Name a few albums which helped determine your musical tastes

@danvignau :" To the person who claims that classical and jazz are not something one necessarily needs to "Shoe Off) an audiophile system. BfS! Nothing demonstrates our systems' superiority as much as the tightness of an acoustic bass, or the accurate reproduction of acoustic instruments"

Not so. As someone who plays a Taylor 410, I've heard several systems that could fool me on acoustic guitar, even as far back as the early '90s (Magnepan III). But I've never heard one that could mimic my Marshall into a Celestion Vintage 30 cabinet. Not even close.

Black Sabbath - Paranoid
Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon
Van Halen I
Judas Priest - Hell Bent For Leather
Robin Trower - Bridge of Sighs
Rush - Permanent Waves
Beach Boys - Endless Summer
Led Zeppelin II & Houses of the Holy

Even though I moved on to heavier metal later on, I still play songs from all these albums (except Beach Boys) on guitar.

@danvignau : " What I really wondered was how did this audiophile group all get influenced by rock music, and not jazz."

I started with rock and as I became more enmeshed in the audiophile world started listening to classical and a little jazz, but I quickly realized I was just doing it to fit in and sound sophisticated and didn't really like most of it. It's not that I don't respect it. It just bores me. As I matured I stopped worrying about fitting in or what people thought. You've got to listen to what you like or why bother wasting time listening at all.

There's a mistaken idea that classical or jazz show a system's capabilities. But there are a few problems with that idea. The main and overarching one is, if you don't listen to classical or jazz then what do you care about what it sounds like with them? Regardless, if I want to show off my system I'd play electronic music for the low end, Metallica's Sad But True for drums, extreme metal for its ability to handle congestion, James Taylor or Doobie Brothers Steamer Lane Breakdown for strings, and a variety of rock vocalists for vocals. Classical or jazz isn't necessary to enjoy the "audiophile" quality of your system.