Forum menu
I might conceivably be in the market for a new (to me) car this year. The sound from the HiFi/Stereo is an important consideration given how many hours I spend in the car compared with listening to music at home. So I compiling a burnt CD or MP3 stick play list what would your tracks be to test out a car (or home) HiFi?
This would be one of mine:
Obvs
This one also as it is good for treble. It holds a special place for me as it was the demo track in 1994 when I bought my first pair of B&W 602's from a hifi shop in Leeds:
The bass in this is hellish. Won't play through my laptop speakers.
Shermer75: this would be my reference 90's speaker breaker:
Once you've got the treble sorted you can use this to check the bass
A bit slow posting there...
For me, it would be as follows;
Elgar - Nimrod
Dire Straits - Private Investigations
G'N'R - Appetite. All of it.
Mike Oldfield - Tubular Bells
Rush - Farewell to Kings
Wouldn't you be better off using whatever music you like/listen to the most ?
And to show it's not all D&B or 90's rave, sometimes a little Vincent Price classical is needed:
Wouldn't you be better off using whatever music you like/listen to the most ?
This is, of course, the actual answer. In the meantime, however, rock and roll could never hip hop like this:
[i]Wouldn't you be better off using whatever music you like/listen to the most ?[/i]
Just what i was gonna say!
How about some
but thats some of what I likes in the car
Tested my old Leak speakers with this. Awesome!
Another track that is a key to me. Ever since Zardoz I have loved the first 3 minutes of this track:
If we're talking Jane's Addiction then surely it has to be
You want a high quality source.. don't beat me to death for suggesting this, but an origeonal CD of michael Jackson's 'bad' album is very well produced and has a wide dynamic range.
Id steer away from mp3 format as a demo as they are compressed. Get a genuine CD disk of something you know has been well produced.
I like an awful lot of different music, and have an open mind to good tracks. So ideas from the STW collective are always welcome.
Great driving track from the best driving album
Goodun for QBRTs
Tracks we often use to sell/demo speakers include:
Jamie Woon - Night Air (great bassline)
London Grammar - Hey Now (very well produced for 'pop' music)
Fleetwood Mac - Big Love (acoustic version off The Dance)
Dire Straits - take your pick from Brothers in Arms
Propellorheads - Oh Yeah!
Lincoln Mayorga - Dock of the Bay
Lady Gaga - Just Dance
All of the above are very well produced and can reveal shortcomings in most systems, BUT, only if you know what it should sound like. Ergo, you are far better off using something that you know and like.
About 1:20 in - little bit of base, little bit of drums...
I remember playing this in a B&O shop one time. and you could see the windows flexing 😀
Davidtaylforth, you reminded me! How could I forget this classic:
I've been doing this recently, for home rather than car but the OP said either, my list has been:
Gabrielle - Lamb
Release the Pressure - Leftfield
Angel - Massive Attack
So What - Miles Davis
Blue Train - John Coltrane
Motherland - Natalie Merchant
Karma Police - Radiohead
Crystalised - The XX
Stormy Weather - Etta James
Going Underground - The Jam
Elektro Kardiogramm - Kraftwerk
Come As You Are - Nirvana
Without You I'm Nothing - Placebo
Tried to keep a bit of variety. So far the better the system the more the acoustic and synth stuff shines but the same systems just seem to make stuff like Placebo, Nirvana, The Jam etc sound very uninspiring.
I've used this for decades - I know it so well:
and then there's this:
😀
Dire Straits "Telegraph Road"
Fleetwood Mac & Rumours
Paul Simon & Graceland
Police "Every Breath You Take"
oh....Take Five is definitely on the list now! Love that track and know it well.
if you want to know if the speakers buzz or something try XXYYXX // XXYYXX
Id steer away from mp3 format as a demo as they are compressed. Get a genuine CD disk of something you know has been well produced.
That's bollocks. In a car, with wind and tyre noise, it's totally irrelevant; a recording on a metal cassette tape from CD would sound as good, an MP3/AAC at 320 Kb variable bitrate is virtually indistinguishable from a CD or lossless version to the greater majority oh human ears, in a car you'll never, ever be able to tell the difference; I've done comparisons between 320Kb and lossless versions of the same track, and couldn't tell them apart.
Because of all the background noise, unless you're driving a Roller or a Bentley, classical is a challenge, the wide dynamic range, with lots of subtle quiet bits, can make it tricky to reproduce in a car, when the loud bits suddenly come in it can be a bit of a jolt, unless you're listening to lots of early 20th Century English pastoral string music. The 1812 might be interesting; there's a version, I think by the Atlanta Philharmonic, which used real cannon!
Trust me on this one. If only all remixes were this fearsome. Problem - you'll never want to stop driving...
And this: (evilbadass bass drops at 2min 30, but now you're not sure if you want to be driving or be longboarding...)
[i]That's bollocks. In a car, with wind and tyre noise, it's totally irrelevant[/i]
Virtual hug for CountZero for talking sense 
Ps. remind me to avoid going on a road trip with Hadge 😀
Eerm ok then. Just buy a sub, turn it up and stream low quality audio. Because wind noise will spoil anything better. 😉
Not sure being in a car is conducive to decent sound reproduction, but Sledgehammer by Peter Gabriel is a great reference track, any Flying Lotus, SBTRKT, Holy Ghost! or Stranger than Earth by Purity Ring.
It used to be Hawaii 5-0 and Curtis Mayfield Move on Up
Ghostbusters
Aerosmith Livin on the edge
Ride of the Valkyries
I had a go at sq a few years ago. The IASCA test cd was used and was perfect for this. Tests everything from correct polarity and channel set up to ability to reproduce low 20s hz. Must be some out there on ebay or talk audio as i had 2 at one point and sold one and most mates doing it had a couple of copies just in case.
As for the guy saying you cant tell difference between mp3 and cd in a car due to background noise dear me. Never heard of dynamat? On a decent system its very clear and so is a poorly produced cd.
I definitely would not take mp3s or any other compressed format. In my experience the better speakers make these tracks show up all their inadequacies. On the other hand if you plan to play mp3s in said vehicle, it might be a good approach.
This one really brings out the tiny nuances in the sound quality.
Last time I used:
Pixies- Debaser
Portishead- Roads (Roseland NYC)
Handel- Part of the Messiah
Aphex Twin Polynominal C
I was going to say Dead Prez too. Bigger than hip hop. It rattles the dead awake that one...
Something very, very simple to start.
Solo voice, classical guitar, violin etc.
If it can't get that right, it's not going to be any good with anything else.
Kristin Hersh (ft. M. Stipe) - Your Ghost
It's got everything solo vocals, duet, acoustic guitar, cello and a then out of nowhere some really low bass thumps.
Also for rock Pearl Jam - Alive
So will you reject the car if the stereo sounds bad ???
Personally my test tracks for proper hifi are
If it sounds good on all 3 tracks it is very likely going to sound good on everything I listen to.
Otherwise Evanescance My Immortal is a pretty good track :
And I noticed that this track is hard for a system to make sound good :
although the seller might give you funny looks if you play it...