Music to test with:

Unsound, thank you for clarifying the point I was trying to make. To be sure, the sound of a viola will be affected by the environment in which it is played. But if one listens to many violas played in many environments, one will come to learn the characteristic sound of the instrument. The environment may contribute some color, reverb, etc. to the sound of the viola but it won't change the fundamental character.

On the other hand, no one but the artist will EVER know, no matter how many listenings or how many environments, what the the sound coming out of the electric guitar-cum-black box was intended to sound like. Therefore, while it will be entirely possible for one to choose a system that produces a synth sound that one likes, it will be impossible by definition for one to choose a system that replicates with certainty the artist's intention.

Of course one should use recordings with which one is familiar, be they by the Chicago Symphony or by the thrash metal band du jour.

will

Pianorecordings, best one with a Steinway, the other a Boesendorfer or a Bechstein, Soprano arias, string quartets, a brass octet, a chorus, massed strings, or a nice slice of Berlioz' Requiem played at full tilt boogie are the acid tests I use to let a dealers face turn from chubby red to slightly pale. (-;
P.S. That is, if the dealer knows the sound of classical music. A rare breed indeed and an endangered species, but not yet entirely extinct. Cheers,

I just heard a really good cd for testing. It's by "Robert Hohner" and the album is called: "Far more drums". If you can, get the Hybrid Multichannel SACD version as the CD layer sounds much better than the normal CD version alone. The recording sounded better than all my HDCD's and was on the same level as XRCD.

here is a contrarian thought - instead of great sounding recording of music you love, use discs that you love but that have problems which can be excerbated by poor performing components, for example a disc with a high end that is almost too etched. if it sounds overly so (piercing) or underly so (dull) you will have easily discovered something. the problem with great recordings, is they will sound so good on so many components and you will be listening to the music and not the sound. i used to bring multiple cd's w/such problematic tracks. makes initial listening sessions much shorter.