Songs you use when auditioning gear


What are some of your favorite songs to play when auditioning gear?  I often listen to Dreams by Fleetwood Mac.  Just about anything off of Gaucho or Aja by Steely Dan or Joni Mitchell’s Hejira or Hissing of Summer Lawns usually gets spun up too.  Dreams, in particular, is such a great song and is recorded with the balance I really like as well as a full and wide soundstage.  Wondering what some of yours are to see what I’m missing.

128x128jastralfu

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.

Anything but popular songs...

Guess why ?
 

Not always, though. I really appreciate the following mainstream songs that sound pretty darn good:

Your Power by Billie Eilish

Billie Bossa Nova by Billie Eilish

Exile by Taylor Swift & Bon Iver

I forgot

Cassandra Wilson, Blue Light till Dawn

great distinctive voice, terrific musicians and engineering