The true test

Dr Fahim Chand | Monday October 20, 2025 06:02

As the day drifts onward, does some cosmic hand ease the dimmer switch, casting a gentle glow to soothe our frayed, city-worn nerves? And as the light slowly ebbs, the world’s volume seems to hush itself.

Coincidence, or calibration? Perhaps they’re tinkering not just with the sky, but with our very chemistry. I once mentioned a study revealing that time spent in nature lowers our cortisol, the body’s stress alarm.

In case you’ve forgotten, cortisol is that invisible culprit keeping us tense with our jaws tightly clenched. Yet here I stood, in the waning light, feeling nature’s cool balm spread across the remains of a frantic day.

The breeze faded, the world exhaled, and only the shy trill of unseen birds dared to disturb the hush, as if the universe itself had found the perfect setting.

Thankfully, I had someone to share this little pocket of perfection with. I glanced over, Shabana was readying herself, handing me the remote to slip into my pocket. We were in gym gear, preparing for our neighborhood walk.

Though we chase fitness through every imaginable routine, walking, truth be told, remains the most underrated form of exercise. And today, conditions were flawless.

I pressed the remote, the gate yawned open, and Shabana handed me something I knew well, her headphones.

It was our custom: she used one earpiece, I the other, a clever compromise she’d invented so we could share music and conversation.

Her JBLs fit snugly, the sound rich enough to crease a smile on my face. My serenity, however, spiked slightly when she appointed me DJ for the expedition.

Our playlists are worlds apart, hers a melodic scrapbook of a nomadic childhood following her banker father across continents; mine, shaped by student years in North America, peppered with the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

I suspected their percussive energy might clash with her eclectic calm. But I was overthinking it, as usual. Weighted wrists swinging, she’d entrusted me with the music simply because her arms were otherwise occupied.

In the end, I found a playlist that pleased us both, an energetic blend that propelled our steps and, in moments, made fatigue an afterthought.

Music, after all, has that alchemy: it moves through the body like electricity, each beat a spark pushing you farther. And in headphones, it becomes pure, private, propulsion.

Still, it left me wondering: what songs best test a headphone’s capabilities, and how do engineers measure the magic that moves us?

Would it be the sweeping theatricality of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody or the nocturnal grace of Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata that best tests a set of speakers? Audio engineers, ever the sound experts, claim otherwise.

Their data-driven verdict: the most revealing track is not a rock opera or a sonata, but a haunting 1980s folk anthem, Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car.

The song, which climbed to number six on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1988, has quietly become the industry’s gold standard for testing audio fidelity.

Its mix of delicate acoustics, grounded bass, and emotional restraint stretches the full frequency range that separates good speakers from transcendent ones. But the true test lies in Chapman’s voice, recorded with crystalline precision, yet merciless in revealing flaws.

On lesser systems, she sounds distant, boxed in; on better ones, she’s right there, whispering her story beside you. There’s a reason, experts say, that voice is the ultimate yardstick: we know it too well.

We spend our lives decoding tone and nuance, instantly sensing when something sounds false or flat. Fast Car exploits that sensitivity, balancing vulnerability and power in equal measure. It’s a song I loved once and then, like a toy from another life, forgot.

But I’ll be downloading it again, this time to listen with intent. I only hope my headphones are up to the task. Because if music really keeps the world spinning, it’s only fair that Chapman and perhaps even Taylor Swift get to sing it clearly.

As for me, I’m finally confident I can craft a playlist that earns Shabana’s approving nod... and maybe even her other headphone.