alphared

Going to install my sound system soon, what is the best cd to test out the speakers and sub?

Anyone2u

iTrader: (1)

Here's a completely obscure one, but one I always love to use on a system just because it sounds so good.

Silencers: A Blues for Buddha Track 9 (Sacred Child)

They're from Scotland and "a lot" of people compared them to U2. I don't believe they are still around (this album came out in 1988). At 5:51 starts a great ~30 second "drum" solo that really tests the subs. It could probably even make the Bose system sound good!

If anyone has a DVD/Surround Sound (DD5.1/DTS) system, I highly recommend Underworld's Live Everything Everything DVD, especially track #8 "Rez/Cowgirl". Even my friends that don't like "techno" really like it and end up looking like my little friend here --->

ScottC

Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon

Scafremon

I don't know anything about test CD's, but I did see some at this site that I guess are for this exact purpose. They are at the bottom of the main page.

ares

iTrader: (2)

if you want to test the bass, your gonna need

ludicrus-ho

if you want anything else, Id say stair way to heaven, wish you were here, dazed and confused, or crazy train. all of those have intricate playing, some with stereo effects, and are generally damn good songs. new music has too much noise in it to really get a feel for how the speakers sound, gotta go back to the good ****.

rouxeny

The Eagles - Hell Freezes Over. I've read a few home stereo reviews with this used as the reference CD.

It is an excellent live recording with great range.

LS350Z

The best reference CD you can use is one you are familar with. Some of my favorites include:

Blue Man Group: Audio (great album to really test mids and highs as well as accuracy of speakers. The CD does have some hiss in it due to the nature of recording the instruments but if your system is up-to-par it will melt away fast)

Pink Floyd: Dark Side of the Moon (another great CD to test everything in your system. Most speakers will die on the begining to Time because they cannot reproduce the highs accuracte - attribute some to loss to the amp as well. During Money you'll really start to tax your subs and woofers and really pay close attention to the speed and accuracy of them)

Blade 1 sound track: I love this CD due to it's wide variety of songs and styles. Most of this CD will truely attack your mids and on some tracks (1 especially) your subs. Listen for how your subs reproduce the quick (120 bmp) sub hits.


Nappy Roots - Excellent CD again to test everything. This CD is truely underratted.

Anyone2u

iTrader: (1)

My nomination for most "variety of songs and stlyes" on a soundtrack would have to go to Natural Born Killers which goes from Patsy Cline to Nine Inch Nails to The Dog Pound and everything in between, including dialogue from the movie. Sure, you may not like the movie, but the production by Trent Reznor (NIN) was phenomenal. I can't think of a better sounding more eclectic mix of music (and somehow the thing flows perfectly)! I also agree that the Blue Man Group is excellent!

(And the winner of the "Pointless Post Award" goes to...)
I just noticed that we had three "animals" in a row up above: A gopher, a chimp and a dog!

LS350Z

Ohh - Natural Born Killers is another great album. I use that quite frequently as well.

Subw00er

Pink Floyd - The Final Cut ("Darkside of the Moon" is great too, as mentioned above)

Specifically, the 6th track while the guy is walking and 7th when the bomb hits.