I'm not sure I will trust the Japanese import of Avalon. I got burned on a Japanese Bobby Darin LP, That's All. I actually think the flaws are in the master tapes because the same songs, especially Mack the Knife, have the same distortion on a CD I've bought since. If anyone has a good Mack, please share.
For evaluating speakers, CD/SACD players,amps, and pre-amps:
*Chesky's Ultimate Test CD Volume 2
*K.D Lang Live by request CD- I was auditioning a very well reviewed floorstanding speaker and absolutely loving it until I asked the salesman to play Constant Craving. The bass totally obscured the vocals. It saved me form making a big mistake and I've whipped this one out when evaluating speakers ever since.
For Turntables & Cartridges:
*Dire Straights any LP
*10,000 Maniacs, especially Blind Man's Zoo for some reason Natalie Merchant's voice is very sensitive to cartridge misalignment and tonearm set-up.
*Ricky Lee Jones, Pirates - There's just a whole lot of everything in there.
*Lead Zeppelin IV MoFi