For me, I want my average CDs to sound great. Forget the perfect audiophile recordings. But I do have a few that I always have to play whenever, I'm either auditioning new gear or trying to evaluate a change in the system.

1. The Eagles Greatest Hits, Vol. 2, Hotel California just has to rock. And the sax (I hope it's a sax) on Sad Cafe, geez I love that.

2. Mindy McCready -- If I Don't Stay the Night, the Oh Romeo cut has heavy deep bass along with her sweet voice, always tough to do both right.

3. Dire Straits -- Money for Nothing

4. Bonnie Raitt -- Nick of Time, yeah, those chicks again.

5. Jimmy Buffett -- Boats, Beaches, Bars & Ballads, the Ballads CD has a lot of acoustic music and different types of percussion instruments.

6. Whatever is my current favorite, which is likely in the car cd changer, Lyle Lovett's Pontiac fits that description right now, ask me next week ;)

Did I say just 5, ok I lied. So what are your Top 5, got-to-give-me-goosebumps, CDs or albums?

 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - Frank W 01:46:26 3/22/99 (0)
 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - Mart 08:56:35 3/16/99 (0)
 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - David Aiken 15:56:28 3/11/99 (0)

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 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - Frank W 01:46:26 3/22/99 (0)
 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - Mart 08:56:35 3/16/99 (0)
 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - David Aiken 15:56:28 3/11/99 (0)
 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - Edp 10:24:40 3/11/99 (0)
 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - Oakroot 14:30:19 3/10/99 (1)
 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - Stephen 14:35:08 3/10/99 (0)
 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - KP 03:13:41 3/10/99 (0)
 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - Hyperion 23:23:07 3/09/99 (0)
 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - Audiophilander 15:39:19 3/09/99 (1)
 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - Monty 07:53:15 3/13/99 (0)
 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - Mike K 13:17:10 3/09/99 (0)
 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - Ears 13:15:37 3/09/99 (2)
 Tony Rice - MikeP 17:30:21 3/09/99 (1)
 Re: Tony Rice - Ears 22:55:11 3/09/99 (0)
 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - jj 12:24:19 3/09/99 (5)
 Forgot ONE! - jj 08:53:43 3/25/99 (0)
 I stunned ... - Stephen 13:18:03 3/09/99 (3)
 You lucky ... - jj 14:10:49 3/09/99 (2)
 Re: You lucky ... - Stephen 14:50:36 3/09/99 (1)
 Oh, I forgot ... - jj 18:51:48 3/10/99 (0)
 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - Stephen 12:16:20 3/09/99 (0)
 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - Clayton Oxendine 11:41:16 3/09/99 (0)
 Re: Top 5 - Must Sound Good Audition CDs - MikeP 11:32:12 3/09/99 (0)

Sam Bush "Glamour and Grits" Excellent. Decent recording and way good. Must have for any fans of progressive bluegrass.

Ozark Mountain Daredevils "Ozark Mountain Daredevils". Excellent music that I'm very familiar with. A lot of subtle details that you can't hear on some systems. Not the best fidelity, but not terrible either, besides if it don't play the Daredevils, I don't want it.

JJ Cale - anything he's done. Most aren't the best in fidelity, but I
Soundtrack from "Braveheart" wanna see how much bass ya really got?don't care. If it won't play JJ Cale, I don't want it.

Subject to change at any moment.

Clayton

In my case, it's not goosebumps it has to give me, it has to be RIGHT.

That's my short list.

And then there is my current favorite: Jimmy Witherspoon - Singing
the Blues - Pacific Jazz. A 1959 recording recently reissued with
the SBM treatment. 'Spoon is in excellent form, and 'Sweets' Edison
gives a master class is blues trumpet playing. If you love the blues,
get this one.

He asked for five (5).
I guess since you named cuts, we'll let it slide.

Michelle, BTW is awesome, both live and recorded.

I left off Trinity Sessions, Cowboy Junkies, Hard Rock Miner,
Atkins/Knofler, Neck in Neck, "changes",
Ry Cooder, Jazz, "We Shall Be Happy",
Great Big Sea, "Great Big Sea", "General Taylor
Jean Redpath, (anything I have)

1) Argent "The BBC Sessions" (for the track *It's Only Money Pts I & II* --- an incredibly well recorded piece with an awesome organ instrumental which will rigorously test the soundstaging capabilities of every speaker thrown at it; also great harmonies)

2) Van Der Graff Generator "H to He Who Am The Only One" (for *Killer* and esp. *House With No Door* --- The first track just becuse I like it, but the second has a very deep bass structure with nicely mic'd piano and delicate vocal shadings from Peter Hammill)

3) Led Zeppelin "II" remastered (for *Whole Lotto Love* esp. --- the "washing machine" vocal and guitar interplay on this piece will give yourseparation and front/back depth a workout; also there is noticeable air around the instruments, in particular drums and cymbals which should be discernable over a good system)

4) Yes "The Yes Album"/"Fragile" remastered (for *The Clap* and *Starship Trooper* [T.Y.A.], and *South Side of the Sky*, *Mood for a Day* and *Heart of the Sunrise* [Fragile] --- The Clap is a nice acoustic guitar piece performed live before an audience, and the hall ambiance can easily be heard, Starship Trooper is a grand piece with a crescendo reached through Leslie phased guitars [on a good system the Leslie effects should be readily apparent moving gracefully between speakers], with excellent vocal harmonies and inspired bass from Chris Squire --- the three songs mentioned from Fragile are more of the same with the added benefit of Rick Wakeman's diverse keyboard work on South Side... and Heart... and a studio recorded acoustic guitar piece, Mood for a Day, from Steve Howe)

5) Either The Who "Tommy" or Jimi Hendrix "First Rays of the New Rising Sun", both remastered (for a well predominently acoustic recording with good vocals, harmonies, and instrument placement "Tommy" is hard to beat, particularly the *Overture*; on the other hand Jimi's posthumously released Eddie Kramer remastered "First Rays..." is exceptional with a variety of superb tracks such as *Dolly Dagger* with it's multi-layered guitar and wide dynamic range)

These are just some of my eccentric tastes; when my wife and I audition we balance this with classical recordings, female vocalists (i.e. like Diana Krall), and unusual instrumentals (i.e. such as Andreas Vollenweider). This provides a nice broad spectrum of sound to evaluate equipment by.

AuPh

2. Jazz at the Pawnshop XRCD. The best digital recording/remaster effort I've ever heard. Nice music too. It sounds good in any cd player!

3. Queen, Live at Wembley. If you are able to make this crap double cd sound good, then you have a darn good system. :-)

4. $8,000,000 Timbre by TIS recording. The only recording I know that features a duet between a Stradivari and Guarneri violin. If you cant discern the big difference between the timbre and temperament of the two golden age violins, then something is very wrong in your system. One of those rare instances where audiophile grade purist recording cd (even mistakes and spontaneous stuff were recorded) actually sounded musical.

5. St. Saens' Carnival of Animals. There's no easier way to hear as many different instruments highlighted through solo performances in just one disc. Le Cygne, a solo piece for cello is my fave.

And a couple more that escape my mind at the moment.

1) Benny Carter: A Gentleman and His Music : on Concord Excellent small ensemble of acoustical instruments. A jazz great plays some of his heartfelt favorites. Well recorded and well played.

2) Yo-Yo Ma: Japanese Melodies : on Columbia Exotic sounds mixing the acoustical instrumensts from two diverse musical traditions. Surprisingly well recorded.

3) Ben Andrews: Preachin' the Blues : on Mapleshade Very warm and intimate recording of songs from some of the great Blues artists.
This is a good one!

4) Diana Krall: All For You: on MCA Very well recorded, played, and sung. A tribute to Nat King Cole - hard to beat the music. Piano is superb.

5) Madeline Peyroux: Dreamland: on Atlantic Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday and Patsy Cline all roled up into one. Great fun and lively vocal interpretations on blues/country/jazz set. Good recording.

I have had that Ben Andrew's cd for about five years now.
Guess I should open it.

The best of the Doors.

Anna Russell Live

I haven't seen "The day the fingerpickers took over", but now that I've heard of it, we'll go visit the old web site and see if I can run up some more shipping charges. :_)

Antonio Carlos Jobim Songbook. Variety of performers. Stan Getz breath track 4 and Wilson on voice on track 8.

Joe Sample - Sample This - Old hits played again with acoustic instruments and an older/mellower style.

Wes Montgomery - Wes Side Story. Shows if enclosure has colorations.

Steely Dan Aja - Non special master version, nice price versions. Tough vocals, jazz/rock backgrounds, decent recording/transfer, can show if units only sound good on thourghbreed sources or just any old source.

- a nature recording like Nature Recordings "Frog Heaven". I look for realistic sounding insects and frogs, and absolutely incredible sound stage and pin-point imaging;

- something recorded in a highly reverberant space - any of David Hykes and the Harmonic Choir's recordings made in Thoronet Abbey, and the Dempster/Oliveiros/Panaiotis "Deep Listening" on New Albion. I still don't know what the last one SHOULD sound like (read the liner notes and you'll understand why) but it sounds different every time I play with my system. I look for the sense of space;

- solo piano - one or more of the tracks from the Stereophile test records;

- human voice - often Meredith Monk just to listen to the range of possiblilites possible with voice;

- a percussion disc - some of John Cage's pieces, Stefan Micus's "Koan" (ECM), or Hart/Wolff/Hennings "Yamantaka" - the last is good for a mix of high pitched and very low pitched percussion and some effects which sound quite elctronic even though it's totally acoustic.

All of the above are reasonably to extremely well recorded, and all yield useful information on how "natural" things sound for me.

David Aiken

2) ENYA : "Orinco Flow" will show off/up your upper HF XO & your tweeters LF & your midrange HF. The diaphrams make breakup / ring. The drivers may be forced to perform above their linear bands. Metal domes distort her voice radically.

3) KANSAS : "Dust in the Wind" will demonstrate HF XO phase. Anything irregular will make the song hollow & artificial. Box & speaker size standing waves also show up like sore thumbs.

4) CARS (DCC) : "Moving in Stereo" for proper sonic-field development. This song has an accurately balanced moving image. If the speakers are too initmate, the sound will hop between speakers. If the speakers are too loose, interfernece patterns overwhelm the sound (BOSEan). If the drivers aren't matched the virtual image's depth is a function of frequency.

5) QUARTERFLASH : "Harden My Heart" to check cymbal strikes & sax & kick drum sonic voices. This requires proper suspensions & stiff diaphrams on all drivers. Otherwise, the result is blurred & muddy.

FW

Major omission.