What Are Your Reference Discs? or Specific Reference Tracks

The quick reference list is -
Steve earle guitar town,
Frank Sinatra swing easy,
Van Halen I,
Frank Zappa Apostrophe. 
If I really want to listen to my stereo I throw on the old cathedral organ Bach fugues record I have.   
I pick these because I am very familiar with them, they represent my taste, and because they are all recorded very well.  The organ music really lets you hear if your equipment is smearing the details because it so full (no space between sounds).    But as it's been said, you really need to listen for a awhile (weeks), as you normally listen, to eval anything.  

I'm not sure that reference is the proper term; I burned a CD that use a collection of tunes I like and I'm well familiar with that allow me to note certain aspects of a system that I audition (ambience, soundstage, detail, bass, etc.)

Most are not "audiophile" recordings, but well produced and recorded tunes (more or less):

Shirley Horn - The Music That Makes Me Dance
Rebecca Pidgeon - Spanish Harlem
Michael Franks - Dragonfly Summer
Dianne Reeves - Never Too Far
Fourplay - 101 Eastbound
Steely Dan - Jack of Speed
Grace Jones- Don't Cry - It's Only The Rhythm
Larry Carlton & Lee Ritenour - Take That
Herbie Hancock - Butterfly
Lee Ritenour - Boss City
Dave Brubeck - Take Five
Miles Davis - So What
Buddy Guy - Sweet Black Angel (Black Angel Blues)
Cassandra Wilson - A Little Warm Death

I've also been known to pop it in and just listen every once in a while!

Happy Listening!
DeeCee

herman

I just ordered a Lyngdorf MP-40. I’m hoping to use the "Center Spread" of the Lyngdorf just for the purpose of taking some of the center channel out (and moving it into the Mains) of the Eagle Visions 5.1 DTS-HD Dolby recordings of many of my Concert recordings. For example, the Eagles @ Melhorn is absolutely the gold standard. But many other otherwise good concerts, Doobie Bros @ Wolf Trap, Jethro Tull @ Montreux etc. super impose material on the center channel. Maybe they do it that way for cheaper systems, buy on a nice system it actually is irritating. You can lower the volume of that one speaker, but then you have lost all that material . I assume you are talking about 2 channel play, but I use my system for much more than that .

Ode to Boy (Live) -Yazoo , Behind the Wheel - Depeche Mode , How Soon is Now -The Smiths , Slave to Love - Bryan Ferry , Famous Blue Raincoat - both Leonard Cohen and Jennifer Warnes versions. Anything with a lot of synth as well like Gesaffelstein.

It's not clear to me who these reference tracks are intended for....the owner or a new listener.
Playing a new listener a track unknown to them will mean less than something they've heard endlessly on the radio or other/their systems. That's why I find myself demoing/showing-off my system with a DVD-level version of Zeppelin's Whole Lot of Love....it's like hearing it for the first time!
For my personal enjoyment remastered BluRay audio discs, with zero compression on the drums, etc., do the trick for me:
Stevie Wonder - Joy Inside My Tears
King Crimson - Epitaph
The Beatles - Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds (not a favorite song, but the tom toms will move your chest!)
The Beatles - Why Don't We Do It in the Road (the complexity of that opening drum fill in hi-def has to be heard to be believed)
Van Morrison - Moondance
Beethoven - The Symphonies, Herbert Von Karajan, Berliner Harmoniker (all 9 symphonies and a half hour of No. 9 rehearsals on ONE disc!)
Caveat emptor: not all hi-res discs sound incredible....