What Are Your Reference Discs? or Specific Reference Tracks

Imv, a good system will make badly recorded and pressed LPs sound … genuinely interesting and entertaining. 

My standard for that is almost anything released by Studio 1 from Jamaica.

Making a list asap.

Linda Ronstadt singing "When You Wish Upon A Star" with Nelson Riddle and his orchestra on the album "For Sentimental Reasons" recorded and mastered by George Massenberg.  

I like albums that are a bit "difficult." In other words, ones that are somewhat difficult to reproduce cleanly. Rickie Lee Jones's Pop Pop can peel the skin off your ears until you get it right. The bass on Holly Cole's Temptation album of Tom Waits covers has a bass line throughout that is full, but really challenging in terms of detail extraction. Patricia Barber's Companion album challenges with sibilance, soundstage, noise floor, bass detail and dynamics. Then there are cuts that are better than you would think--examples include Magnificent Seven by The Clash, Radiohead's Creep, and Lou Reed's Walk on the Wild Side...