Movie scores are a sure-fire way to test your sound system’s performance. There’s a whole lot of variety in that category, from emotive scores to pull on the heartstrings (hearing any piece of music from E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial immediately takes me into a nostalgic wormhole) to tense action tracks to get the blood pumping.
In our AV and hi-fi test rooms, we often turn to movie scores to decide how well a sound system performs.
We have a page dedicated to tracking the best movie scores to test your system, although it has been a fair few years since it had a much-needed spruce-up. There are a bunch of brilliant soundtracks missing from the list, and we have a few entries in mind already that we will be adding.
That includes John Williams’ Theme from Jurassic Park, which features sparkling brass and is an excellent test of dynamics. There’s also the energetic soundtrack from Mad Max: Fury Road by Tom Holkenborg that can make for a punchy and tense listen with the right system.
But for this month’s Ask the Reader, we are opening the floodgates to you, our trusted readers, for your favourite scores that you use to put your sound system to the test. It could be a niche release or a decorated blockbuster, whatever floats your boat.
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