What are your "reference" CDs?


Hi, I would like to know what are your "reference" CD/CD's? My list are Randy Travis, Dixie Chicks, Ronny Cox, Martina McBride, Yanni, Sting, Eagles, Enigma, and Tim Mcgraw. Of course, there are others. As you can see from the list, I listen mostly country and rock. What are some other artist your perfer? BTW,I would use any genre other than the one specifed. Thanks and Happy Listening
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I do not have referrence cd's in comparing equipment but rather songs which after listening to way too often I feel I know intimately.

1.Holst's- Jupiter (from the planets)
2.Ben Harper- Gold to me - fight for your mind
3.Ben Harper- Fight Fof Your Mind(last part of song)
4.John Coltrane- While My Lady Sleeps - Coltrane
5.Patricia Barber - The Beat Goes On - Companion
6.Los Lobos - Saint Behind The Glass - Kiko
7.Sibelius - Symphony No. 1 first movement (3:00 and 9:00)
8.Horace Silver - Tokyo Blues - Tokyo Blues
The Hunter CD by Jennifer Warnes
Music For Your Neighborhood by Jude Swift
And I Love Her by the Beatles on LP
Hotel California from Hell Freezes Over
Steely Dan's Aja LP
Wood and Steel Vol I and II - acoustic guitar songs by various stars
Christine McVie's solo Lp
Geeorge Harrison's All Things Must Pass CD and Lp set
I've successfully gotten away from my reference CDs, and instead am simply buying LOTS of new, usually-cheap CDs to expand my musical experience. But it's so tricky, and sometimes surprising. A SONY reissue of Mozart's Requiem by the Bach Collegium Stuttgart (1979) sounds like utter crap, while the lower expectations of the remastered Tom Waits Asylum Years collection is VERY satisfying. Ah...go figure.
Kudos to Shostakovich 1 and 15 by Cincinnati/Lopez-Cobos on Telarc (as expected), but also the rag-tag, intimate-sounding Philharmonic Cassovia give wonderfully human renderings of Tchaikovsky greats on a Naxos-sourced Amadis cheapie. So I spend much less time comparing tweaks with
"Companion" or Crawl (sorry), or Jennifer W (remember?),
and prefer to get cute with Nora, Cassandra, as well the Mahler, Brahms and Mahler catalogues and jazz reissues. Tony and Bill's duo is GREAT for masculine voice reference, though. And Nojima plays Liszt: the top octave playing should sound like wooden keys slapping the beds and NOT metallic ones. Good ref for DACs, cables, clean AC, etc.
Aaaargh...I'm falling into it again!
1.Miles Davis-Aura-,Japanese DSD remastered;2.John McLaughlin with Shakti-A Handful Of Beauty-,Japanese black label Mastersound;3.Dead Can Dance-Into The Labyrinth-,British;4.Dead Can Dance-Spiritchaser-,Japanese;5.Al Di Meola-Cielo e Terra-,Japanese.6.Mahavishnu Orchestra-The Inner Mounting Flame-,MFSL;7.Oregon-Beyond Words-,Chesky;8.El Camaron/Paco De Lucia-Castillo de Arena-,EU.