Since I'm actually going through the process (prain-in-the-a**ess) of finding the set of speakers for me! I'm currently using my buddy, Talley, as a resource and his choice of cd to bring is a Don Henley album. I don't know which one exactly, but it's on a gold disc and has a nifty holding mechanism for the CD. The guitar and vocals are superb on it.
My choice...well...is still undecided. I like the classical genre immensely and have been going between recordings with Chicago Symphony doing Prokofiev's Scythian Suite and Lt. Kije and New York Philharmonic doing Scheherazade. Both superb and they push the spectrum for sound. I'm also contemplating using Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue or Shostakovich 15 (both with Chicago Symphony. Yes, I do have a bias for this group). MY other contemplations are San Francisco Symphony doing Stravinsky or Mahler 6 with Tilson Thomas. Not sure.
This should be as simple as ordering a burger: "How would like it cooked? Dark, mellow, bright, forward, clear, forgiving?"
-pat