The best system test album/CD

If you're into this style this album is perfect:

Try out Pieces of a Man - Gil Scott Heron. 'Home Is Where the Hatred Is' and 'Lady Day and John Coltrane' are my favorite songs off of the album.



Another great sounding album is Presence by Led Zeppelin. The growling bass and crisp electric guitar along with the tight drum sound really show through on the vinyl compared to the CD.
 
131east23 said:
K.D. Lang, "Ingenue" is one of the best sounding CDs I own. It has everything and is so well engineered. Maybe it isn't hard rockin' enough for some people but it is an absolutely beautiful album that makes all the time spent putting together a great system worth every penny.
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One of my top 10 albums of all time...
 
Gino Vannelli- Canto
Telarc-Spies
Bella Sonus-Enamoured(24hz drops,classical guitar) used by Ray Samuels for his headphone amp demo's
 
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John Hiatt- Bring The Family
James Taylor- October Road
Luna- Bewitched
Mazzy Star- Among My Swans
Cowboy Junkies- Trinity Sessions
Eagles- Hell Freezes Over
Yo La Tengo- And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
Van Morrison- Moondance
 
Well mines would be Bootsy's Rubber Band because of the Space Bass, Keyboards and High hat cymbals.
 
nickrobotron said:
John Hiatt- Bring The Family
James Taylor- October Road
Luna- Bewitched
Mazzy Star- Among My Swans
Cowboy Junkies- Trinity Sessions
Eagles- Hell Freezes Over
Yo La Tengo- And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out
Van Morrison- Moondance
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I am with this guy!!

Moondance
Hell Freezes Over
Throw in some Ziggy Stardust, Spiders From Mars :banana: Yeah Buddy!
 
Dire Straits Ride Across the River and Police King of Pain are my go-to tunes for system test and showoff. CD or vinyl (but vinyl is my preference)
Dire Straits for the kick drum and King of Pain for the heavy snare drum. To my ear anyway, they can tell me a lot about my setup.

Eric.
 
Lots of good albums listed already but next time you are testing out your
system put on some Judds. :scratch2: Yeah I know, but great female
vocals, strings and kick drum with no distortion.
 
Butt hole surfers- shame of life
crazy town- toxic or skulls and stars or take it to the bridge
jane`s addiction- irresistible force
blackfoot-train, train
for vocals?
simply red- holding back the years
chris issack- i forget the songs name actually LoL
and guess what?
usher-yeah

but there are so many actually,
i have over 1500 albums on my computer, i just keep forward searching until something sounds good LoL.
 
+ 1 for both SD's "Two Against Nature" & k.d. Lang's "Ingenue". Our soundman used 2AN for sound checks - when it sounded good, the band would too.

For classical: Vaugh Williams' Sym. #7 /Naxos/Kees Bakels/Bournemouth Symphony is a good all-rounder - soprano, chorale, wind machine and watch out for that big pipe organ.
 
My LP picks are:

Steely Dan - Gaucho
Michael Jackson - Thriller (laugh if you want, but Quincy did a great job on it)
Genesis - Trick of the Tail
George Benson - Give Me the Night
Hagood Hardy - The Homecoming
 
For Progressive Rock fans, you might also audition a turntable with:

Camel - Nude, Raindances or Moonmadness (all on Decca - don't use Janus pressings)
Alan Parsons Project - Tales of Mystery and Imagination
 
Here we go again.......:D With that said, I have to say that my short list continues to change as each time I think I have it down, I find another CD that just blows me away and it gets added to the list. As of today these are the top 5 CDs I use to showcase my system...........

1. Patrick O'Hearn - So Flows the Current
2. Max Lasser's Ark - Earthwalk
3. Medwyn Goodall - The Essence of Magic
4. Nils Lofgren - Acoustic Live
5. (Tie) Yo-Yo Ma, Stuart Duncan, Edgar Meyer & Chris Thile - The Goat
Rodeo Sessions and Bach's Toccata & Fugue in D minor performed on the
pipe organ at the First Congregational Church in LA, an older Telarc
release.

Any of the above 6 is a great test for just about any system in the known world IMHO. I have another bunch that are right up there also but one does need to narrow it down to no more than 5 lest we be up all night listening to music...............:music:
 
Outer Bass by bass 305 will astonish you. Well i guess depending on whther or not your speakers can handle the bass at more then a few watts. The midrange makes you feel as if you are drifting through space while the bass pummels you. Quite interesting.
 
Aside from the various "test CD's" from the likes of Chesky, Linn, Focal JM Lab, B&W, Marantz, Reference Recordings, Telarc, McIntosh, Stereophile, etc...

"Autumn In Seattle" - Tsuyoshi Yamamoto
"Midnight Sugar" - Tsuyoshi Yamamoto
"Misty" - Tsuyoshi Yamamoto
"Rickie Lee Jones" - Rickie Lee Jones
"Court & Spark" - Joni Mitchell
"Aja" - Steely Dan
"Gaucho" - Steely Dan
"The Nightfly" - Donald Fagen
"Kamakiriad" - Donald Fagen
"Tracy Chapman" - Tracy Chapman
"Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances" - Eiji Oue, Minnesota Orchestra
"Famous Blue Raincoat" - Jennifer Warnes
"The Hunter" - Jennifer Warnes
"Jazz At The Pawnshop" - Arne Domnerus, et al
"Payton's Place" - Nicholas Payton
"Luck Of The Draw" - Bonnie Raitt
"Nick Of Time" - Bonnie Raitt
"Nojima Plays Liszt" - Minoru Nojima
"Nojima Plays Ravel" - Minoru Nojima
"Synchronicity" - The Police
"Ghost In The Machine" - The Police
"The Dark Side Of The Moon" - Pink Floyd
"The Wall" - Pink Floyd
"Live In Paris" - Diana Krall
"The Look Of Love" - Diana Krall
"Night & Day" - Joe Jackson
"Body & Soul" - Joe Jackson
"The Köln Concert" - Keith Jarrett
"Talkin' 'Bout You" - Diane Schuur
"Brothers In Arms" - Dire Straits
"Stronger Than Pride" - Sade
"Diamond Life" - Sade
"Back In Black" - AC/DC
"Metallica (Black Album)" - Metallica
"Hell Or High Water" - Sara K.
"No Cover" - Sara K.
"Play On Words" - Sara K.
"Behind The Mix" - Allan Taylor
"Someone Like You" - Susan Wong
"So Beautiful Or So What" - Paul Simon
"Buena Vista Social Club" - Buena Vista Social Club

I guess I'll stop here...
 
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I will +1 Buena Vista Social Club, the busy acoustic sound is a good test of detail and shows congestion in the mid-range if it exists.
 
Other than the very fine albums listed in this thread... I have ripped 15 musical tracks from my Stereophile (mag) Test CDs #1 , #2 and #3.

Burnt them to a single CDR

01. Acoustic Drum Solo
02. Acoustic Guitar Solo
03. Sara K.- ''History Repeats Itself''
04. E.E. Bagley , The National Emblem (Mono)
05. Jimmy Rogers- ''Blue Bird''
06. Ave Maria
07. Doug MacLeod- "Rollin' & Tumblin'''
08. Trio Sonata BWV 525, Adagio
09. Frederic Chopin , Scherzo in b flat, Op. 31
10. Intermezzo, Op. 117 No. 1 in E-Flat
11. Jerome Kern , ''I'm Old Fashioned''
12. Frederic Chopin- Waltz in c - sharp, Op.64, No.2
13. George Gershwin , ''Summertime'' (The Lesley Test)
14. Robert Schumann , Romance, Op. 94, No. 3 (128x-oversampling A-D)
15. J.S. Bach , Concerto in d, after Vivaldi, BWV 596, Allegro
 
I bought Tony Bennett's "Duets II" CD last week, and was amazed at the sound I heard coming from it last night.

I expect new CDs to sound like crap these days...
 
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