What are your "reference" CDs?

Thanks for the replys. Sting does sound compressed, at least to the ear, but in reality if you use an RTA, you will see that the response is balance. The album I use is"The Summmer's tales" track 1 and 6. I know alot of engineers use this CD. Judging by the responses, there are alot of Jazz and Classical lovers.

I to listen to country as well and there are not to many well recorded disc's out there. Here are a few I've found as well as some Blues, etc. Alot of these I use when trying out new equipement. The following are all standard redbook C.D.'s unless noted.
COUNTRY:
Alan Jackson - Drive (very good recording)
Alison Krauss - Forget About it / New Favorite (both great)
Billy Dean - Fire in the dark (very good recording)
Dixie Chicks - Home (pretty good recording)
Dolly Parton - Halos & Horns (as above)
Gretch Peters - The secret of life (as above)
K.D.Lang - Shadowland (very good recording)
Lyle Lovett - Joshua judges Ruth (as above)
Keith Whitley - A Tribute Album (mostly great)
Rodney Crowell - The Houston Kid (as above)
Travis Tritt - Down the Road I go (as above)

BLUES:
Bonnie Raitt - Silver Lining (very good)
Colin James - Bad Habits (very good)
Debbie Davis - Tales from the Austin Hotel (pretty good)
Duke Robillard - Stretchin' out Live (very good)
Eric Clapton - From the Cradle (very good)
Junior Wells - Everybody's gettin' some (very good)
Keb' Mo' - Slow down/Just like you/Keb' Mo' (all very good)
Muddy Waters - Folk singer *Ultradisc II gold CD* (V Good)
Robert Cray - Strong Persuader(v good, gold disc is better)
Ronnie Earl - Ronnie Earl & Friends/Healing Time (both VG)
Roy Gaines - I got the T-Bone Walker blues *gold disc* (mostly great)
Terry Evans - Blues for tonight (mostly great)

OTHERS worth a listen:
Eagles - Hell freezes over, use to test bass extension
Jethro Tull - Thick as a brick
Madonna - Immaculate Collection, surprising soundstag
Pink Floyd - Dark side of the moon (a must, remastered)
Roger Water - Amused to death (shows what your system can do and wow your friends)
Anne Murray - Croonin' / Country Croonin' (both very good)
Diana Krall - ANYTHING !!!!! there all good to great
Eva Cassidy - Live at Blues Alley - (great!)
James Taylor - Hourglass / October Road (both VG to great)
Jesse Cook - Free Fall (VG to great)
K.D.Lang - Ingenue (VG to great)
Rosanne Cash - 10 song demo (VG) (yes, thats Johnny Cash's daughter)
Tracy Chapman - New Beginning (VG to excellent)

Well Highend64 that should keep you busy for awhile if not put a dent in your bank account. There should be something in the about you will enjoy, I know I do.
Good luck and good listening !!!!!!!!!!

I do not have referrence cd's in comparing equipment but rather songs which after listening to way too often I feel I know intimately.

1.Holst's- Jupiter (from the planets)
2.Ben Harper- Gold to me - fight for your mind
3.Ben Harper- Fight Fof Your Mind(last part of song)
4.John Coltrane- While My Lady Sleeps - Coltrane
5.Patricia Barber - The Beat Goes On - Companion
6.Los Lobos - Saint Behind The Glass - Kiko
7.Sibelius - Symphony No. 1 first movement (3:00 and 9:00)
8.Horace Silver - Tokyo Blues - Tokyo Blues

The Hunter CD by Jennifer Warnes
Music For Your Neighborhood by Jude Swift
And I Love Her by the Beatles on LP
Hotel California from Hell Freezes Over
Steely Dan's Aja LP
Wood and Steel Vol I and II - acoustic guitar songs by various stars
Christine McVie's solo Lp
Geeorge Harrison's All Things Must Pass CD and Lp set

I've successfully gotten away from my reference CDs, and instead am simply buying LOTS of new, usually-cheap CDs to expand my musical experience. But it's so tricky, and sometimes surprising. A SONY reissue of Mozart's Requiem by the Bach Collegium Stuttgart (1979) sounds like utter crap, while the lower expectations of the remastered Tom Waits Asylum Years collection is VERY satisfying. Ah...go figure.
Kudos to Shostakovich 1 and 15 by Cincinnati/Lopez-Cobos on Telarc (as expected), but also the rag-tag, intimate-sounding Philharmonic Cassovia give wonderfully human renderings of Tchaikovsky greats on a Naxos-sourced Amadis cheapie. So I spend much less time comparing tweaks with
"Companion" or Crawl (sorry), or Jennifer W (remember?),
and prefer to get cute with Nora, Cassandra, as well the Mahler, Brahms and Mahler catalogues and jazz reissues. Tony and Bill's duo is GREAT for masculine voice reference, though. And Nojima plays Liszt: the top octave playing should sound like wooden keys slapping the beds and NOT metallic ones. Good ref for DACs, cables, clean AC, etc.
Aaaargh...I'm falling into it again!