General:
I agree with others. Use something you've listened to a hundred times or more.
Specific:
Timbre,an a capella choir. The Robert Shaw Chorale comes to mind. Human voices are the most complex things to reproduce.Second choice,a string quartet.
Imaging,the last movement of Mozart Symphony #41. Can you follow all four horizontal/contapuntal lines, playing at the same time,without the speakers getting in the way?
Dynamic Range,Use a piece of music for which you have a written score. Look at the dynamic markings. ff is 100db,f is 90db, mf is 80 db,mp is 70db,p is 60db, pp is 50 db.
Find a ff passage and set the volume so your SPL meter is 100;keep the volume setting there and play a pp passage It should be 50,if it is more,you know how compressed the dynamic range is. Then do the same in reverse,set a pp at fifty,play a ff and see how close to 100 it is.
Range extreme,treble. Anything with a half stopped violin.
Range extreme,bass. Anything from the JS Bach Organbuken.
I know that is over the top,but there it is.
I agree with others. Use something you've listened to a hundred times or more.
Specific:
Timbre,an a capella choir. The Robert Shaw Chorale comes to mind. Human voices are the most complex things to reproduce.Second choice,a string quartet.
Imaging,the last movement of Mozart Symphony #41. Can you follow all four horizontal/contapuntal lines, playing at the same time,without the speakers getting in the way?
Dynamic Range,Use a piece of music for which you have a written score. Look at the dynamic markings. ff is 100db,f is 90db, mf is 80 db,mp is 70db,p is 60db, pp is 50 db.
Find a ff passage and set the volume so your SPL meter is 100;keep the volume setting there and play a pp passage It should be 50,if it is more,you know how compressed the dynamic range is. Then do the same in reverse,set a pp at fifty,play a ff and see how close to 100 it is.
Range extreme,treble. Anything with a half stopped violin.
Range extreme,bass. Anything from the JS Bach Organbuken.
I know that is over the top,but there it is.