Mike:
I think you raise an excellent point - there is no use in auditioning equipment with music that you don't listen to. Ever notice that sales personnel can get pretty antsy if you try to use your own CDs? A well recorded CD can go a long way towards hiding shortcomings in a setup. Often, people get equipment home and wonder why only 10 recordings sound good. The following suggestions may help:
1. Always listen to music you know well.
2. Always listen to music you like.
3. Be polite about accepting listening suggestions from sales people, but be aware that they are using the recordings that they think will help sell gear.
4. Always take some recordings that you know are difficult for a system to reproduce (I have a few favourites that drive sales staff nuts).
5. Try to listen to a variety of tracks and styles.
6. Don't be taken in by excuses about why a piece of equipment doesn't sound right. Your ears will tell you everything you need to know.
7. IMPORTANT - in all fairness to sales people, try to book an appointment to listen, so that they can have time to set up gear properly for your visit, and so you can be given some quality time in a room by yourself to properly evaluate equipment.
8. Relax and have fun during the audition - do not pressure yourself to buy any equipment that you are less than thrilled with.
9. Make sure that you listen to a piece of equipment more than once.
I know that I strayed from your thread a bit, but I strongly believe that this information is more important than obtaining specific disks to audition equipment with.
Just my 2 cents (2.6 cents Canadian, eh?)
