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Best song for immediate impact when presenting or testing?

I, as most of you, have my regular tunes that I play or listen to when trying out a new system or playing music for friends. My current starter is 'Feels like Rain' by Aaron Neville. It engages me immediately because I love it so, but it is also very well recorded and has a bass voice doing backup which in the right system has a real visceral impact.

I was at an Audio shop recently, listening to my standards, and wanted to show the sales consultant a piece that he might not have heard. I played 'Golden Rust' off the Miles Gurtu album. After about 30 seconds, he pulled out his device and added the song to his favorites. I asked why did he add so quickly, and he said that the opening electronica had a three dimensional stereophonic quality that made a remarkable impression right off the bat. I paraphrase lightly; that was his comment.

What pieces do you play of any genre that have an immediate impact, especially for people listening to a good system for the first time?
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Showing 1 response by chcumo63

chcumo63
19 posts
 
I agree that you can easily select music for impact that doesn't do much other than show off one or two characteristics of a given piece of equipment.  Like a lot of others here, I have a ton of music that I listen to that gives the whole picture of a system.  Recently I upgraded my entire system and spent two hours listening to hi-res files, SACD, CD and vinyl to be sure that the combination of gear I was considering delivered me to that place where its just the music.  I'm a rock & roll guy so 90% of my collection is just that.  Here's a partial list of the music I used to evaluate my new system:

"Hotel California" from the Eagles - Hell Freezes Over (digital)
"Lines on My Face" from a 40 year old original vinyl pressing of Frampton Comes Alive
"The Chain" from Fleetwood Mac - The Dance (vinyl & digital)
"Squonk" from Genesis - A Trick of the Tail (digital)
"No Quarter" from Led Zeppelin - Celebration Day (digital)
"Gaucho" from Steely Dan - Gaucho (digital)
"On an Island" from David Gilmour - Live in Gdansk (digital)
"Brothers in Arms" from Dire Straits - On the Night (digital)
"Captain Fanstastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy" from Elton John - Captain Fantastic & the Brown Dirt Cowboy (digital & vinyl)

There is so much more, but you get the drift.

As you can tell, I'm all about live and classic rock.  Can't help that I am a child of the 60's, 70's and 80's.

Whatever you do, remember, its about the music not the gear.  The gear is simply a vehicle.
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