Top 3 songs to evaluate a system

One of my old time references is “Jim Hall - Live - Toronto 1975”. Especially “The Way You Look Tonight”. This album is a nice natural recording; especially of drums and bass. Nice subtle and occasionally surprising dynamics that don’t sound compressed to me. Another nice effect is the ambient sound of the venue, crowd and clinking glasses. Whether Jim’s free flowing solos are your taste or not this recording is an interesting listen sonically.

These are all available on Tidal.

Madonna – “Vogue” from the Immaculate Collection. This version was remastered with Q-sound and extends certain sounds a foot or more outside of the speaker’s sound stage. It’s uncanny. 

“The Pink Panther” (original motion picture soundtrack). This is from the Steve Martin remake and pays meticulous homage to Henry Mancini’s original recording. Amazing dynamics with the horn section, and excellent space around the instruments. Even the triangle is a joy to hear. This will give your system a workout.

Poncho Sanchez “El Conguero” from Latin Soul (Live). Great horns, vocals and a percussion section that appears live in your room. Grammy winner. 

Pat Metheny “Don’t Know Why” from One Quiet Night. Solo acoustic guitar. One of the best recordings of acoustic guitar I’ve ever heard. Stellar, moving performance and interpretation of the Norah Jones classic.

Interesting , I have my songs but what I found interesting and damned why didnt I think of that. You actually want songs and music that sounds bad and if the system can make it sound amazing, well then!

That being said here are my three but again hard to stick to three to get all of the sound you listen to and want to hear how the system performs.

1) Steely Dan - Aja- The dynamic range and espeically Steve Gadd drums cant be beat
2) Grateful Dead- Unbroken Chain- Again dynamic range on this sound from the high highs to the lows are amazing especially the airplane sounds in middle
3) Steel Pulse - Steppin out- The opening is just great. I could use Buffalo Soldier here as well

I have to add a 4th and 5th though for acoutsic timbre and Vocal tests maybe i drop Aja and move one of these up as Aja and Unbroken Chain accomplish the same thing but the drums on Aja are key the airplane sounds on Unbroken Chain are key
4) Hot Tuna - Water Song , Acoustic Guitar ( can use Acoustic Alchemy, or Jerry Garcia - So What, or A Friday Night in SF any cut)
5) Amy Winehouse - Our Day will come ( Can use any Eva Cassidy)

These will test , dynamic range, highs, lows, mids widely and then you must hear vocals as well as acoustic music, I probably need some Miles in there also to see how horns sound .

Love Romantic Warrior and have it on both vinyl and CD need to listen to CD again I guess

As I read through the replies I noticed that most people seem to pick a song that they actually like or have an attribute that they feel stands out.  For example - deep bass, 3D soundstage, type of bass guitar, or pick up a cymbal sound.  This is interesting to me as these are recording attributes.  I mostly prefer to hear these but I don't use them to judge the sound.  How many of you play an instrument or have recorded anything?  Not that this may matter.  I listen for piano first.  What does that sound like as most music is in the mid-range.  To me SS cannot offer the piano sound I prefer as the decay of the notes is to my ears to fast.  Tubes seem to delay the decay which I prefer as to me it sounds more realistic and I can hear the "wood" of the instrument.  Same goes for the sax reproduction.  After that I listen for space, separation, and the placement around instruments and vocals.  Especially the layering of vocal parts.  How separate are they and does the layering seem smeared.  Then I listen for backing instruments.  I hear many systems that have layering and separation but the tone if off.  Drums and bongos especially.  Most of these need to have a "boing" or you should hear the skin flex and the body of the drum box.  Same as the piano, how is the decay of the notes.  Too many times I hear bongos sound like a flat wack.  Almost like the drum is made of cardboard.  Last to me is the emotion.  Does the system portray emotion which I believe comes from the note decay.  Shinko resistors from my experience have been the best emotional resistor I have heard.

So to my ears, does your system lay out the music and make me want to listen and not just how much I love the song.

Happy Listening.

Since I'm strictly a Jazz analog guy:
1. Charlie Rouse - Epistrophy: The last Concert - Round' Midnight (Landmark Records LLP-1521)
         Exceptional live recording. The Vibes and Piano can be a torture test on many systems actually to the point of clipping on some systems I've heard this through, but when everything is dialed in, reproduction should be in-your-room real! 

2. Christian McBride Trio - Live at the Village Vanguard - Lady in my Life (Mack Avenue Records MAC 1099LP)
        Another wonderful live small ensemble recording. I attended a performance of this band (different drummer) in an excellent venue...probably better than the Village Vanguard). This comes darn close! Placement on stage mimics the live performance I attended. I use this tune for accurate image placement and to reduce bass bloat which is easy considering Christian's Big Bass sound. Once tamed, the sound is very natural and Christian Sands' solo as with his live performance, is sensational on this tune. It really grooves!

3. Duke Ellington And His Orchestra - Ellington At Newport - Diminuendo And Crescendo In Blue (Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab– MOFI 1-035)
     All I can say I that if this tune doesn't have you dancin' in your room, something's wrong!