what are the "must have" CD's

I like the music and her wit, but her dics are also very well recorded and can thrill from an audiophile standpoint.

Patricia Barber - Cafe Blue, Modern Cool, and Companion.

Willy Porter is an under the radar guitar whiz and his Live album has me looking at the sacd switch on my player. One of the best redbook recordings I own.

Have Fun!

It's a bit hard to suggest things without knowing something about the music you enjoy.

There's a raft of female singer/songwriters with excellent recordings - Janis Ian, Melody Gardot, Rickie Lee Jones and so on.

If you like a well recorded R&B sound, a lot of the Taj Mahal records are excellent - check out "Blue Light Boogie" for starters. Etta James also has some recordings that'll knock your socks off. Try "Seven Year Itch" or "Mystery Lady" for starters. Another artist that is a lot of fun is Jimmy Smith, known for the amazing sound he gets from a Hammond B-3 organ. He's been around a long time, but two releases within the past 10 years or so are "Dot Com Blues" and "Angel Eyes".

There's a ton of excellently recorded jazz. I discovered one recently that is a lot of fun to listen to - "Cachaito" by Orland Cachaito Lopez, the legendary Cuban double bass player. (He was also a member of the Buena Vista Social Club group.)

Same with classical - you can run all the way from a beautiful and intimately recorded single instrument (such as Norbert Kraft's classical guitar) to full-tilt orchestral recordings of Mahler.

In short, a little additional detail about the type of music you like will help people get you where you want to go.

Bela Fleck's Flight of the Cosmic Hippo, that'll test your subwoofer.....

I second the Hippo. The Dutoit Planets is also a good one for the sub as well as the Telarc Firebird.

Get "Amused to Death" (R. Waters) for that funky QSound imaging. Get the dog barking outside the window, and the sleigh coming right across the complete width of the room. Although the imaging effects are artificial in some respects, the better systems make the whole thing cinemascopic.

"Spyboy" (E. Harris) for the huge drum solo on "The Maker" - this will test your low frequency transient response. Great album too.

Regards,