Auditioning Audio Gear - The Music Used

as with most folks here, i begin equipment auditions with recordings of male and female voices. my selections change over time, mainly 'cause i eventually get bored with "test" cd's/lp's. for several years i used jennifer warnes' "famous blue raincoat" as a primary test lp (i actually bought out a record store's sale stock of this recording; still have 4 or 5 sealed copies). presently, i'm using the persuasion's "might as well" (covers of the dead) and "frankly acapella" (covers of frank zappa). i also favor the fairfield four, "standing in the safety zone" and "the unaccompanied voice" on the secretly canadian label. all of these acapella recordings help me establish the "character" of the equipment i'm auditioning and lay a foundation for other tests. bass response is generally tested using the "poem of chinese drums" track on the burmester sampler "vorfurings cd III" (the u has an umlaut, which i can't insert with a-gon's text creator). rythym and pace are first heard with the "stimela" track from hugh masekela's "hope" (which is also on the burmester cdIII). after listening to these bits, i usually switch to some cd's or lp's that i just plain enjoy. among those i've just pulled out of my "test cd container" (one of those neat little bags from starbucks) are: lou reed "new york"; music from "steal this movie" ; "dead man walking," music inpired by the motion picture; "badlands" (covers of bruce's "nebraska"); and the corrs "unplugged." playing tracks from all these recordings gives me as complete a picture of the equipment under review as i can acomplish in a hour or so. for really important components (speakers, amps and pre's) i want to have at least a week of listening time, during which i throw several dozen more lp's and cd's onto their transports.