Top 10: Best Songs To TEST Your Car Audio System

Although I would like to claim I am an audiophile, my hearing isn't as good as it used to be. Don't get me wrong, I know the difference between an BMW E46 330Ci's Harmon Kardon unit, which was an awful stereo, to an Porsche Panamera's Burmeister sound system -- the most amazing audio experience I have had in a vehicle.

Long story short, I have a few tracks that I always test sound systems with. But no one cares wants to know how 00R perceives sound, so let's look at someone's picks who is an expert.

General Motors's sound engineer, Matt Kirsch, spoke to USAToday about the tracks he uses to test car audio quality.

What do you use?

Here are Kirsch's top 10:

• Norah Jones - "Don't Know Why"
• Joan Baez - "Diamonds and Rust"
• Alicia Keys - "No One"
• The Eagles - "Hotel California"
• The Black Eyed Peas - "Boom Boom Pow"
• The Black Eyed Peas - "Rock That Body"
• Imogen Heap - "Hide and Seek"
• Mark Keali'i Ho'omalu - "He Mele No Lilo"
• Johnny Cash - "Bird On A Wire"
• Radiohead - "Packt Like Sardines In A Crushd Tin Box"

Test driving the sound system when you're car shopping can be as key to your long-term satisfaction as checking out the handling. So we thought you'd like to see this list of Top 10 songs for testing car audio quality from General Motors audio engineer Matt Kirsch, who led the sound work on the Chevrolet Cruze...

[Source: USAToday]







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t_bone - 9/25/2010 9:31:02 PM

0 Boost

Classical piano...crank it up and you'll immediately find any rattles in your system. Then again, you might not want to know. :)

vitalichaconne - 9/26/2010 4:56:35 AM

+2 Boost

imogen heap hide and seek and norah jones is a must..but stuff like elements of life dj tiesto is pretty good too :P classical music can help a lot as well stuff like bach's solo violin sonatas or w/e

Dustbuster - 9/26/2010 5:53:12 AM

+2 Boost

You don't need 2 different Black Eye Peas songs...I suggest Evanescence - My Immortal and Carl Orff - O Fortuna. Great in the Bentley's Naim system. Plus an Opera song like Carmen.

rubenkincaid - 9/26/2010 11:33:20 AM

+1 Boost

Celebrated Summer by Husker Du. Diminuendo In Blue by Duke Ellington. Back In Black by AC/DC.

delan - 9/27/2010 12:21:30 AM

+1 Boost

I love blasting "hide and seek"!! sounds really good in the E350. If you want to check the base of your system, "move" by Ludacris is also good.

UNCORK1 - 9/27/2010 11:49:44 AM

+1 Boost

My Pappy said son, you're gonna' drive me to drinkin' if you don't stop drivin' that...Hot...Rod...Lincoln !!!!

thstone - 9/27/2010 5:01:31 PM

0 Boost

Queen - We Will Rock You.

Crystal clear Freddie Mercury vocals backed up with booming bass and drums along with a nice slice of Brian May's screaming guitar.

als723 - 9/28/2010 1:04:09 PM

+1 Boost

I like the artists they picked, but on most of them you can find a better song to test out an audio system than the ones they chose...

I also like Baba O'Riley on that list... or Back in Black... gotta have my classics ;)