Songs you use when auditioning gear

Anything by Richard Thompson. 

@jastralfu 

A well-recorded jazz CD, if you can find it, is Fred Hersch Trio Plays...on Chesky Records.  It's a very natural, realistic recording of a piano trio with natural ambience and soundstaging.  Another one, not as good musically or recording-wise, is pianist Michael Garson's Serendipity on Reference Recordings.  I used to use track 6 from the latter CD when auditioning speakers and other gear because it has some very high, hard-hit piano notes that I thought were good for assessing for treble harshness.  That recording is from 1986 so I would imagine there are better ones around by now.  Diana Krall has some good CDs, well-recorded, mostly piano trios or quartets.

There is  only one LP for meeting my needs - Roger Water's - 'Amused to Death'

Frequency Extremes and Back Ground detail that can put many set ups under strain to present in a way that impresses.

jastralfu

Excellent suggestions as above. A few more for your consideration;

Jazz:

Diana Krall- The Look of Live (Live in Paris CD).

Jamie Cullum - Frontin' (Twentysomething CD/SACD).

Miles Davis - So What (Kind of Blue CD/SACD).

Rock:

AC/DC - Back in Black CD

Nirvana - Unplugged: Live in New York CD.

Pearl Jam -  Ten CD

Pink Floyd - The Dark Side Of The Moon CD/SACD

Steely Dan - Aja CD

Happy Listening!

Hunter’s & Collectors - Betty’s Worry or, the slab (bass, vocals, horns)

El Ten Eleven - Fanshawe (bass, harmonics, picking, “fret work”)

Miles Davis - Birth of the Cool (RVG ed) BUDO. 

Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries. I saw him live a week before his fatal accident, sitting 3 rows back. Every time I listen to that song I can hear and see in my mind’s eye the intense amount of work he put into that guitar. Gives idea of soundstage, highs, mids.

King Crimson - Court of the Crimson King , “I Talk to the Wind.” Vocal harmonies, flute, cymbal shimmer

Crimson Jazz Trio - same song. Piano.

But I can get a LOT out of just Hedges’ work.