What are your go to LP's for evaluating new gear or new tubes?

Interesting responses. I find it hard to imagine that streaming can compare to high quality vinyl but not hearing it for myself, I certainly cannot say. For me and my system, vinyl has been the preference at least 90% of the time. My system is geared to it but I've never been convinced to go another way. I do see some die hard old vinyl guys like me, switching to streaming nowadays. It is hard for me to imagine but maybe someday I'll hear it for myself and be convinced. For now, as I say, I am pleased with how I listen.

In my critical listening, I listen for certain key things, piano, violins and cellos, female voices and while I'm not a big "brass enthusiast", I do appreciate when brass sounds real on a recording. I also pay attention to drums and percussion. There is so much detail to all the percussion instruments and how they come across in recordings. See if you can pick out Ziljan cymbols on CD or streaming. If you can, I'm impressed. I've never heard cymbols sound close to real on CD. Drums OTOH, can sound quite good. Vinyl or tape has always done it the best in what I've ever heard. Pure analog even though some has been accomplished in a digital recording studio. Madonna, Ray of Light on German vinyl (Warner), is an example of this. I'm not a big Madonna fan but this is one helluva recording and she sounds as good as she ever had. I'm not so much of a fan of her voice or her songs but this double album is very good and very well done. 

Other female vocalists that stand out for me are Tori Amos, Pat Benatar, Linda Ronstadt and Sarah McLachlan. All have beautiful voices and made some high quality recordings on vinyl. I remember Joni Mitchell from my youth and I was never a huge fan, found her sort of "quirky" . She gets mentioned enough that I should probably get something of hers and give it a listen. Tastes and interests do change over the years.

I also appreciate really deep bass. I grew up hearing my dad play a pipe organ. He was a church organist for 50 years. I have many pipe organ records. Nearly everything Virgil Fox ever did and all that I ever found on D2D. I have old speakers AR9's, original Teledynes, rebuilt about 20 years ago. I've never had better bass in my system as they are said to reach 18hz, probably down several Db at that point but they do reach very deep. The pipe organ sounds very real on them and the D2D's play down to 16 hz. I guess the AR9's can't quite do that but closer than most and they do so without audible distortion. Much modern music also has very deep bass and makes it kind of fun. I've gotten into Enya lately and she does a lot of very deep synthesizer tones. Cd and vinyl not much different in her recordings. Both are enjoyable. Just some of my thoughts. I enjoy hearing yours. Thanks,

Bill

Zappa Apostrophe

Some of the music being recommended could possibly be heard on YouTube.  It would at least give you an idea of the music style before you spend money on a record.

I've listened to some music that was recommended by others and I really don't care for it. Sucks if you've spent $30 on a record..

I used to listen to Zappa Apostrophe a lot back in the 80s' Fun album but I don't think of it as reference material. It does have some interesting sounds and songs, humor mixed with musical talent. Zappa was one of the first live concerts I ever went to back in 1970. Weird but fun show. Frank was unusual to say the least.

Dark Side of the Moon got a lot of play for me in the 70's. I have several copies of it. For real "oldies rock", I am more inclined to listen to Alan Parsons as reference material but Pink Floyd also did some good recordings, especially on Island when you can find them. Parsons is a recording engineer and it shows in his albums. Much like Chip Davis of Manheim Steamroller, nutty about getting it right. Many artists were perfectionists and many were not as well. It shows in their recordings.

I absolutely find things on youtube and have made decisions to buy vinyl or cd's after hearing or seeing a video. Have found a lot that way and some I'm content just to leave on youtube and have a casual listen. The Spoon Lady is kind of fun. Tons more but I get a kick out of her. First found The Civil Wars there (nice vinyl recordings), The Dead South, tons of stuff.