Bass audition for your system....

My list was not intended to "impress".

The Saint-Saenz symphony I'm referring to, at least my recording, was produced under extremely tight circumstance where the organ and church were selected to approximate the original debut of the symphony and they even stopped traffic for several blocks around the church to keep road noise out.

Steely Dan are well known for their obsessive production/engineering and on some tracks/album used drum machines because they felt even some high level jazz drummers just weren't precise enough. I have found Two Against Nature to be one of their best produced albums.

Sting is a bass player. For whatever that is worth. His albums tend to be well produced.

Traffic is just Traffic.

Saint-Saenz organ symphony. Towards the end when the organ kicks in. I would say a good system should rattle your guts with that one but the bass should still sound like an organ note and not just a wave.

Also, for precise, well recorded and produced bass listen to Steely Dan's Two Against Nature album. The song by the same name is probably the best test.

There are several songs on Sting's Soul Cages with extreme but well produced bass as well.

Empty Pages by Traffic has a heavy, jazzy bass line augmented by kick drum. However, there is some intentional distortion in those notes so it might not sound as tight as you might like but that's not the system, its the recording.

gosta, I'll look up the Saint-Saenz symphony when I get home but I think it is the Eugene Ormandy, Philadelphia Orchestra on Telarc or London.

Agree about bass resolution. That is probably one of the main things I like in a system. The 'thump' is nice but distinguishing kick drum from bass guitar in a complex arrangement is what I really look for. That's where Steely Dan-Two Against Nature shines.

gosta, the Saint Saenz I have is the Telarc I indicated.

@twoleftears 
I love the Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition but do not own it. Is that recording in the link still the go to recording?

@twoleftears My wife sits and reads in a small room just off my 'music room' when she likes what I'm listening too. She doesn't usually like the volume in the 'music room'.

One day I was listening to the Saint Saenz and the organ finale rolled around and I heard her say from where she was sitting that it sounded like it was going to tear the house down. And I don't even listen all that loud.

Will look into that Mussorgsky.