Any song recommendations for testing purposes?

D

Deleted member 926328

Guest
Hi y'all,

So me and my pal came up with an idea about testing our own " streaming system " and see which is better, but yeah ofc, there can only be one variable, otherwise the test wouldn't be fair, no?
we decided to only change the streamer/player in each test, well luckily, my friend who happens to be an ultimate PC Hi-Fi fanatic, so the test itself which became rather easy haha, equipment-wise for sure.

Last Sunday, we were just chilling in my living room and chitchatting, he said he wanted to listen to some new modern pop song, so I played Shiver by Ed Sheeran, and he said the dynamics don't seem quite enough, I was like what the heck do you mean, and he said his system could present more details in the music than mine, anyways, so I brought my streamer over to his place, and would like to have a competition hahaha.

As I mentioned, he's a PC Hi-Fi dude, so he's done a lot modifications and all that upgrade stuff to his PC, so he used USB port to connect to his DAC and the rest to play the same song, Shiver by Ed, well truth to be told, I also thought the dynamics weren't quite sufficient as well lol, ofc he said my perception was biased bc he judged my system first, thus, we both agreed to play some more complicated tracks, like classic genre or something, however, both of us aren't that much of a elegant music admirer I'd say, which I sincerely hope you guys can share some nice songs with me!!!

BTW, we both played TIDAL via Roon, the only difference is just he used PC, I used Munich M1T, no network switch or linear power supply attached.

Best,
 
Shiver by Ed Sheeran
I have a couple of ED Sheeran albums (don't judge me) and they are both dynamically compressed. Awful recordings. It's a trait with many modern recordings on any format, compressed so that they sound loud.

This is a good site to look how dynamically compressed recordings are although current it is down for a major update.

dr.loudness-war.info
 
Whatever the song, the diffences should show up, all other things being equal.

"Wide Open Space" by Mansun - the original version - has quite a lot going on in there.

Lots of HiFi dudes just play slow jazz and other well-recorded stuff to show off their systems.

Any system with 2 instruments and a vocal will be easy to mix and master. It gets more difficult when there are more instruments. A good system will be able to separate the instruments in a busy mix (unless the recording is total rubbish).

A song with real instruments (rather than all electronic) is a good bet.

I find that snapping of fingers is a good thing to try and pick up. I think Billy Jean by Michael Jackson has some quite subtle finger snaps in there. The snaps should be sharp and crisp.

For bass/bass drum separation try Paul Weller's "All the Pictures of the Wall" from his Wild Wood album. The actual recording is a bit strange - it sounds like it was recorded in a pub with no reverb. If your system can separate the bass from the kick drum in that song, it is doing well.

Another song, which I used to think sounded distorted and harsh, is "Walk" by The Foo Fighters. It is a very compressed song, but a reasonable system will play it without being hard on the ears. You should be able to turn up the volume and still not be too desperate to get it turned down.
 

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