, which can be ridiculous in the dynamic-range dept...but the genre is so varied and too much stuff, it's impossible to make a cold recommendation. Same with other genres...soooo

Could you list of some things you enjoy?

Adjectives (by themselves) work too.

Or if that doesn't work, do the opposite and list things that cause you to vomit instantaneous.

Btw, binaural, (if you didn't know) refers to a specific mic-placement/recording technique. From the bi, you gathered the process uses just two microphones. The recordings are 99% live, no overdubs, very little post production/eq. In other words, the technique was created to make recordings which sound as close to real-life "you're 20 feet away from the band playing on stage" as possible.

With all the 7.1 surround stuff, it may seem counterintuitive, archaic and stupid. After all, what's the big deal with setting up 2 mikes and hitting the record button?

The answer is way beyond anything I could text here. There's a lot of dictionary-sized books on the subject!

Anyway, a list of like-don't like would be good

And congratulations on the Grados. If you can't stand them...don't sell em. Wait for a few years. Then listen again.

[Krishtrinity]

So, I just got my new Grado SR80e's and was in need of some album suggestions for testing them with, any genre will do, but I mostly listen to rock & metal. Classical suggestions would be really appreciated.

 

Prefer something I can get from a legal source, so links to those also appreciated.

Lacuna coil-Karmacode,Dark Adrenaline

Evanescence-Fallen

My Chemical Romance-The Black Parade

Within Temptation-Hydra

and the usual AC-DC,Guns and Roses,Iron Maiden etc

[LtRoyalShrimp]

So, I just got my new Grado SR80e's and was in need of some album suggestions for testing them with, any genre will do, but I mostly listen to rock & metal. Classical suggestions would be really appreciated.

 

Prefer something I can get from a legal source, so links to those also appreciated.

Transformers original soundtrack. 

 

Jump to about 2:30

 

[IdortMasterRace]

Oh god...

 

I really hope you're not listening to music through YouTube with decent headphones, sound quality is going to be awful.

 

Download actual albums in MP3 320Kbps, or Flac format for original, highest quality. Just search '*Album* 320Kbps' wherever you get your music. Or listen straight from a CD for the same original quality.

 

YouTube compresses audio, I couldn't think of anything worse than listening to compressed music.

[Cupitor]

"Download actual albums in MP3 320Kbps, or Flac format for original, highest quality. Just search '*Album* 320Kbps' wherever you get your music. Or listen straight from a CD for the same original quality."

(Nods; strokes invisible +1 bemusement goatee)

[Cupitor]

if ur itunesy, alac is cuperstinkos' closed source answer to flac.

.ape and .shm audio files=lossless too

[TAK]

.

[BaconComputing]

I.G.Y by Donald Fagen is a great test track.

[ShearMe]

"Casualties of Cool" by Devin Townsend has great mastering, "Ghosts" by Nine Inch Nails has a few mastering errors if you're listening close, and the Halo Combat Evolved Anniversary soundtrack has some rather glaring mastering issues (especially compared to the original album). Those three are generally what I use to judge a headphone on technical performance by listening for the mastering errors I know are there.

 

For general Classical listening, I'll list some good stuff:

Blechhaufn - a small brass group with quite a few albums.

Fantasia 2000 - sequel to the 1940 Fantasia, highlighting good generic Classical pieces from various composers

Lord of The Rings has one of the better full range melodic soundtracks as far as movies go, imo

The Last of Us - soundtrack for a game, lots of good classical-ish guitar amidst the overall ambiance. 

Caravan by Kenny Burrell - some soft jazz

Hosannah, S677 by Patrick Webb (and others) on The Art Of The Trombone - Amazing bass trombone solo backed by a great pipe organ

Stephen Bennett - classical guitar stuff

My local Classical Radio station is pretty good at playing lots of random stuff most people have never heard of, if you just want some random classical music.

Valentina Lisitsa - a great Pianist, has a few albums of various live shows, and plenty of stuff on youtube

[xukaiteo]

Time - Pink Floyd

Hotel California - Eagles

These are the two songs that I use to test my headphones.

[Cupitor]

hey- sorry I didn't get back to you. Dang tapa-talk response/reminders thing doesn't work.

It's great you running the gambit of genres.

I'm recovering the boot drive on my computer at the moment. After that I'll be able to "remember" some good stuff...

[bradscoolio]

I've been really enjoying Savants new album Protos. I find it had a very wide spectrum of different sounds and synths that you usually wouldn't hear in other music.

The genre is space-opera so if that doesn't sound appetizing then I don't know what does

 

 

You can buy his stuff here: http://shop.savantofficial.com/