Your Go to CD to Impress

All- excellent suggestions- add;
Jamie Cullum- Twentysomething (2004) Verve (CD or SACD)
Stone Temple Pilots- Core (CD or DVD-Audio)
Nirvana- Unplugged, Live in NY (CD)
Pearl Jam- Ten  (CD)

Real good tread for sharing new high quality recordings. Thanks Styxtrekr.
I will go with The Ancient Muse by Loreena McKennitt, and Solar Echoes by Nigel Stanford.
If the recording is engineered very poorly, regardless of the content I'm always left with the feeling I wasted my time.

Uhh, thread

Usually, one's musical taste tends to be rather selective and/or esoteric when it comes to something impressive since it tends to serve YOUR tastes.

What I do to demonstrate is to try something dynamic that is also familiar which is usually the soundtrack to Breaking Bad. It grabs their attention immediately since it's so recognizable and allows them to wallow in it's majesty and intricacies. After that, it's pretty much up to you to show them how it handles different styles of music. Then you can break out that piece that makes their eyes glaze over.

If it is a real audiophile, I'll put on Sotho Blue for starters.

All the best,
Nonoise

As I've listened over the years to my CDs I've noted specific tracks along the way which sound spectacular on my system (some CDs, though have terrific music, have zero impressive tracks). Thus, my visitor can select any genre or performer and I am able to cherry pick specific tracks which are especially good sounding. For example:
Female jazz singer? Karrin Allyson, "Ballads: Remembering John Coltrane", any tracks 2,5,6,9.
Male jazz singer? Mark Murphy, "Once to Every Heart", track 5.
Jazz? Rahsaan Roland Kirk, "Inflated Tear", track 2.
Rock? Alice Cooper, "Love it to Death" (Audio Fidelity Gold), track 1.
Blues? Albert King, "Live Wire/Blues Power" (MFSL Gold), track 4.
Pop? Jenny Lewis, "Acid Tongue", tracks 3,4.
etc.