Favourite Albums to test home audio gear

[winny pooh]

Inspired by recent threads I want to know.
What do you use to try out audio equipment?

Me:
Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries (won Grammy for best engineered album 1984)
Mark Hollis - Mark Hollis (painstakingly recorded to 2 tracks with one stereo U47 pair, arguably the most "dimensional" album I have ever heard)

[TheGoodTexan]

Anything from Larry Carlton.

And along those lines...

Anything from Steely Dan
Donald Fagen's: The Night Fly
(Those are some of the most well engineered and produced albums of all time.)

Steve Miller's Greatest Hits, specifically Fly Like an Eagle, for the analog synth.

Van Halen, Drop Dead Legs (from 1984).... greatest stereo seperation in a hard rock song of all time. Although there's not much low-end on that entire album.

Van Halen, Dirty Movies (from Women & Children First)...best recorded drum kit, including snare, in a hard rock song of all time.

[superchicken_VI]

Holly Cole--Don't Smoke in Bed
Dallas Wind Symphony and the Turtle Creek Men's Chorale--Testament (works by Randall Thompson)
Robert Cray--Strong Persuader (MoFi version)
Chumbawumba--Tub Thumper
AKUS--Now That I've Found You
Anonymous 4--Lily and the Lamb
Freyda and Acoustic Attatude--A Night at Cabell Hall

If you can't demo with that collection, you don't need to be buying.

[furrfurrfurr]

Robin Trower Bridge of Sighs
Tom Petty Refugee

[unclearty]

I used to sell audio equipment...back when it was pretty good. I used to like the vinyl version of Doobie Brothers..Livin' on the Fault Line. This album will show off depth and airiness of good speakers. Early Earth, Wind and Fire, too. Also used to use early Herbie Hancock albums for low end and percussiveness. It's hard to get CDs to have the openness of albums.

[TheGoodTexan]

Originally Posted by unclearty

Also used to use early Herbie Hancock albums for low end and percussiveness.

Headhunters is one of my all time favorite albums.

...and it drives my wife nuts. I can sit and listen to that album all the way through. There are only 4 songs...but the album is about 45 minutes long.

[rand z]

the nightfly - fagan (definately)

skip hop and wobble - russ barenberg, jerry douglas and edgar meyer
(great album and wonderfully recorded acoustic instruments)

http://www.amazon.com/Skip-Hop-Wobbl.../dp/B000000F33


imho.

rand z tropicalsoul.net

here:

[stxrus]

i used Sly Dumbar's "Sly, Wicked, & Slick"

steve

[Bernie]

Originally Posted by winny pooh

Inspired by recent threads I want to know.
What do you use to try out audio equipment?

Me:
Michael Hedges - Aerial Boundaries (won Grammy for best engineered album 1984)

+1 on Hedges, "Breakfast in the Field" is a great one, too.

Vinyl:
Michael Hedges: (mentioned above)
The David Grisman Quintet: Their first album (with the instruments on the cover
Daniel Lanois: Acadie
Steely Dan: Pretzel Logic, Aja
Rolling Stones: Sticky Fingers
The Jayhawks: Tomorrow the Green Grass
Robbie Robertson: Robbie Robertson
Santana: Third Album and Abraxas
The Tony Rice Quintet: Mar West
XTC: Oranges and Lemons
ZZ Top: ZZ Top’s First Album
Ry Cooder: Bop Till You Drop, Get Rhythm
CSN: Crosby, Stills and Nash
The Doors: Morrison Hotel, Strange Days

CD:
Paul Desmond and Jim Hall: disc 2 from the Mosaic Box Set
The Beatles: (1967-1970) (the blue album)

This is off the top of my head, there are many more.

[Blazer]

Well I would use the Donald Fagen album "Nightfly" or the Steely Dan album "AJA" or i would used some Jazz, something by Dave Brubreck.

But if there was a song I would use to see how my new stereo would sound at full throttle, then it would be this one.

[1293]

Sheffield Lab's direct to disc Wagner - Ride of the Valkyries

Dianne Reeves - I Remember

Type O-Negative - Bloody Kisses

[JMURRAY16]

Lately I have been using:
Beatles "Love" on Vinyl
And:
Lucinda Williams "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" on CD

[jazztele]

tomasz stanko quintet-- suspended night

kind of blue

or the flaming lips' "soft bulletin"

[Hockey Rocker]

Art Garfunkel's "Breakaway" in another. I'm with you on Fagen and the Dan. The west coast engineers really acheived lush production better than anything I can think of coming out of New York or the UK.

[64Strat]

+1 on Fagen - Nightfly

here's some other selections that will make your high end system stretch....

Patricia Barber - Cafe Blue (Blue is awesome but also, Modern Cool is great too)
Dean Peer - Ucross (solo electric bass)
Dead Can Dance - Into the Labyrinth
Badi Assad - Rhythms (and Solo)
Diana Krall - Love Scenes
Taylor Grissom Jazz Quartet - I'm Beginning to See the Light (fabulous!)
Grusin/Grusin - Sticks and Stones
Jacintha - Here's to Ben (scary)
Bela Fleck and the Flecktones - UFO Tofu
The Alan Parson Project - The Definitive Collection (not bad for a rock recording)
Clapton - Unplugged (very well done live recording)
Lyle Lovett - Joshua Judges Ruth (particularly track 4 - North Dakota)
Janice Ian - Breaking Silence

[Poppatwang]

Nightfly +1
Roseanne Cash "King's Record Shop"

[SINCASTER]

Pink Floyd - Ummagumma.

[Paul in Colorado]

Who's Next, the version with the bonus tracks, probably remastered
The Notorious Byrd Brothers
Santana, Borboletta
Afro-Celt Sound System, the one Peter Gabrial sings on

[slauson slim]

Blues & The Abstract Truth - Oliver Nelson

[claudel]

Dark Side of The Moon

[Wildhawk]

Originally Posted by claudel

Dark Side of The Moon

+1

30+ years later still the standard.

[chet]

Still trying to decide.

[BillyG]

Zappa because it forces the other patrons to listen to Zappa.

[Bigugh]

+2 on 'Dark Side Of The Moon'. 'In The Dark' by the Dead is a good one, also.

[Frank B]

If we're merely talking testing audio gear:
Aja from Steely Dan's Aja album.
Mean Street or Dirty Movies from Van Halen's Fair Warning album.
Learning to Fly from Pink Floyd's A Momentary Lapse of Reason album.
Chronic from Metalwood's Chronic album.
The Romantic Warrior from Return to Forever's Romantic Warrior album.

[tbp0701]

When I was pretty deep into audio gear, I used to use:

Black Codes from the Underground, Wynton Marsalis Quintet.

The Rite of Spring, Igor Stravinsky/The Cleveland Orchestra. Nothing will show the strength and limitations of an audio system like a pounding full symphony orchestra.

To hear vocals, I'd also occasionally use The Cowboy's Junkies' Trinity Sessions. It was recorded in a cathedral with a single stereo mic, and the delpth of Margo Timmons' voice is terrific. There are other things in there, as well, like the snare vibrating while the bass plays.

And maybe something like taking the Schoolhouse Rock Rocks! CD and playing "Electricity." Just to shatter any perceptions the sales person or patrons may have in thinking I had overly sophisticated musical taste or something, and there's nothing like the lead vocalist going from a rich, vampish tone in "stroking a cat to make it purr" to screaming "Shooooooooooooccccccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!"