beo4life:

Dire Straits  - Money for Nothing

 

Played on the beolab 5000's on dads timberframed walls.

 

It made one guy offer us £1400 for the speakers, which we turned down.

 

Great track! Got to be the album version with the extended intro though :) 

People wet themselves when Sting stops singing and the drums and guitar kick in!

Sorry all you Eagles fans out there but "Hotel California" is one of the very few tracks I wouldn't let any where near any of my B&O - I hate that track with a passion!

My favourites depend on the media involved, for vinyl it has to be The Beatles "A Day In The Life". Favourite CD/Digital media track at the moment for me is just about anything from a "The Cure" CD I have call "Mixed Up" which is a compliation of all of their greatest tracks remixed and a brilliant album.

I completely concur with Peter's analysis of Smells Like Teen Spirit though - great track and deserving of a decent sound system.

Chris.

Equinoxe - Jean Michel Jarre. Brings out the drama in any system, lousy as a low bitrate mp3 though.

Delerium - Capercaillie - the whole album is a good test of detail and balance, best known track is 'Waiting for the wheel to turn'.

If you want to test out your Lab9's then you'll want a voice with intimacy, something like 'Dusty in Memphis' Dusty Springfield, or Tim Hardins 'If I were a carpenter' - far better this original than the Four tops version.

I will have to agree with kokomo that many of the tracks suggested are unsuited as reference material, due to excessive processing/post-production/lack of dynamics, etc.

The three tracks I suggested all have different properties relative to BeoLab playback. I've personally chosen to go with B&O's acoustic lens equipped speakers (BL5/BL3), as I believe they are unmatched when it comes to acoustic performances.

The first track is an "ancient" recording. On some speakers you get a musical experience, but the soundstage doesn't open up. There are more than 30 musicians on stage, and you should have a feel not only for them, but for the audience listening (and going wild) - with precise placement of the musical instruments. Compared to today's recording technology, this is low-fi, but B&O speakers give it life, trust me. Duke Ellington's Newport 1956 recording.  Diminuendo in Blue, Live.

Hugh Masekela: Stimela (the version found on Hope). This is much used in hi-fi circles. Again a live performance, incredible instrumental contributions by the band, and then Masekela singing, playing the trumpet and speaking, with the live audience unable to prevent themselves from responding enthusiastically.
I have had people cry when hearing this in my listening room.

Elina Garanca: Werther, from her debut album. There may be edits here - but this is a sublime recording and performance, with bad speakers cracking up as Garanca tests their tweeters. The orchestra explores everything from tutti to sotto voce, and the ability of your speakers to provide details will be tested.

All three recordings have a large soundstage. Two of them have vocals, with a high degree of intimacy - one male and one female.
One classical recording - suffering slightly from Deutsche Grammophon's tendency to close-mike - but then a good set of speakers let you listen for that.

The Hugh Masekela recording must be heard to be believed -- you'll test your bass, your highs, your detailing, your soundstage, the depth illusion.

And Diminuendo in Blue has an interesting property. When I play that back in full resolution (CD), I can play it as loud as I want. When I play it back as loudly in iTunes Store resolution the tweeters on my BL5s go mad when Gonsalves hits the highs at the end of the track. Apart from that, another recording that will show off a pair of BeoLabs.

(I don't have much recent listening experience with the B&O speakers that do not have acoustic lenses.)

My favorite test track is Diana Krall - Devil May Care from the Live CD/DVD.

It has piano, guitar, bass, percussion and very nice vocals

When we got our Beolab 9's in december this song totally blew us away!

Trentemøller - Take Me Into Your Skin is also great track for testing Hi-Fi, and it's from Denmark :-D

Fair enough! Hifi is more about the music than the sound, but I agree with kokomo, in that while A Day In The Life is an amazing recording for it's time, it's nothing in comparison to recordings that were done even a few years later, such as Dark Side Of The Moon (which wouldn't have sounded as good where it not for Sgt. Pepper in the first place).