Female vocal:
Diana Krall "Live in Paris"
Amanda McBroom "Dreaming"
Robin Holcomb (self-titled)
Joni Mitchell "Song to a Seagull"

Male Vocal:
Frank Sinatra "Nice 'n Easy"
Lyle Lovett "Joshua Judges Ruth"
David Sylvian "Secrets of the Beehive"

Jazz Ensemble:
John Coltrane "Blue Trane"

Classical:
Vivaldi "Four Seasons"
(Boston Symph./Seiji Ozawa/Telarc)

Orchestra with Chorus:
Orff "Carmina Burana"
(Atlanta Symph./Chorus/Robert Shaw/Telarc)

Solo Instrument (Organ):
Bach: Toccata and Fugue in D minor
(Michael Murray/Telarc)

Solo Instrument (Piano):
Beethoven Op. 111
(Ivo Pogorelich/Deutsche Grammophon)

Honorable Mention (just for the sheer power at the end):
Telarc "1812 Overture" (if your system can at least reasonably reproduce the cannon shots and survive, it can survive anything)

Movie DVD or Soundtrack:
"Glory"
"Gladiator"
"The Matrix"

Rock/Alternative:
Nine Inch Nails "Downward Spiral"
Marilyn Manson "Mechanical Animals"
Rammstein "Reise, Reise"

I make it a point to take all of these if of when I audition any piece of audio equipment. I never listen to anything the salesman might hand me.

Nice list. Many popular standards.

Is the "1812 Overture" the SACD version? Just curious...

hey jason....i do not use the sacd version. i use the original version.

Tulane,

Surprised about your choice of DVD Movies to demo. If you are talking just a purely demo sense then movies by Pixar demo wonderful surround around:

The Incredibles
Finding Nemo

And nice earthshaking movies like:

Saving Private Ryan
War of the Worlds
UH-571

will definitely wake your audience up with bass.

For pure alternate music bliss, a great selection is

Blue Man Group Audio in DVD-Audio

Gives you bass, nice dynamics, and surround around music all in one.

holydoc, i appreciate your feedback on my post. i'm sure you know, however, that there is more to good sound than bass. i don't want bass that is overwhelming -- i want bass that is well-controlled, believable and accurate. i have the "saving private ryan", "finding nemo", and "war of the worlds" dvds and "uh-571" on vhs tape. and yes, the bass characteristics are impressive but i don't want to kid myself. there are those who believe the best kind of bass is lots of bass, and i do not agree with that so i'm not in that camp. i belong to the "quality is better than quantity" camp. that said, i do not use a sub-woofer in my system. WHAT???!!! SACRILEGE!!! no....not really. it is not my objective to impress people with how my system can make the entire house shake. again, there's much more to good sound than bass. it's interesting how many posts i have seen in here where the most frequently discussed characteristics are bass and surround.

tulane_steve,

People are impressed that my sub shakes the house, but more impressed with the music. The most impressive recent dvd is "Ray".

I like your music list. I music teacher from long ago (a man also my godfather) taught that music in its many forms should be appreciated.

thanks bugbitten. my list is compiled as a result of years of listening to music and movies and it is specifically tailored to me. not everyone will agree with my list, but it is not an issue of agreeing or disagreeing with it. others will come along and say that their list is "better" than mine. again, it is not a question of one being better than another. it is a question of personal taste, and my list reflects my own personal taste. i have specific things that i listen for when i audition audio components and using the recordings i have listed, i will always have a good idea of whether a component will work in my system or not. probably my most important criteria is reproduction of human voice. it is easier for an audio system to reproduce explosions and cars screeching and crashing into each other across the sound field than it is to reproduce human voice. if a system gets human voice right, i am confident it will handle everything else.

I can remember singing tones only for several works while in my college chorus. The violin was closest to reproducing those tones. To this day I like orchestral reproductions of choral works, especially violin, viola and cello, to test out audio systems.

tulane_steve,
glad to see a fellow Carver enthusiast in the forum and, apparently, a felow Telarc enthusiast. After listening to the Telarc recording of "Fanfare for the Common Man" 20 years ago, I was hooked on audio and on any Telarc recording.

-----------------
Denon DVD-1910
Outlaw 970 7.1-channel preamplifier/processor
Carver m1.5t 2-channel amplifier
Carver AV-505 5-channel amplifier
Polk Audio RTS-12 main speakers
JBL HLS center channel speaker
Infinity Reference 200.4 "rear" speakers
Sunfire True Subwoofer MKIV
Samsumg 42" plasma monitor
RCA Satellite/HDTV tuner
Logitech Harmony H659 Programmable Remote
Monster Power Center HTS3500 MkII

tulane_steve And garcianc2003,

Definitely an impressive, and I believe well thought out list... Not that I'm really trying to suggest anything, but I have to say that one of the things I always test first is Coplands "Fanfare". Those horns give me chills every time, and if the system is good?? Amazing. Lately I would also say that Bebo and Cigala's "Lagrimas Negras" is pretty far up the test list... but I'm going to steal your list for future trials.