I believe that my setup sounds best with Jazz.

I have the Onix Strata Minis powered by a Jolida tube amp sourced by a Denon 3910.

Without a doubt, my favorite reference track is Getz/Gilberto's "Girl from Ipanema" on SACD. It is truly breathtaking when the sax gets going and she starts singing.

Then on the FIM Audiophile Reference IV disc, there is a version of Swan Lake that is an absolutely immersive experience. (of course, that ain't jazz)

Chesky Records "10 Best" has a few tracks on it that rank right up there for the best. "Maria Mulata" I've played hundreds of times, as well as "52nd street" and "Still haven't found".

I can list much more, but wondered what sounds best in your system, to you.

Santana: Abraxas vinyl, Dire Straits: Brothers in Arms vinyl/HDCD, Diana Krall: Girl in the Other room, Dave Brubeck: Take Five HDcd, Sara Maglachlan: Surfacing CD, Billy IDol: Rebel Yell vinyl

Louis Armstrong's Down With Moses is my current favorite on the MGI's. I love the songs that start off slow and then get into the groove.

Miles Davis' Prayer is another great song like that. Prayer is meant to be a preacher and his disciples all done with instruments.

One last one is The Fairfield Four I couldn't hear nobody pray, great song.

Jazz sax - so much good stuff out there.

For FIM - try to find Antiphone Blues - sax w/ organ - very challenging for a system.
Clifford Jordan's Live at Ethels is a really breathy sax in a club setting.
Of course, there is the standard Jazz at the Pawnshop..

I second the vote on Fairfield Four - it's great for a demo - very fun stuff.

I always wrap up my demos with Reference Recordings or FIM's Copland's Fanfare for the Common Man.

I prefer to have folks bring their own music to listen - it's really very subjective and personal what people like.

- Steve O.

I could listen to Diana Krall a long time and never tire of her voice. Norah Jones - a lot of people like but I am not that convinced.

My pop faves:
Peter Gabriel - So
Emma Shapin
Dido
The Corrs - unplugged
Robert Randolph
Massive Attack

Diana Krall: Temptation, from The Girl in the other Room Cd. Also, Amos Lee: In the Arms of A Woman.

Gene

I could listen to Diana Krall a long time and never tire of her voice. Norah Jones - a lot of people like but I am not that convinced.


I was listening to Norah's Come Away With Me SACD 2ch. When I read this and thought.. She's good, the recording is done very well. It sounds very good..but she's just a lil bland..and the music a bit too simple. Still good music to listen to 2ch IMHO.

On topic. I use (dont laugh) Bob James Hi-Fi SACD, and I typically pick the Angela (Theme from Taxi) Track. Something that most everybody is familiar with, but have never heard on SACD on a "decent" 2 CH setting. Usally doesnt fail to impress.

I believe that my setup sounds best with Jazz.

I am not sure as to why you suggest that that your equipment will sound not as good on non-jazz music. Perhaps your jazz CDs (SACD, DVD-A, RBCD) is better produced than the rest you are listening to?


I can list much more, but wondered what sounds best in your system, to you.

What sounds best in my system is well produced multi-channel SACD.

I'm not sure either, but it does. Heavily amplified/feedback music, even well done, just doesn't tickle my ears on my system the same way. Maybe it is due to my hearing profile, I have a good bit of hearing damage in the 2-8Khz range.

I also listen to a lot of classical, and while my system does make it sound like I'm at a concert (we attend the symphony quite often), the instruments just don't stand out like they do on many of my jazz discs.

I am not sure as to why you suggest that that your equipment will sound not as good on non-jazz music. Perhaps your jazz CDs (SACD, DVD-A, RBCD) is better produced than the rest you are listening to?



What sounds best in my system is well produced multi-channel SACD.

On topic. I use (dont laugh) Bob James Hi-Fi SACD, and I typically pick the Angela (Theme from Taxi) Track. Something that most everybody is familiar with, but have never heard on SACD on a "decent" 2 CH setting. Usally doesnt fail to impress.

What a strange coincidence! I listen to that track, not on SACD, but off the Smooth Jazz Sampler album. It's a great song. There's a lot of good detail in there - the percussion, hearing the breath of the flutist, of course the amazing keyboard work...

Although different artist - similar sound - check out Dave Grusin's Discovered Again album. The FIM XRCD version is really, REALLY good sounding.

- Steve O.

Kraftwerk's Minimum:Maximum is my favourite to show off my system.

Haven't auditioned for too long, so not sure about that.

- FIM "River of Sorrow" SACD - either the stereo DSD layer or the HDCD-encoded CD layer
- Dire Straits "Brothers in Arms" SACD
- Boston Acoustics Demo "Close Up" CD featuring Michael Manring

Jennifer Warnes: "Rock you Gently"--good to test bass speed and clarity

Blues Traveler - Runaround is one of the best recordings I have on CD for showing off punchy bass, crisp highs and stereo separation.

Telarc's 2001 A Space Odyssey is pretty good.

Anything by Donald Fagan and Pat Metheny.

Allison Krauss - she's got an angelic voice and the recordings are top notch.

I really enjoyed Joshua Redman - Back East, his is magical.

I like my rock best, but this Reference Recording has kettle drums and pipe organs that will work out any speaker. Search "Pomps and Pipes"

http://www.musicdirect.com/images/crr5/crr58.jpg

Well i'll just throw 4 names out there:

Jamie Cullem-thirtysomething
Diane Krall - Girl in the other Room
Brian Culbertson -Nice & slow or its on tonight
John Coltrane or Oscar Peterson Trio (either is ok or both to double your pleasure.)

Tears for fears, sewing the seeds of love

Fiona apple, tidal

David Bromberg, downright upright

Donald Fagen, morph the cat

I second Alison Krause - her recordings are amazing and her voice will give you chills (in a good way!)

Again with Diana Krall, but i love to use "My Love is" off of Love Scenes. It really shows off a good system with making your speakers "disappear". the whole song is just her voice, finger snaps, and a upright bass, and in a good system it's DEAD ON in the center. someone asked me where my center channel was, and of course I don't have one :D

Also another good show off freak you out tune is: The Fairfield Four - "These Bones" it's entirely acapella with 5 guys and their voices are deep and full. very moving.

And just for fun i throw on Postal Service - "Such Great Heights"

Chuck Mangione - "Children of Sanchez" , the overture.

John Mc Laughlin: The Promise
Jaco Pastorius: Jaco
Diana Krall: Stepping Out
Weather Report: Black Market


all are CDs.

Porcupine Tree: In Absentia
Eagles:Hotel California
Dire Straits: Brothers In Arms
are DVD-As

If you are into something a little heavier, you can't go wrong with just about any Shellac album (on vinyl). Steve Albini engineering his own band to his demanding standards = pure analog goodness.

For fun my buddy and I stopped by our local hi-end audio/video shop over lunch today. What a treat. They have a super high end room they call their "Wow Room". I think they said they spent something like $300,000 on the room. It was AMAZING. It was setup for movies but 2 channel audio as well. I'll leave the movie stuff out but my buddy and I brought our own music to test out their 2 channel setup. The room has $80,000 in sound treatment (you could tell) and all CLASSE equipment with Wilson Audio Maxx Series 2 for LR.

Our tracks (they were all incredible) were:

Diana Krall - Temptation (Girl Next Door SACD)
Gladiator Soundtrack - Track 9
Norah Jones - Come away with me
Alison Krauss - Boy who would hoe corn (disc 2 of their Live concert)
Norah Jones - Sinkin' soon (Not too Late)

Temptation is probably my favorite Diana song but surprisingly my system at home plays it almost as well as the $300,000 one. The Gladiator soundtrack is punishing to lesser systems and the Wilson Audios really pumped this one out, it was great.

I think my two favorite songs were the Alison Krauss song (it starts out with a Dobro solo that's out of this world and then all the others come in -- really felt like we were at the concert) and the Norah Jones "Sinkin' Soon". Kind of a weird song the first time you hear it but if you pay attention you'll hear all kinds of different instruments and their positioning is all over, it's really a fun song to listen to. The Wilsons did a great job keeping everything clear and really producing a wall of sound versus multiple points of sound (hard to explain, but it was impressive).

Other than that I also like Chris Isaak's Forever Blue album and the Soundtrack to Driving Miss Sunshine (weird but cool).

I could go on, but that's a good sampling.

Mike

Best Demo CD I have ever come across is Burmester II, this is near disc unobtainium, each track is the best quality I have ever heard short of some on LP. The CD has Jazz, Blues, classical and popular artist like Ricky Lee Jones, Steve Ray Vaughan and Pink Floyed. Good luck finding one. One of my favorite Acooustic Guitar CDs is Nils Lofgren, Acoustic Live on Vision Music lable. For consistent sound quality it is really tough to beat FIM for demos I recomend Super Sounds II & III these are sample disc from the FIM catalog with a good variety of music but no Rock. For SACD the best thing I can think of is the Duke Ellington MoFi release of Blues in Orbit, if you are into modern Bluegrass/country try This Side by Nickle Creek or Alison Krauss Live at Union Station. If you are looking for a LP that sounds great and you want to know how much bass you can get out of your TT Try Holly Cole Temptation on Classic Records. Some of the best sounding LPs I have are LA4, Just Friends and Lorna Hunt, All in One Day. I doubt you can find a All in One Day LP anymore but the 24/96 DAD is one of the best sounding DADs I have found.

My demo material is usually tailored to the listener

Gloria Estefan - Oye
Victor Wooten - Live in America Disc 2 - opening track
Madonna - Die Another Day
Linkin Park - Lying Away From You
Aqua - Lollipop :D - trust me ...

I have all the usual Diana, Allison, Norah, Eagles ... but honestly, no one wants to hear that demo any more (well ... at least I dont :D)

One of the absolut best sounding disc ever is the Classic Records release of the over 40 year old album Muddy Water - Folk singer. So damn good I could cry.

BTW, bring one that you think is slightly "edgy" in the midrange and listen to it. I actually did that to see if the "bad recording" would sound better in the store than on my system.

Hang on Little Tomato
Pink Martini - track 9

Till the Sun Turns Black
Ray LaMontagne - track 6

PAD,

The 2 ch speakers look like Wison Puppy. Those are very nice looking. BTW, do they have ribbon tweeters?

Ok, these are a few of my top sounding discs.

Michael Jackson "Thriller" this is the special edition remaster and it sounds awesome.

Keb Mo...amazing voice and blues, more modern than traditional, Slow Down-HDCD , Keep it Simple, Suitcase, all stellar recordings and awesome albums to boot.

Poncho Sanchez....latin Jazz, heavy horns and percussion....try Latin Soul and Conga Blues....owns his own record label..nuff said.


Jesse Cook.."Frontiers"....Flamenco guitar player...infectious stuff and sounds wicked.

Herb Alpert...his later stuff such as "Rise" etc are true reference material.

Dire Straights "...."Brothers in Arms" remaster is friggin amazing.

OK, you either love the remix or hate it but Beatles "love" on DVD-Audio is one I have to add as the SQ is simply superb on this disc.

Without a doubt, my favorite reference track is Getz/Gilberto's "Girl from Ipanema" on SACD. It is truly breathtaking when the sax gets going and she starts singing.

Great idea for post

Have to agree, Astrud is awesome, I demo the Verve finest hour version
My other top demos are:
Ella Fitzgerald (& Louie) - Porgy & Bess
Natalie Cole - Unforgettable
Bobby Caldwell - Blue Condition HDCD
Don Paris (Innocence Mission fame) - Go when the Morning Shineth
Acappella:
Ladysmith Black Mambazo - Best of
Fairfield Four - Standing in the Saftyzone

PAD,

The 2 ch speakers look like Wison Puppy. Those are very nice looking. BTW, do they have ribbon tweeters?


Salk HT3's and better sound for less than half the price of Wilsons! In any finish you want.

G2 ribbon. I liked the HT3's so much in my 2 channel, I now have Jim's V3 series in my HT - simply awesome!!!!

Diana Krall: Temptation, from The Girl in the other Room Cd.

Gene

Just picked this up, can't wait to play it at home this weekend.

Michael

I have been a big fan of Sheffield labs recordings, they can be bought at Townhall records. I posted a link....give a listen to track 2 ( Cruise Control ) on the Freeway Philharmonic CD and I am sure you will enjoy, and quite possibly buy the CD along with others from this catalog.
http://www.townhallrecords.com/cgi-bin/townhall.pl?detail=SL10050

Also Chesky records in particular the CD Sara K. (Play On Words) as well as others from Chesky records are all quite enjoyable and might I say an Audiophile's delight. They also carry SACD's as well if you have a multi-channel set up.
http://www.chesky.com/core/details.cfm?productcode=JD105&productcategoryid=1

There are many others, but these are a few of my favorites.

Hard rock--Saturation from Urge Overkill
Pop--Tigerlilly from Natalie Merchant or Back in the Highlife from Steve Winwood

All 3 are very well produced.

If you want to get away from the usual audiophile stuff and have something you can actually enjoy listening to in the car, try Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Endangered Species" CD. You'll be smiling bigtime 10 seconds into the first track. Best played loud.

If you want to get away from the usual audiophile stuff and have something you can actually enjoy listening to in the car, try Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Endangered Species" CD. You'll be smiling bigtime 10 seconds into the first track. Best played loud.

Mike,

I picked this up, great CD.

Michael

If you want a good stereo demo disc try to track down Edgar Winter's They Only Come Out At Night[the MoFi Hybrid SACD version]

If you want a good stereo demo disc try to track down Edgar Winter's They Only Come Out At Night[the MoFi Hybrid SACD version]

His brother Johnnie's is not bad either,"The Best Of."