Music for testing equipment speakers, headphones..

This is not the best method to select components. You need to judge an audio component based on the type of music you actually listen to, and not a bunch of test CD's. If you don't, you'll never get if right.

"The list is not comprehensive in musical styles, but it does offer enough variety to get the job done. It's a far better method than randomly selecting music that you like, but of unknown recording quality.
Onhwy61 (System | Threads | Answers | This Thread)"

I know we don't always agree on everything. Sometimes we do agree, but with regards to the above quote, unfortunately this is not one of them. I think we all use test CD's to get an idea as to how something will sound, but if you don't match your components to the music that you actually listen to, how can you ever expect to be happy? Its like cutting your nose off to spite your face. I made this mistake myself many times and can tell you from experience that if you don't like what you are hearing, you're not going to listen to the system. Its just that simple. The only thing you'll be listening to is your test CD's.

The process of choosing music that you like is not random. Who buys music at random? For the most part, I don't. Once in a while I'll take a chance, but the music I buy is bought because I like it. Also, the recording quality is not unknown. How could it be? You own the cd and can listen to it any time you want. There's nothing random about any of this. That's the whole point of using music that you listen to when judging equipment. If you don't do it that way, then you are guessing a random.

"05-01-15: Onhwy61
I can only conclude that you haven't read the thread the OP refers to. He's not talking about "test CDs", but referring to music tracks from readily available music CDs. The intended purpose of listening to the specific music tracks is to judge performance elements of a system. I think you're reading way to much into what the discussion is about."

I went back and read everything again and I still come up with the same conclusion. I don't see any difference as to whether a whole album, or just single, selected tracks are used. That said, maybe I wasn't clear in my first post. I'm not saying that you shouldn't use these types of tracks in helping you select gear. Its always fun to see how far you can push a system with special test tracks that highlight certain areas. My point is that you still need to build the system around the music you listen to. Your music can be very different than your test tracks both in terms of recording quality, and how they push your system.

If you read through many of the threads where people are having issues with they're systems, its easy to see that not judging a system using the music you really listen to, is one of the main reasons people fail. I'm no exception, either. I've has some spectacular failures due to this very issue. Everything sounds great in the store using test CD's, but the minute I get it home and start listening to the music I prefer, my CD's come out and the test CD's go back in. Then, of course, its another trip to the store for new gear.