If you wanted to impress someone, which track?

"I was playing Stan Getz "The Girl From Ipanema" and my 14 year old son got off his Xbox and walked in the room to see what was playing. That doesn't happen very often! It did sound VERY good!"

Then again Mapman it could have been that cool bossa nova/samba rhythm that drew him in. I believe I was about 14 or 15 when I first heard that song and it blew me away, maybe Astrud Gilberto's voice or a longing for far away exotic places, who knows? It is however a great recording.

to impress non-audiophiles, start with what they're familiar with.

3 things in particular:

Rolling Stones: Cant You Hear Me Knocking off their reissue CD. incredible sonics, same reason as below.

Guns & Roses: Patience (was miked as a live session w/ band in one room, and it morphs from a familiar tune on the radio into a mind blowing performance of a great band)

(though i like "You're Crazy" off G&R Lies MUCH better. absolutely amazing, and their peak as a band. and damn near the best R&R i've heard since ...?)

U2: In a Little While off "all you cant leave behind". their best sonics on a track, with a band everyone knows.

shout out to Low "Silver Rider" off Great Destroyer...check it out if you want to hear what it sounds like when God starts talking to you...

needless to say, play it as loud as possible. good systems should do that without distortion, which is what makes them good systems.

" it could have been that cool bossa nova/samba rhythm that drew him in.'

Probably.

10 minutes later "Whodunnit" by Genesis of Abacab was playing and same thing happened. That's got a cool rhythm of a different type.

The first two tracks on The Tom Tom Clubs first album, Wordy Rappinghood into Genius of Love on vinyl.

I'm all vinyl these days; but when I had an SACD player, there was an acoustic guitar (no piano!) version of "Candle in the Wind" on the Goodbye Yellow Brick Road hybrid that was added as a bonus track, and never failed to impress.