Your reference system?

@shadorne ,

What about (your own ears).?

@slaw

My ears are equally delighted by what experienced money no object experts go for. If I was to enter F1 as a rookie race car driver, I would accept the decisions of the experts on the Mercedes team too! Nobody has a monopoly on good hearing but experts have all the experience and know-how.

The new Raconteurs with Jack White sounds pretty nice :-)

What value is there in such a vague and an envy-generating question? A more practical question might be: "What was your best-sounding system, given the music you listen to, your budget and your listening environment?"

And to the person listening at 88db to 100db, I have one suggestion: attenuation. Our ears can tolerate 85db for a maximum of 8 hours. Peaks at 95db and quite substantial. Above that, it's just hearing damage.

Last night I found another recording that can be played really loud and still sound clean and that is the first Billy Joel with Piano man, Captain Jack etc. Thay call it the Legacy edition and also includes a very well recorded live radio concert. Especially if you like hard hitting drums.
Very clean and fine voice on Billy. These recodings are very rare.
30 minutes ok?