Usually I use Rage Against the Machine’s “Take the Power Back” or, for bass-driven uses, Rock Bottom frm Caspa & Rusko.
What about you guys?
Toccata and Fugue in D Minor. I’m by no means an expert on music, but I find that piece has enough range that I’ll notice any parts the speakers (usually headphones in my case, I go through them quickly) aren’t as strong.
Born to Love You, by Flim and the BB’s.
It’s got the soft, the booming sonic bass for a quick second, and over-arching harmony that can really give you a good sense of the range you’re going to get from your speaker arrangement. IMO, of course.
Tchaikovsky’s piano concerto, for the dynamic range at the beginning.
The end part of “Tubular Bells,” with the various instruments being introduced by Viv Stanshall.
The full album version of Locomotive Breath.
“Dance On A Volcano” by Genesis. The drums on that track seem to be an excellent test of car speakers.
The Dies Irae from Verdi’s Requiem. Any Robert Shaw recording.
If it can stand up to the first 30 seconds of that, it’ll take anything.
Autobahn by Kraftwerk
Ween, Reggea Junky Jew
good heavy bass
Achille’s Last Stand by Zeppelin. Kind of a tradition in our family since my dad blew out some top-of-the-line Bose speakers back in the 80s testing with the same song.
Back when I did that sort of thing, I used Fanfarra, from Sergio Mendes’ album Brasileira. Lots of heavy percussion and some vocals.
The Obvious Child from Paul Simon’s The Rhythm of the Saints.
I know this isn’t really what you mean but I have a sound file that tests a 5.1 surround sound system by speaking through each individual speaker and then having the sub woofer make a noise. It has helped me more than once diagnose when a speaker became disconnected.
Rush 2112 Overture.
If they can do a good job with the highs from the brass as well as the bass from the vocals you’re in good shape. There’s also a few thunder claps in the song that really good spaekers will bring out the impact of.
Explosions by the Mary Onettes.
Starts off with a good intermix of drums, high notes, segues into a broader range before getting into the vocals. Don’t really need to listen to the whole song either!
Just Like Honey by the Jesus and Mary Chain is similar but doesn’t have as good a range.
Songs with a decent amount of “popping” sounds in them seem to test things well. E.g., She Drives Me Crazy by Fine Young Cannibals. If the “pops” are clear at a fairly high volume then you’re good to go. (Either that or you’ve just blown a driver.)
Pink Floyd, Time
Between the soft clocks, bells, gongs, heartbeat, deep bass rumble, and screaming guitar, most speakers beg for mercy when only even cranked halfway.
The Windows “ding”. All I care about is if they work or not.
I use Boston or Rush commercial cd’s, because of the clarity of it all, and set my equipment to it, if I don’t have an analyzer with me.