re: What song do you use to test the sound quality of new sound equipment?

Battle of Mona Lisa by P@TD

Rumors by Fleetwood Mac. Has a wide variety of instrumentation as well as some subtle notes and other sounds you can't hear on lower end equipment.

John Saw That Number - Neko Case

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Digital, Bluetooth portable PA system. Going from stereo down to mono output.

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Just joking, I recommend using a high definition audio player to at least get that part of your sound maximized. Once you go bluetooth and stereo-mono, you're losing a lot. You don't want to start that process lossy.

You should use a mix of songs. There's a youtube channel that demos lots of speakers and monitors. They usually have a really good mix of music in their demos. Often times, one sounds better on some tracks, but not as good on others.

Dire Straits...Love over Gold album

I’ve always liked listening to Dont Wanna Fight by Alabama Shakes and Helplessness Blues by Fleet Foxes on new audio equipment.

Metallica has been widely known as some of the biggest abusers of “the loudness wars” (google it up if you don’t know what it is). Most of their recordings are extremely over-limited and extremely compressed. It is possibly some of the worst music to use as a test for a high end system.

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Nu Shooz—“Point of No Return”

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I remember Poolside and it was highly compressed pop. Point of No Rrturn is better?

I normally do Led Zeppelin (higher vocal range), Tool/A Perfect Circle (mids and lows), Van Morrison (low, dirty vocals), and random live albums (overall gains). I adjust everything off of that set point as needed

Marco knows his shite. Just sayin.