What songs do you use to show off your system?

[Banisher]

RHCP - Under the Bridge

 

[STRONGBADF1]

No one I know that has been to my house knows what sounds good anyway... Most people just want to hear "Boom & Sizzle".

AC/DC - Back in Black is a good one to crank up.
Cake - Sad Songs and Waltzes for something off the beaten path.

I'd rather listen to and show off music I like than something that is considered by audiophiles to be acceptable...These songs don't sound bad though.

 

[ImcLoud]

No one I know that has been to my house knows what sounds good anyway... Most people just want to hear "Boom & Sizzle".

AC/DC - Back in Black is a good one to crank up.
Cake - Sad Songs and Waltzes for something off the beaten path.

I'd rather listen to and show off music I like than something that is considered by audiophiles to be acceptable...These songs don't sound bad though.

I know a lot of people that think a loud stereo is a good sounding stereo, lol. I have an outdoor system with dual ev subwoofers and dual pole mounted monitors {I think total is around 3500watts} that I use for outside, and it is very LOUD, a couple friends of mine think it sounds so good, when it doesnt sound bad, but is no where near as clean, accurate, and neutral as even the cheap system in my sons room.... My 2.2 music systems aren't very loud, even though total they are around 1200 total watts, thats not what their made for, but once and a while someone will say "how loud is it?" or "my boombox system is way louder than that" lol...

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

I use the opening of Mahler's symphony No.5 on a BD from the Lucerne Festival. That gets them hooked every time. The quiet opening trumpet, with a distant perspective and then the Orchestra just explodes. It never fails to produce a "wow: I've never heard anything like that before moment." However I usually start with solo piano, with a detailed recording. The piano is well located and the speakers have the perfect perspective of the piano, sounding like really good bookshelves but with a better deeper highly detailed bass. The speakers just seem refined and incapable of the full concert hall sound I then demonstrate.

I just got the DVD.. will give it a proper listen soon
for now i am enjoying very much listening to Bruckner - Symphony No. 4 in E flat major ''Romantic'' (Sinopoli - 1988)
https://itunes.apple.com/ie/album/bruckner-symphony-no.-4-romantic/id137607780

 

[Ponzio]

Jellyfish - Bedspring Kiss
the whole song is great but from 2:45 on - high's to low's, the whole enchilada! decay's, acoustic bass ... superb recording, the whole album.

 

[fuzz092888]

I just got the DVD.. will give it a proper listen soon

It's bee awhile, but did you give the Mahler Symphony No5 a listen?<style id="pageBrightnessCustomCSS">body{zoom:150%;}</style>

 

[JohnnieB]

Sting, The soul cages, Dream of the blue turtles
Pink Floyd, Dark side of the moon
Enigma, MCMXC AD
Cure, Pictures of you
Live, Throwing copper
Marc Cohn
Kind of depends on the day, if i'm not in the mood to listen to a particular artist, genre, I won't listen with an open ear, i'll be too focused on what I don't like.

 

[bikemig]

For a bit of a sub buster, I like Cantate Domino, Amazon.com: Cantate Domino: Music. It's also a beautifully mastered CD.

For piano, one of my favorites is Horowitz Live in Moscow, Amazon.com: Horowitz in Moscow: Music. The pieces are short and superb. I really like the audience noises (coughing and the like) you hear from time to time as that adds some depth to the music. Plus the backstory to the CD is fun.

For voice, I'd take Eva Cassidy's Songbird over pretty much anything else I own: Amazon.com: Songbird: Music.

Sometimes you just have to play something really, really loud. There are a lot of tough choices out there but near the top of my list is John Lennon doing Twist and Shout on the Beatles Please Please Me, Amazon.com: Please Please Me: Music Led Zeppelin IV comes a close second though.

Got to have some jazz and here the choices are through the roof. My all time personal favorite because it has such a nice Latin fusion is Charlie Haden's Nocturne, Amazon.com: Nocturne: Music

For something funky (and different), I like Gotan's Lunatico (a bit of techno tango): Amazon.com: Lunático: Music.

 

[bushido]

Great thread Imcloud! (not to be confused with Imclovin)



Considering the sick (13,000++) songs I've ended up accumulating on the ipod (a combination of 3, used ipod purchases through the years), it is amusing to me (yes, I laugh at myself) that there are some 10 songs that would be required on the deserted island, and only a few come to mind on short notice. (I can't remember what I had for breakfast, and it's 12 pm)

In honor my my late Dad; from his collection: Dave Brubeck and Gerry Mulligan performing Take Five live at the Berlin Philharmonic

Earth, Wind & Fire (Gratitude album performed live...the entire things is amazing, but) Sun Goddess is my fave song

Sade: Hang on to your love

Roxy Music: Love is the drug...sound effects at the beginning is fun...and, it's true...love IS the drug.

Cubanismo: Pa'que Gozen, Mambo UK piano brilliance leading one of the best Latin groups ever...and very well produced

Gipsy Kings: Un amor (while we're in Latin music) ...the emotion in this voice...wow. Second song recorded live: La Dona

SOS Band: Just be good to me (fuuuuuuuunk)

George Duke: Reach for it (filthy fuuuuuunk)

Alana Davis: Round and Round (I'm a sucker for a great bass line and she has the most under appreciated voice....)

Stevie Ray Vaughn: Tin Pan Alley performed live...hypnotic guitar virtuosity

Tuck & Pattie: Europa...more guitar brilliance acoustic

Tiesto: Goldrush, Flight 643....my gym cardio gym music

Was not Was: I blew up the United States Don Was' group...a Detroit (my location) legend...Bass anyone?

War: Slippin into darkness

Santana: Samba Pa Ti

Yellow Jackets: And you know that...so well produced and mixed...sax anyone?

Yo Yo Ma....hard to choose a song

Ginuine: Bachelor...careful with the woofers

ZZ Topp...Waitin for the Bus

The Who...Eminence Front

Erik Satie...Erik Satie - Gymnopédie No.1

Diana Krall...The look of love

Dave Matthews...Crash into me

Marvin Gaye...What's goin on?

Deangelo....Higher....modern day Marvin

Doobie Brothers...Taking it to the street performed live

Metallica....Enter Sandman

Micheal Jackson...The way you make me feel

Jimi Hendrix...Red House... Blues the way the Master did it.

Enigma's album MCMXC A.D. ...the storied best love-making album ever recorded??

...plus dozens more gang, I need to move along here.

I will listen to every song posted in this thread

...The Eagles live was already mentioned...perfection

Onward and Upward
Puff

 

[JMJVK]

"Morning papers" - Vangelis' The City CD "7 82248-2"
"Le singe bleu" - Vangelis' L'apocalypse des animaux "831 503-2"
"Kathy's waltz" - The Dave Brubeck Quartet's Time out Hybrid SACD "CAPJ 8192 SA" (Stereo)
"Take Five" - Dave Brubeck's Take five in a quartet concert DVD (Stereo track)"12843"
"The Pink Panther theme" - Henry Mancini's The days of wine and roses CD boxset "RCA 07863 66603-2"
"Rooster" - Dave Watts' Will it rain CD. "FND098"
"Sheep" - Pink Floyd's Animals CD "7243 8 29748 2 6"
"The Great gig in the sky" - Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon CD "C2 46001"


If doing an audition of the home theater, I'll add:

"Pulse" (Concert) Pink Floyd - DVD
"Live at the Royal Albert Hall" (Concert) Adele - BD
Tron Legacy

 

[Whitey80]

It depends on which speakers I currently have in rotation in my 2 -channel system.
The sources and tubes don't get changed, only the speakers.

When I have the classic L100's set up:
AC/DC "Highway to Hell" vinyl
Miles Davis "Kind of Blue" vinyl
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds "Live at KCRW" vinyl

When using the open baffle BOFU full-rangers:
Keb Mo "Every Mornin" CD
Seu Jorge "Life Aquatic Studio Sessions" CD
Muddy Waters "Folk Singer" vinyl

With the big Dali 8's:
Standish & Pinnock English Concert La Quattro Stagioni CD
Jack Johnson "En Concert" CD
Paul Simon "Shining Like a National Guitar" CD
and surprisingly, Nine Inch Nails "Pretty Hate Machine" vinyl

In the dedicated theater room:
Blue Man Group "Audio" CD
Michael Jackson Experience Bluray
Rush "Time Machine" Bluray

 

[Dargent0628]

Hmm, for a multi-channel mix I think Peter Gabriel Secret World Live Blu Ray is extraordinarily well-mixed.
For 2.1, if I'm trying to tweak some EQ or other settings I seem to always go back to the Mastersound Kind of Blue CD...there's just so much space around the instruments.
The Tony Bennett/Bill Evans collaborations will really test your speakers' mid-range and imaging.
Cassandra Wilson Closer to You is just so well-produced and the bass is so clean--this recording is why I am still agonizing over what sub to purchase, because the POS I have just doesn't do this justice.
For rock/pop I abhor the super-compressed junk that might make a splash with headphones, but just sounds weird over good speakers. I've recently really been enjoying the Stones Stripped...now that's good recording, both the live and "live" studio tracks. Check out the drums on Street Fighting Man...man, that's some good mic!
Academy of St Martin in the Fields Amadeus CD...my fallback Mozart recording...sumptious!