great sounding cds to audition new speakers


Looking to ID some great sounding cds you might uses to audtion new speakers. Buying new speakers and looking for suggestions as everything I have heard is thru 25 year old units.
joekapahulu
Hens' recommendations are excellent. I'd suggest putting most any Reference Recording on your list. Try Minnesota Orchestra, Eiji Oue conducting, Pictures at an Exhibition. Whether or not you are a classical music listener, full orchestra is a necessary part of your CD audition list. Orchestral music is a major challenge for any speaker. If it can do orchestra right, it will do everything else right too.
Ideally, something you are familiar with to have a basis for comparison. A great sounding recording does not help you much if you don't have a reference. I usually take with me things I know well. Recently Vienna Teng, Rostropovich on Teldec, Massiva Attack. For imaging, cannot beat Roger Waters Amused to Death, uncanny. You did not tell us your favorite style of music, so the range to choose from is way too wide. Note this has been discussed a lot, so doing a search on it may bring up things that are in your musical area of interest.
I'd like to second Ojgalli's post, but add that the RR Tutti! recording is an excellent sampler for testing dynamics (The first track, Dance of the Tumblers, is a great test)
b
Auditioning speakers in a system other than your own requires that you know exactly what the music is like - you need to know it intimately. I personally do not think I make a major decision like speakers without a) putting them in my system before I bought, and/or b) being willing to sell them for a small loss if I did not like them - assuming that is the part of the cost of changing speakers.

As for what I have used in the past, I can recommend the following discs:
Ry Cooder's A Meeting By the River (lots of delicate tones, transients, and ambient noise); the above-mentioned RR discs of Eiji Inoue and the Minnesota Orchestra (Aaron Copland works, or Pictures at an Exhibition); a copy of Chopin Preludes (either Yevgeny Kissin or Maurizio Pollini); the Zubin Mehta recording (LA) of Holst's Planets or something similarly 'loaded' (instrument separation, clarity, ability to tame 'Saturn', and other dense passages without giving up the delicacy which is really there in good dense music); I also take along piano music which is more melodic (any number of things), I take along horn music which shimmers when done right (and for the last several years, that has been the 'French Music for Trumpet and Organ' by Hardenberger & Preston disc from bis), and I take along music with closely-miked stringed instruments (for me, the best way to get a grip on tone, and the speaker's ability to deal with all the ambient aspects (lots of stuff going on with this, just like there is with Chopin preludes). I also take along vocals, which is more difficult to deal with because I don't find female vocals the best way to test - for me, the interesting vocalists to test with are Bobby McFerrin, Keb'Mo, and perhaps someone on the female side, someone like Mariza. The speakers have to ace each and every one of these discs or they would fall from contention. No mercy.