Download Sound Quality Test
Amy Sumler
Conventional, physical sound analysis deals with sound in the air. Sound quality metrics measure the effects our ears have on the sound before it reaches our brains, such as favouring certain frequencies. Sound quality metrics also measure how our mental processes determine how the sound affects us. Some metrics such as Zwicker Loudness attempt to understand how the human ear experiences sounds by properly weighting the different parts of the sound signal. Other metrics like articulation index quantify factors such as how easy it is to hold a conversation near the sound source. By using combinations of such objective sound quality metrics to describe the outcomes of these complex psychoacoustic phenomena, you can reliably quantify them in a repeatable way that gives clear engineering directions.
Every reviewer at What Hi-Fi? has their own carefully curated list of songs they use to test stereo speakers, spanning all genres and musical tastes. This is crucial for testing speakers, especially if they're new: while we like to keep up with new releases as much as the next melomaniac, we know it's also best to use songs you know really well to hear what the speakers are capable of.
From the four-square boom-bap of the drum pattern to the squeals, hisses and squeaks in the background as the tune builds, control needs to be martial. And the thrumming, almost unbroken bass sounds only add to the test.
Want to know what Dolby Atmos is all about? Get yourself a copy of Angelina Jolie's Unbroken and head straight to the bombing raid. It's glorious from the off, opening with a choral score that should sound heavenly on your speakers. It slowly gives way to the hum of the approaching squadron of bombers and you need to be able to hear real dimension to the individual rotor blades of their propellers buzzing by.
Atmos is about more than just height. The extra axis of sound means the designer can pick and place effects into the soundfield as well as adding that overhead dimension. This scene has both, and if you're not ducking your head every time the enemy comes in for another pass, then it's time to upgrade your equipment.
While it begins with a ringing sound that should come from everywhere and nowhere at the same time, this sequence gets going as a test for your stereo pair. The whole scene is set to Bellbottoms by the John Spencer Blues Explosion. It's a song with serious attack and it needs to come across with - no pun intended - real drive. If you don't want to hear it again by the end of the scene, then your set-up is doing something wrong.
When the getaway begins, though, it's about how your surround speakers integrate with the fronts. The tyres should screech across the soundscape as the car slides about and it mustn't be so clumsy as to sound like the effect is simply chucked from speaker to speaker. Ideally, it moves across the space so subtly and seamlessly that you forget about your system altogether - not an easy thing to do when you're testing, we grant you.
From a Baby Driver to a Taxi one - there's not much in the way of whizz-bangs in this Scorcese classic to test out the effects chops of your home cinema system but, for music and for dialogue, it's a winner.
You're looking for your speakers to melt into the background and produce an all round, open sound that you can almost bathe in. It needs to lull you into relaxation before smacking you round the face with discord in a reminder of the Travis Bickle that's yet to come.
Then it's a great test for your centre speaker as Bickle answers questions at his taxi driver job interview. He's a bit of a mumbler but his words should still be nice and clear and it should be impossible for him to hide his troubled nature behind them. His controller gets the sense that there's something not quite right with Bickle and so should the audience.
Marvel means nothing if not great action, and the web-slinger is an awesome character to test big swushing surround effects. This mid-movie, first-time showdown between Spider-man and the Vulture is an excellent work-out for a home cinema set-up.
It begins with some pretty standard busy action - gun shots from left, right, up and down; smart dialogue; a jaunty soundtrack - and then quickly moves to a full-on swinging and flying fest from the two lead characters.
To begin with, we need an ominous feel to the deserted city. Your system will need the dynamic skill to render every drop of rain against the moody string soundtrack. Your sub will need to be big enough to hit you chest every time water shoots up from the planet's surface but not be so soft that the effect is too muffled.
And the disc is a wicked test for your home cinema system. Take chapter 7, the club scene, where Wick brutalises a queue of henchman while chasing a towelled Alfie Allen through crowds of merrymakers.
Watching the opening scene, you should feel immediately feel blanketed in the musical atmosphere. One of the first sounds that will strike you, as well as your subwoofer(s), is the sonorous, undulating bass. If your drivers can cope with the LFE, it should feel expansive without masking the other details in the scene, like the spinner flying overhead or the buzzer waking Ryan Gosling.
While sci-fi is often rooted in far-fetched fantasy, we find it to be most effective when it's connected with reality in order to make it more believable. 2021's Dune, an adaptation long in the making and certainly not the first live-action take on the pivotal science fiction story, nailed this wholeheartedly with its tactile world-building elements. This extends past the excellent set design and concept art, as well as Denis Villeuneve's stellar directing (the same visionary behind Blade Runner 2049 which you'll already have seen on this list), but also in the film's sound design.
Crucially, out of the 3200 sound effects in the film, just four were totally synthesised, which explains the film's odd uncanny sense of familiarity despite taking place in a distant solar system occupied with nightmarish alien warlords and worms that can devour small towns. Notably, the vehicles in Dune take on a familiar yet animalistic design, with the aerial vehicle known in-universe as an "Ornithopter", taking on a dragonfly-like appearance. The resemblance isn't just physical, however, as the sound designers combined a variety of organic insect and feline sounds to achieve the fluttering wings and buzzing engine noise.
This scene starts tame, with a gentle cruise over the deserts of Arrakis, but it quickly devolves into a rescue mission as the Ornithopter nose dives and the protagonists rush out into the sandstorm to help the crew of a large spice harvester before a deadly worm attack - it'll make more sense when you watch it. What results is a sonic feast, as the sounds of rushing wind, creaking metal and frantic cries envelop you in surround sound. It culminates with a deep, guttural bass drop as the worm surfaces, accompanied by Hans Zimmer's masterful score, this is not a movie to be missed, especially if you have a good surround sound system.
Daniel Craig's final outing as James Bond may not have lived up to Casino Royal for many, but its opening chase scene provided plenty of high octane thrills. It included some sweet vehicle stunts, and a smorgasbord of action sound effects including the crunching metal of crashing cars and the satisfying ping of bullets hitting bulletproof glass. The scene kicks off with an explosion that takes Bond's hearing, which the sound designer's cleverly worked into the film's audio presentation. We hear 007's ears ringing as if they were our own, and then it kicks into high gear.
It culminates in a standoff within a town square, as the baddies open fire on Bond's bulletproof Aston. The effect of bullets clinking against the armoured car, as the glass splinters and buckles is exhilarated, especially in surround sound as many scenes taken place within the car from the protagonists position. But this is Agent 007 we're talking about here, and he always has an escape plan, this time it so happens to involve the rattling machine guns strapped to the front of his car, a hissing smokescreen deployment and revving the DB5 up to perform some graceful donuts before making his escape - looking and sounding as good as ever 007.
After what feels like an eternity of lacklustre DC films, we finally got a worthy adaption of the caped crusader in the form of 2022's The Batman for the first time since The Dark Knight Rises was released a decade prior. While the film ticks practically every checkbox for us, including the grimy yet gorgeous take on Gotham that's enhanced through expert set design, lighting and cinematography, it also happens to sound fantastic.
The pivotal moment that demands a quality sound system has to be the Batmobile chase scene between the titular character and an unrecognisable Colin Farrell as The Penguin. What starts out as a shootout quickly escalates, ass Batman makes an entrance that induces goosebumps no matter how many times you watch it. The sound of the Batmobile revving up, with the snarling V8 engine accompanied by the whistle of an actual jet booster is sensational and it only gets better from here.
As the chase reaches its climax, the Batmobile lets out one final roar as it jumps through a fiery explosion before smashing into the back of the Italian sports car. We're placed within the Maserati as it flips out of control, with the sound spinning around us in tandem, effectively carried out in surround sound.
From the director of La La Land, a touching tragic romance, and First Man, an emotional biopic centred around Neil Armstrong during the 1969 Moon Landing, comes Babylon; a raunchy, messy and unpredictable deep dive into the golden age of Hollywood. We'll preface now that this is not a family-friendly movie, however, it just so happens to sound pretty incredible.
After the opening scene, we're taken to a depraved and bombastic party full of music, dance routines, performers, alcohol, drugs and... an elephant? Babylon whips around this opening party as the infectious jazz soundtrack plays, while increasingly taboo things happen. Whether that's the enveloping sound of the crowd cheering (or screaming in fear) or the individual instruments of the jazz band asserting dominance as the camera zooms in on the maestros, it is arguably closer to overstimulation than anything else, however, the sense of chaos is conveyed so effectively through the sound design that it instantly mesmerised us.
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