What song do I demo my new headphones with?

Q: What song do I demo my new headphones with?

A: I would say the most important criterion for demoing headphones (apart from the song being of good quality) is that you know it very very well, so that you can pick up nuances sooner rather than later. Typically my demo playlist comprises of one song from each genre I love that I know like the back of my hand.

It's hard to pick one song, my current demo playlist starts with New Order - Regret (Fire Island mix). Lots of tonal variations, both "cold" and "warm", instrumentation allows you to focus on bass, mids and highs in turn, tests tightness of bass rather well, brings out coloration, vocals have good intonational characteristics that can be used to advantage when A/Bing, positional nuances are subtle so a reasonably good test of soundstage, too.