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.

Both previous posters have excellent comments regarding using records which have the music you like and have instruments playing that you are familar with. A record I have found useful (in the extreme) in evaluating equipment as well as set up issues, especially set up issues, is called Depth of Image by Opus 3. It has a series of tracks which include vocal, solo instruments, small groups, small bands, etc and the record jacket tells you what you should hear when you play a particular band. Apart from that when I demo equipment I usually do NOT use high quality discs - if I do I just start listening to the music and forget what I came for! I have about 5 discs with borderline problems. For example one has a piano recorded too closely - on a piece of equipment with tilted up highs it becomes etched and unmusical. Same for a vocalist and the sibilance issue. I like simple recordings with multiple spaced instruments to see how well they are differentiated from each other and spaced apart. I do not use large scale orchestral demo records unless I know all about their production - these can sound good on lesser equipment and give you the wrong impression of the quality of what your going to buy.