Reference Music

On this page I want to share some of my favorite albums and songs, all of them are played for pleasure and also as a reference to subjectively test headphones.
I must have a solid playlist of music so I can at least have a solid base to work upon, testing different headphones with different songs would be very hard for me.
Most of these albums and songs are not recorded to the so-called “audiophile standard” and don’t fall on the Classical and Jazz audiophile stereotype, even so, they are my reference albums so deal with it or use the door.

The KZ earphone guide was, for the most part, reviewed with Laura Pausini – Io Canto and Kamelot – Karma and Epica albums.
Also, you can view this youtube video from the author of audioholikz.com to understand why this page exists in the first place.

Albums

Laura Pausini – Io Canto (Atlantic Atlantic – 2006 – Pop Rock) [Bass & Mids testing]

Kamelot – Karma (Noise Records – 2001 – Power Metal/Symphonic Metal)

Kamelot – Epica (Noise Records – 2003 – Power Metal/Symphonic Metal)

Bill Brown & Jamie Christopherson – Lineage 2 – Chaotic Chronicle (NCSoft – 2003 – Game Score, Symphonic)

Guns N’ Roses – Appetite For Destruction (Geffen – 1987 – Hard Rock)

Joe Satriani – The Extremist (Relativity – 1992 – Instrumental Rock)

U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind (Island/Interscope – 2000 – Rock)

E.S. Posthumus – Unearthed (Wigshop Records – 2001 – Neoclassical New-Age)

E.S. Posthumus – Cartographer (Wigshop Records – 2008 – Modern classical, New Age, Symphonic Rock)

Jeremy Soule – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (DirectSong – 2011 – Game Score, Symphonic)

Sarah Àllainn – Anima (Universal – 2017 – Classical) [Mids & Treble testing]

Songs

Maaya Sakamoto – Record of Lodoss War TV: Kiseki No Umi single (Victor Entertainment – 1998 – Anime Score, J-Pop) (Youtube Link because this is by far my favorite anime song)

Christopher Tin – Waloyo Yamoni “We Overcome the Wind” (2014 – Modern Classical)

Christopher Tin – Sogno di Volare “The Dream of Flight” (2016 – Game Score, Modern Classical)

Mötley Crüe – Kickstart my heart (1989 – Hard Rock, Metal) [Bass & Mids testing]

Duke Ellington – Malletoba Spank (1959 – Jazz, Big band) [Mids & Treble testing]

The above list is by no means the complete reference I use to test headphones and other gear.