Albums you use to test your gears?

A good system should always sound good, regardless of source material, so I think the key is always test with a wide variety of musical genres and instrumentation and recordings both old and new, good, great and not so great (take your pick).

In general, a system that can deliver the goods at both extremes, with a variety of both the best modern recordings as well as older and more simplistic recordings, will do a good job with most everything else.

For testing low end extension and control, which is not often present in many recordings, I use recordings including the pipe organ, like the "Pictures at an Exhibition" recording on Dorian. THere are also many good recordings of Saint-Saëns Organ Symphony that offer a good test of ability to deliver orchestral passages that include pipe organ.

I've always relied on Jennifer Warnes's "Famous Blue Raincoat" on vinyl to test my turntable setup, especially the vertical tracking. Others you can try: Pink Floyd's "Dark Side of the Moon", Dire Straits "Love Over Gold", Fleetwood Mac "Rumours", etc..

Bring an array of CD's with you to the store but be sure to include some that are not recorded that well meaning some that are NOT remastered and are of some older recordings say from 1960's and 70's. Any system will sound great if the music was recorded well in the studio and on the CD. Bring some of the older Beatles CD's such as Magical Mystery Tour, Hard Day's Night, Help, etc. Be sure they have not been digitally remastered. This will put the system you're auditioning to the test especially in the bass response and production.

I also bring CD's of female vocalists so you can hear how well the system reproduces voices of a higher pitch and frequency. I would include Joni Mitchell (Court & Spark), any Judy Collins CD's, Joan Baez, etc. (Sorry I no longer have any vinyl LP's so I can not recommend any for you).

Live recordings are another good source to test out new sound systems with. In general, live performances are not recorded nearly as well as in the studio. Van Morrison's "Live at the Grand Opera House" is a recommendation. Lacks bass but overall, sounds decent.

Finally, I would bring some CD's of classical symphony or chamber music (i.e. Mozart violin concertos, piano concertors, etc) to test how well the system sounds with rather quiet music. Is there hiss or hum between instruments, can you hear many or all of the instruments in the orchestra, etc.