You have to go with what you know best. I 'know' piano so I tend to listen to recordings of a Bosendorfer with which I'm very familar and I own because I love them enuf to have listened to them extensively without regards to their value to system evaluation. And I know what it sounds like live from a relatively close prospective.
Now, if you have no absolute reference in your memory bank, a good 'test' recording(s) is made by Opus 3 and includes cuts from many of their recordings. I have 'Depth of Image' on LP but the digital version comes in a set I believe.
The benefit of these disc's is they are minimalist recordings of various types of jazz and classical music, vocal, instrumental, groups, even organ and choir. Each cut comes with a description of what you should hear when it plays. In a properly put together and set up the music is both natural and the soundstaging can be fantastic. If you play these discs and you can't hear what is extrodinary about the recording then you've go a lot of work to do on your system and/or your listening skills.
If you interest in 'test recording' is less about timbre and tonality, but more about set up, check out the Sheffield/XLO Test and Burn-in CD. I've found the cut with out of phase information and the 'walk about'cut very helpful in fine tuning set up (identifing problem areas and correcting them).
FWIW.
Now, if you have no absolute reference in your memory bank, a good 'test' recording(s) is made by Opus 3 and includes cuts from many of their recordings. I have 'Depth of Image' on LP but the digital version comes in a set I believe.
The benefit of these disc's is they are minimalist recordings of various types of jazz and classical music, vocal, instrumental, groups, even organ and choir. Each cut comes with a description of what you should hear when it plays. In a properly put together and set up the music is both natural and the soundstaging can be fantastic. If you play these discs and you can't hear what is extrodinary about the recording then you've go a lot of work to do on your system and/or your listening skills.
If you interest in 'test recording' is less about timbre and tonality, but more about set up, check out the Sheffield/XLO Test and Burn-in CD. I've found the cut with out of phase information and the 'walk about'cut very helpful in fine tuning set up (identifing problem areas and correcting them).
FWIW.