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What album do you put on when listening to new components?

AC/DC Who Made Who - DT for subs and kick drum response.
Elton John Goodbye Yellow Brick Road - Bennie and the Jets - piano clarity, "airiness" of the crowd noise.
Heart Dreamboat Annie - Lighter Touch/Nada One/Mistrial Wind The first two for clarity and detail in the guitars, and all 3 for vocals
Peter Gabriel So - That voice again/In your eyes/Mercy Street. Clarity and image
Dire Straits Brothers in arms - Brothers in arms. Detail
Supertramp Paris

Overall, also whatever I am currently into, but the above is what Imuse to eval, test, and tune - from home stuff to large live rigs.
 
I had a laser disc by Pioneer of a Buddy Rich Concert filmed in San Francisco. With the exact same pieces of music and I recognize this album having made at the same time. I listened to it on the previews of your album which available on iTunes and compared it to my Dubbed sound on a CD of the laser disc which is no longer in my possession. Same recording for sure, with all the tiny little inconsistencies in the reed section and flubs in a couple of places by the trumpets and the opening soprano sax solo. I admit the iTunes version doesn't have the quality of the original laser disc. Your Direct to disc ought to be the clear winner in having the best sound quality. I hope you have taken excellent care of that Lp!!!
 
Side 2 of the Wilson 2111 remix of Aqualung......wait for the piano on the opening of Locomotive Breath......
 
Vinyl for me:

Tom Petty - Wildflowers (my standard bearer)
Dire Straits - Dire Straits, Love Over Gold, and On Every Street (MoFi 45RPM remaster) (my favorites from their catalog)
Gillian Welch & David Rawlings - Woodlands (a recent obsession)
Jack White - Fear of the Dawn and No Name (for noisy guitar rock)

I'm sure I'm forgetting a couple.
 
Hymns of The 49th Parallel - KD Lang
Abraxas - Santana
Have You Seen The Stars Tonight - Blows Against The Empire - Jefferson Starship
 
Fifty years ago it was Crime of the Century, or DSOTM.

Ten years ago it was whatever was in rotation.

I haven't evaluated any new equipment in four years...
 
Sometimes it takes days to weeks, so I use a variety of music to evaluate, but I try to stick with stuff I enjoy and not use audiophile sound effects.

Gregory Porter
Dean Martin - Dream with Dean
Alyson Krauss
Enya
Tracy Chapman
Mandolin Orange
Johnny Hartman
Chet Atkins
Mark Knopfler
James Taylor
Sarah Jarosz
Emmy Lou Harris
Keb Mo
Robert Plant
 
Rinzler and The Game Has Changed from the Tron-Legacy soundtrack. Difficult material for a system to resolve. Not my first choice for vocals for stereo image.
 
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I start with Brothers in Arms on 45 rpm vinyl, and my last check is with Wish You Were Here on vinyl. In between those I play a CD that I made with tunes that test all sorts of instruments and voices that give the equipment a good workout:

Chris Issac- Wicked Game
Joan Baez- Diamonds and Rust
Candy Dulfer- Lily Was Here
Springsteen- Racing In The Street
Wallflowers- One Headlight
The Cure- Love Song
Depeche Mode- Policy Of Truth
Goyte- Somebody I Used To Know
Steve Earle- Copperhead Road
The Who- Eminence Front
Queensryche- Silent Lucidity
The Weekend- Blinding Lights
 
I often use Starship Trooper by Yes.

I'm building a pair of speakers and have been giving this topic some thought..what to play when I'm ready to finally put them in my system and hear the results?
Right now I am leaning towards Dark Side of the Moon and American Beauty for the voicing and detail.
When I'm ready to rock the house, Metallica's cover of Stone Cold Crazy is on a short list.
 
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First would be Tony Rice, "Me And My Guitar," looking for his Martin D28 to thump me in the chest...both that tune, but also the whole LP

Then two tracks off The Byrds LP "Byrds" from 1973, Joni Mitchell's "For Free," and "Full Circle," first tune for the sparce production, the latter to see how Chris Hillman's mandolin cuts through the mix.

Then, probably Beatles For Sale, just for enjoyment ;)
 
1. Back in Town; Matt Dusk; Back in Town
2. Bad; Michel Jackson; Bad
3. Money for Nothing; Dire Straits; Brothers in Arms

I'm looking for clean, impactful transients and tonality.
Detailed stereo image, transparency, air.
 
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For testing a new cartridge I always use “Mondo Cane #2” by Kai Winding - it really gives the cartridge a really good workout, especially those soaring high frequencies!
 
Roger Waters -Amused To Death. First track helps me determine if everything is wired up correctly. Also can point out driver time alignment issues if the imaging is off.
 
Some songs point out flaws, some are nice because they are my reference over time.

I put on a couple of songs/tracks rather than albums usually. Some that come to mind:

Placement, space, detail, dynamics/control, alignment/delay:
Harold Budd · Brian Eno - A Stream With Bright Fish
Nils Frahm - Human Range
Maurice Ravel - Daphnis et Chloé
Toumani Diabaté & Sidiki Diabaté - Jarabi
Stevie Ray Vaughan & Double Trouble - Little Wing
The Style Council - Dropping Bombs On The Whitehouse
The Brand New Heavies - Dream On Dreamer
Miles Davis - Milestones

Bass, kicks, energy/sound pressure, dynamics/control, alignment/delay:
Digital Mystikz - Anti War Dub
The Art of Noise - Moments In Love
La Roux, Skream - In For The Kill - Skream's Ravey version
Nucleus, Paradox - Love Her - Remix
Igorrr, George 'Corpsegrinder' Fisher - Parpaing
Nørbak - Imanari
Go Hiyama - Slant - 2024 remaster
Surgeon - Empty Cloud
DJ Hell - Hot In The Heels Of Love (Dave Clarke Remix)
 
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