[MickeyVee]

This has probably been done before but what the heck..

I have my top 10 go to songs that I use whenever I do an upgrade, want to tune my system or when something seems off, I listen to. They may not be the best recordings but after listening to them so often, I know what to 'listen for'. They may or may not be my top 10 of all time but are pretty close. It covers off most of what I like to listen to.

Does anyone else have a similar list? just interested.. here's mine:

• Age of Loneliness [Enigmatic Club Mix] : Enigma : LSD ~ The ReMix Collection
• Bad [Live] : U2 : Wide Awake In America ~ Live MaxiSingle
• Black Magic Woman : Patricia Barber : Companion
• Fields Of Gold : Eva Cassidy : Songbird
• The Girl From Ipanema : Frank Sinatra : Nothing But The Best ~ 2008
• I Love You : Enigma LSD ~ Greatest Hits
• Run : Snow Patrol : Final Straw
• Thunderstruck : AC/DC : Greatest Hell's Hits
• What's On Your Mind [Club Mix] : Information Society : Old School Nation I
• Wind That Shakes The Barley : Dead Can Dance : Into The Labyrinth [ReMaster]This has probably been done before but what the heck..

 

[Edoardo]

I don't get it.
 
you mean:
 
1. the best 10 song to test your Hi-Fi system
 
2. your most beautiful / most listened 10 songs / 10 songs you know best (recorded decently though)
 
Cause I would have 2 very different lists
 

 

[MickeyVee]

Actually, 2 leads to 1. The songs you know the best, the stuff you love probably should be used to test your system. Why test with stuff you don't listen to often?
End result is something that is musical and personal to you. Technical perfection does not always lead to personal satisfaction.
Just one persons opinion

 

[Edoardo]

Well, to test my systems I use tracks I know well and that are very well recorded.
But they may not be my favourite ones. One thing is music, another thing is recording quality.
 
For example, I may love Toscanini's interpretation of Beethoven, but I test my system with Abbado's. Just because there are 60 years of recording technology evolution in in the middle...
I love the Rolling Stones but their recordings are nearly worthless for a headphone system test in matter of soundstage, etc.
 
 
Anyway, it's a very funny thing the fact that I was writing for a friend of mine a book about my favourite songs.
 
They were more than 10. They don't have any order and I'll try to  pick 10 among them...
 
I'll put a star on those I use to test my rig also.
 
DISCLAIMER: this is NOT a "the best of the..." or "the best from the..." neither is a mere list of the songs I listen to more often.
These are, according to me, the biggest and highest 10 songs of the so called pop-music era. (pop as opposed to classical)... They're real deep poetry and prove that those who wrote them have what somebody once called "a great soul".
 
 
 
Hallelujah - Leonard eCohen, BUT sung by Jeff Buckley *
Mr Tambourine Man - by Bob Dylan, but I don't have a favorite version
the Kick Inside - Kate Bush *
House of the Rising Sun - sung by Joan Baez live
Travelin' Riverside Blues - By Robert Johnson, better sung by Eric Clapton *
Yesterday - the Beatles
Brown Sugar - the Rolling Stones

Illegal - Shakira * (Well I use an Italian singer's cover recorded by Velut Luna for tests.)
For a Pair of Brown Eyes - the Pogues
 
 
 
For tests I use a lot of classical/Jazz instrumental stuff, which I know very well cause I listen to that stuff also live!

 

[TheWuss]

Stereo imaging / instrument separation:
   1.  "Solar Sex Panel" - Little Village
   2.  "Jeremy Carabine" - Skip Bifferty
   3.  "End of Freedom" - Wilderness
 
Rendering of percussion sounds:
   1.  "End of Freedom" - Wilderness
   2.  "Lost Waltz" - The Dave Brubeck Quartet
   3.  "High Life" - Arne Domnerus & Jazz at the Pawnshop
 
Vocals / emotional involvement / nuance:
 
   1.  "If He's Ever Near" - Karla Bonoff
   2.  "Change Gonna Come" - Otis Redding
   3.  "Hungry Eyes" - Merle Haggard
 
Warmth / bass texture:
   1.  "Misguided Angel" (Trinity Revisited version) - Cowboy Junkies
   2.  "Lizard Play" - Van Der Graaf Generator
   3.  "Trouble" - Ray LaMontagne
 
Treble / sibilance test:
   1.  "Sultans of Swing" - Dire Straits
   2.  "Stop This World" - Diana Krall
   3.  "Don't Look Down" - Lindsey Buckingham
 
PPaT / impact / toe tapping-ness:
   1.  "Epitaph" - King Crimson
   2.  "Take The Power Back" - Rage Against the Machine
   3. "Thunderstruck" - AC/DC

 

[Zombie_X]

I've been judging all my gear by the "MTV Unplugged" album by Alice in Chains. But more specifically the songs "Rooster", "Angry Chair" as well as "Down in A Hole". This album is recorded very nicely and has naturally recorded crossfeed.

 

[leng jai]

Hmmmm, tough one.
 
1. Erotomania - Dream Theater (Awake)
2. Cheers Darlin' - Damien Rice (O)
3. Biko - Bloc Party (Intimacy)
4. Mombasa - Hans Zimmer (Inception)
5. A Fair Judgement - Opeth (Deliverance)
6. Circles - Birds of Tokyo (Birds of Tokyo)
7. Separator - Radiohead (The King of Limbs)
8. Trains - Porcupine Tree (In Absentia
9. Yellow Brick Road - Angus & Julia Stone (Down the Way)
10. Between Two Lungs - Florence & The Machine (Lungs)

 

[Jmatt110]

Anything by Infected Mushroom, very high quality recordings and they cover a huge range of things to listen for (imaging, detail etc.). 

 

[MickeyVee]

Great lists.. gives me some more music to check out! Thanks everyone.

 

[skipgap]

These are the songs that had an influence on me, I hope that you can get something out of them.
 
Bob Marley - Could You Be Loved
Stone roses - Fools Gold
Tanita Tikiram - Twist In My Sobriety
John lee hooker - The Heeler
Pixies - Bird Dream On The Olympus Mons
Brothers johnson - Strawberry Letter #23
AC/DC - The Jack
Dire Straits - Industrial Disease
Soundgarden - Rusty Cage
James - Ya Ho
Rolling Stones - Emotional Rescue
The Who - Eminence Front
Stevie Ray Vaughan - Change it
Quincy Jones - Streetbeater
Pink Floyd - One Of These days
Booker T and Mg's - Green Onions
Beatles - Fool On The hill
The Commodores - Easy
Rush -  Closer To The Heart
 
 

 

[ShamanSleeve]

1. Brand New- Degausser 
2. Bright Eyes- Something Vague
3. The Swell Season- Falling Slowly
4. Gotye- Somebody That I Used To Know
5. Damien Rice- 9 Crimes
6. DeYarmond Edison- Leaving Me Wishing More
7. Bruce Springsteen- Lost In The Flood
8. Pink Floyd- Time
9. Kevin Devine- Cotton Crush
10. Manchester Orchestra- I Am A Book, Torn.
 

 

[baka1969]

Pink Floyd - One of These Days, Time, On the Run, Wish You Were Here

Dire Straits - Ride Across the River

Boston - Foreplay/Long Time

Beatles - Come Together

Puscifer - DoZo (Version 2)

Nirvana - Rape Me, Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle

Diana Krall - Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You

Arne Domnerus - I'm Confessin'

Tool - Third Eye

Bob Marley - Buffalo Soldier

 

[baka1969]

Pink Floyd - One of These Days, Time, On the Run, Wish You Were Here

Dire Straits - Ride Across the River

Boston - Foreplay/Long Time

Beatles - Come Together

Puscifer - DoZo (Version 2)

Nirvana - Rape Me, Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle

Diana Krall - Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You

Arne Domnerus - I'm Confessin'

Tool - Third Eye

Bob Marley - Buffalo Soldier

EDIT:

Mozart - Violin Sonata 454 suite as played by Itzhak Perlman

Tchaikovsky - 1812 Overture by Hollywood Bowl Symphony Orchestra

Miles Davis - Freddie Freeloader, Flamenco Sketches

* the above songs are some of the ones, in whole or in part, I use to test equpiment.