Music to Test Your Headphones & Speakers

You spend a lot of time researching headphones & speakers, what’s the first song you play? (Image via Unsplash)

Audiophiles spend a lot of time researching and tuning their preferences when searching for headphones, speakers, audio gear, the works. It’s a fun, albeit expensive, hobby. Often times you get asked, “What’s the point? Can’t you listen to music with the basic headphones that come (or used to, at least) with your phone?” Sure, you absolutely can and there’s nothing wrong with that. However, at least for us here at The DMGT, the root need being fulfilled that leads us to search for and appreciate higher quality headphones and speakers, is a love of music.

Think about the first time you ever heard your favorite song or artist - the rush of the sound filling your head, maybe the bass thumping into your chest. Your arm hairs standing up, but it’s not fear, it’s a satisfying chill that is near euphoric. Frisson. That is the eternal feeling we chase as audiophiles and music lovers. Even better when you listen to that same song with your first nicer pair of headphones or speakers, the sensation rushing back as you discover nuances and details in the mix you didn’t pick up before. Almost like rediscovering the song all over again.

As you continue on your music and audio journey, you identify songs that appeal to a specific need and mood at any given moment. Sometimes you want something bright and uplifting, other times you want something somber and rich. You figure out that each song fills your ears differently, and the better your headphones or speakers can weave in and out of those ever changing musical dynamics, the more you’re likely to use them. You reach a point where you have songs you start gravitating towards the first time you plug in a new pair of headphones or try speakers. You know which songs have good bass climaxes (or drops), which ones have intricate instrumentation details that you both need high attention & good audio reproduction to pick up on. The little details. That’s how you know you like the audio gear you’re using.

Maybe this is all a bit dramatic, but it’s part of the fun for us. So with that, we created this short playlist that will likely continue to be updated in the future, but started with 20 essential tracks we think can really test the range and depth of your new headphones or speakers. Take a listen, and let us know how we did. Or heck, even tweet us songs we should add to this. (Sorry non Spotify users, we’ll try to get other services updated to this page).

Some highlights and reasoning for their inclusion:

Lying from You by Linking Park - However you feel about the nu-metal era, Linkin Park has always taken great care with the production and mix of their music. This song has soaring guitars and drums that will test drive & output. There’s also a really rich sub bass that you can really feel in higher end speakers/headphones.

In The Air Tonight by Phil Collins - An absolute classic. A great example that dynamic range in a song creates a cool experience, levels don’t need to be maxed out on every track in a song. This creates some really nice space with Phil’s vocals & keys on the mids, the glimmery tones, low-pass guitar, and finally the drum drops filling up the low end frequencies.

Dreams by Fleetwood Mac - The remaster of this entire album is phenomenal, but this is a classic track to test the separation capabilities of your gear. Each instrument has it’s nice placement in this mix. Full bodied, it feels like you’re swimming in the sounds of this song.

Alright by Kendrick Lamar - Another incredibly produced album. This is your deep bass 808 test (there are others as well), but hip hop tracks in particular focus on the highs and lows of a mix as to really drive forward the vocal performance.

Dancing On My Own by Robyn - Music should also just be fun at times. A great synth pop track that can test how well a room can be filled or how much you can almost forget you have headphones on and really just start vibing out. Not to say this doesn’t have interesting production, it does, but without over doing the intensity on any particular frequency.