What music is your benchmark?

[Togil]

Piano is also high on my list, especially for assessing loudspeakers .

Recently I was rather thrown by a very pure recording with the baritone Hermann Prey ( also recommended on Classics FM ! ) - I want to get this one right ! Although some of the problems are no doubt due to the 1971 analogue recording - tape is not a friend of classical solo vocals.

[John]

I have a listening CD that I burnt for myself, this allows me to test the aspects of a system that are important to me
Amour Brahem Kashf This will allow me to get a sense of the bass and how much air the sysytem has
Jeff Buckley Grace and Lover You Should've Come OverThis shows how vocals and atmoshere are handled; basically can the item seduce me
Strunz and Farah Bola This will test its drive timing and how well the system images
Surinder Sandhu Amirah This is when I really start to test how well everything intergrates; do tablas sound real and have bounce will acoustic guitars ring through in the mix, how will the bass mid and treble intergrate and allow every note to come through in time
Dream Theater Metropolis Part 1 Will kick drums kick will cymbals crash and will it pick up all the work the guitar player is doing
If the answer is yes to all then usually I go for it; but rarely I hear the whole package

[Jason P]

I use a few tried and tested records

Vinyl - Madonna 'Like a Prayer' - simply great production and a real test of that elusive 'foot tapping' quality
Talk Talk - Colour of Spring. Amazing dynamic range, wonderful natural sound and very complex, a real torture test in places
Willy DeVille - Miracle. Good for setting up a cartridge for inner track tracking, especially 'Storybook Love' - and nicer to listen to than the HFW test disc.
Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries. Again, great dynamics and presence.
Jennifer Warnes - Famour Blue Raincoat - great for vocals, especially 'A Singer Must Die', an acapella rendition with 10 or so singers. Someone once described this as an aural ball of spaghetti, and if I can follow indivdual singers then it's a well rounded system to me...

CD - Eric Bibb - Spirit and the Blues - great recording of acoustic instruments around a single mic. Good for that intangible 'tingle factor' of a real 3d soundstage where the acoustic of the recording replaces the room your listening in.
Beirut - the Flying Club Cup - again excellent dynamics and complex, almost freeform arrangements that can be hard to follow in a poor system.
James Taylor - Hourglass - Exceptional production, and great dynamics.
Al Stewart - Year of the Cat - 'cos it's a crappy master in the days when CDs could be nasty, splashy things and a good system can often make the best of a bad job. Sounds a bit skewy but I like to know what something does badly too...

Jason

[The Grand Wazoo]

From The Grave

[Thing Fish]

I have a very well recorded vinyl album I use every time to trial my system or others.

Its Paul Mc Cartneys unplugged album. Its a Spanish import (I think) and is as thin as a wafer. But its by far the best recording I have ever heard!

[MartinT]

Piano, as said elsewhere. Female voice. Good recordings like the Joan Armatrading eponymous album or Jewel: Spirit. Massed choral (the stiffest test I know for a system). Frankly, if a system can handle something like Mozart's or Durufle's Requiem with massed choir and ultra-deep organ pedals and keep it together, it's doing well. Many systems I've heard don't reproduce the pedals at all. A non-starter for me!

Above all, they must be recordings that you know well and enjoy listening to.

[DSJR]

Last night, I played the 1976 Joan Armatrading Nimbus recut LP that I hadn't played in ages. The reproduction of the backing reverb is extremely telling and this potentially huge soundfield can be superb on a decent large-scale system, together with the musicianship and emotion in Joan's voice. When I played this on the Spendors last year it sounded horrid (haven't played it with the Decca yet), but on the upstairs setup with Dual 701/AT120E last night, it was sublime and brought back memories from the late 70's and my times working in the West End - mixed feelings there

[slate]

Nowadays the first record on is always auntie Krall's "The girl in the Other Room"; most of the album can be used, but if I am happy after the first 3-4 tracks I normally go on to other artists.

Another track is Cæcillie (Caecilie) Norby's edition of "Life on Mars" from her "I had a ball" live album. The girl can do that jazz, but on the particular track it is also the bass play (Lars Danielsson) in the opening and in passages. Klüvers Big Band are solid and competant.

On the electronic front it is Trentemøller's "The Last Resort" album, especially if you want to se how low it can go

Hmm been to long since Joan Armatrading came by... search and I shall find.. ah The very best of...

[MartinT]

Last night, I played the 1976 Joan Armatrading Nimbus recut LP that I hadn't played in ages. The reproduction of the backing reverb is extremely telling

Yes, agreed. That reverb really separates the properly setup systems from the also-rans.

[Welder]

Boogie Nights by Heatwave………feet tapping, excellent, its all working then