Referrence music....

Yes, a few, which I use since I've seen the artist live and since I like the music, so it's likely to get played a lot. For instance there is 'The ghost of Tom Joad', Bruce Springsteen, which has a super-realistic hi-hat crashing in. For low-end performance I use some music from bass-player Stuart Hamm, and for soundstaging I use a recording made by a friend of mine (sound-engineer) from North Sea Jazz festival. For voices I use a recoridng made by me from a barbershop-choir, and so on, and so on.... I think you can listen best with music you play a lot. It's no use buying a system because it's capable of sounding outstanding with classical if you're a Slayer-fan. Then again, a good system should play everything you throw at it.

Black Album by Metallica. It's my DSOTM. I have literally heard it on every stereo I've owned. That an I use various acoustic recordings of low brass instruments. Brass is what I am most familiar with since it is the instrument that I primarily play. So I like to see how trombone, baritone, euphonium, and tuba are rendered. Acoustic guitar does not interest me as much. But overloaded marshall stack is another matter. :-) For that I use Pantera's Live 101 Proof, Gorefest's Eindhoven Insanity, and NIN's And All That Could Have Been.

When I was auditioning new speakers a few years ago every shop I went into played Jennifer Warnes "Somewhere, somebody" from her "Hunter" CD so I've kept using it for that purpose. It also works well to convince your friends they should upgrade their own systems.