Music to test systems

Abstract7; interesting thread. Like some have noted above, my list will change over time-- but slowly. All are CDs.
1. Holly Cole "Temptation"; female vocal timbre, background noise.
2. Enigma "Cross of Changes"; Bass, dynamics, PRT.
3. Cowboy Junkies "The Caution Horses"; female vocal timbre, detail, and relaxation effect.
4. JJ Cale "Guitar Man"; Pace, Rhythm, and Timing; also male vocal timbre.
5. Lucinda Williams "Car Wheels On A Gravel Road"; an HDCD disc; Soundstaging, female vocals.

I don't specifically buy "audiophile" CDs. All the above CDs can also be used to check tonal balance, which should be an assumed characteristic of any well recorded CD. Cheers. Craig.

Albert, ATD is my alltime, all time favorite cd.Truly a workout for the system, and the room.Female voice: Karen Carpenter. (brother can you spare a nail?) Her voice melts me down.

Great choices so far. Here is my list, for what it is worth... 1) Lucinda Williams "Car Wheels On a Gravel Road" - dynamic, voice of coffee mixed with diesel fuel, excellent sense of guitar strings. 2) Dar Williams "Mortal City" - one of the most divine women's voices around, angelic, great acoustic guitar work. 3) The Cure "Mixed Up" - not for the bass shy, an excellent representation of modern music. 4) Steely Dan "Aja" - so much to offer for testing; male voice, instruments, drum kit on Aja, variation in pace, dynamics, etc. 5) John Coltrane "Blue Train" - an essential jazz piece, the required jazz instruments, contains both the smooth and frenetic sides of Coltrane.

I tend to use recordings of music that I have frequently heard live. Since I have heard the Chicago Symphony live hundreds of times I use the Reiner (Classic Vinyl preferred)and Solti performances of Bartok,Reiner's Sheherazade, Solti's Mahler 8th and the HP remaster of Ozawa's Rite of Spring. These pieces have solos for most of the instruments and voices as well as massive tutti's. Vaughn Williams Symphony Antartica is a favorite for low bass with orchestra.

For sub bass response for test cd try soundtract to movie Titanic. I use it to see what bass response speakers put out. Very dynamic recording. Almost every song is loaded with deep bass.