What does your car audio "test" playlist consist of?

[Jose]

Just curious what you guys listen to while testing out your car audio systems? Specifically what tracks do you listen to. And does it matter listening to it on a CD versus some sort of plug in media like a USB stick, iPod, etc? I'm guessing streaming over Bluetooth would be out right?

[Baron Von Crowder]

power supply "my 5.0"

CD's are generally better quality than streaming audio or bluetooth. MP3's are compressed too.

[Craizie]

THX intro sound!

[BP]

Definitely CD and Hotel California used to be the USACi standard for sound quality, not sure what they use now. Pink noise with a good RTA is a nice start though.

[BP]

Actually let me elaborate. CD will be better quality than AAC or MP3 but it's only going to be as good as what it was mastered from. Compared to an ipod or most smartphones the CD will be better.

The various lossless formats will sound better than CDs though if the original media is worth it. However most people will never notice a difference so most players and devices don't support it.

[ram57ta]

Dire Straits- Money For Nothing
Eagles- Hotel California
Pink Floyd- Dark Side of the Moon (several)
Muse- several tracks
Don Henley- Dirty Laundry
Awolnation- Sail


Hell there's a lot more I could add...thats just a very basic quick list

[BMCSean]

Project Pat/ thread

[Mach1]

Wiz and too short - on my level

[jluv]

Actually let me elaborate. CD will be better quality than AAC or MP3 but it's only going to be as good as what it was mastered from. Compared to an ipod or most smartphones the CD will be better.

The various lossless formats will sound better than CDs though if the original media is worth it. However most people will never notice a difference so most players and devices don't support it.

My iPod only has Apple "lossless" on it, and it's way better than normal MP3, but still nowhere close to CD quality. If I'm gonna jam, it's gotta be CD or DVD.

Hotel California from an Eagles concert DVD is my go-to.

[95DRGT]

All CD's
ZZ Top Six Pack Set- Blue Jean Blues
Jeff Beck - Blue Wind
Rush- La Villa Strangiato
Yes-Roundabout

[kingjason]

Madonna has several tunes. Enigma, Metallica, Awolnation, EazyE...........

[black2002ls]

I used to use have a frequency response disk that I would use.

I also found the drumline movie soundtrack to be useful.

[Jose]

Thanks everybody for the info! Also if you can, please be specific as far as an artist and song

Looks like I'll need to go back over my music collection and start getting higher bit rate replacements as I have a lot of 128-256 kbps music. Actually looking at it now a lot of it is in between so I really need to get something more uniform.

What is typically considered CD Quality? 256 kbps?

Oh and I did listen to Hotel California yesterday and I guess I never noticed how good this song was from an SQL standpoint. Wow! Just wow!

So far here are some of the songs I've got on my playlist.

U2 - With or Without You
Corey Hart - Sunglasses at Night
Cyndi Lauper - Time After Time
Dire Straits - Money For Nothing
PM Dawn - Set Adrift on Memory Bless
AWOLNATION - Sail
Guns and Roses - Welcome to the Jungle, Live and Let Die, November Rain
Jimi Hendrix - All Along the Watchtower
The Who - Baba O'Reily
Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody, Under Pressure
Black Eyed Peas - Boom Boom Pow, Rock That Body

I got some ideas on what to put on this playlist by Google searching for SQL Playlist and I came up with the following.

http://list.ly/list/HQe-7-best-songs-for-testing-speakers-or-headphones

http://www.autoblog.com/2010/09/24/audio-engineer-lists-top-10-songs-to-test-a-car-stereo/

http://www.toptenreviews.com/electronics/articles/top-ten-songs-to-test-your-speakers/

https://serato.com/forum/discussion/329607

http://www.avsforum.com/top-10-tracks-to-test-your-sound-system/

[Baron Von Crowder]

Hotel California is my go-to, and I also like Stairway to Heaven since it starts out soft and progresses from there.

[Chili]

My hearing isn't good enough to discern the difference. As long as I can turn it up without distortion, I'm usually fine.