Return to Forever - Romantic Warrior
Great for testing dynamics, BUT ONLY the 1976 original vinyl. Every CD version I have heard is compressed to death. Just horrible...
The opening track, Medieval Overture, is a good place to start, especially Lenny White’s monster drums starting about 1:00 minute in. But the entire album is very dynamic.
Ernst Krenek - Static and Ecstatic
On the Varese International label. Musically, it is pretty thorny sounding modern classical music, so YMMV, but for testing imaging and soundstage, it is on another level. If you can’t imagine yourself being able to walk ’into’ the soundstage and among each individual musician in the chamber orchestra, the system you are listening to does not image very well.
Ralph Towner - Solo Concerts
On ECM. The brilliant guitarist Ralph Towner, live playing acoustic guitar. He should appear at about the height of someone sitting on a stool, and every nuance of his guitar should be readily identifiable. Each sound of fingers on the strings, finger plucking, the sound of the guitar body, the attack and decay of the instrument should be completely discernable.
I could name a dozen or more ECM recordings. Other than the overuse of reverb in the studio on some ECM recordings, they tend to be very natural sounding. It’s hard to go wrong with the vast majority of ECM recordings, on vinyl or CD.
Oh, it looks like I didn’t include any recordings with vocals.
Renaissance - Novella
On vinyl or the early CD versions. Any CD I have heard made aver 2000, is compressed within an inch of its life.
Annie Haslam’s vocals, with her perfect intonation, 5 octave range, dynamics and emotion, should be very clear in the recording, despite the full and intense orchestrations.
