What are your go to LP's for evaluating new gear or new tubes?

dmuso

I have many of what you list. I also have some very old RCA recordings that are pretty good. Van Cliburn and V Horowitz piano stuff. They can be surprisingly good right back into the 50's. I have a couple that are still sealed too. Kind of fun, don't know whether to break them out or not. 

As to DSOTM, I don't care for it as much as Meddle or Wish You Were Here, which I have both on Island. I think I have at least 4 or 5 copies of DSOTM but I kind of burned out on it back in the old days. 

bdgregory

Supertramp recordings are very good. I have several of them.

Last night, I rolled in some old tubes that I'd never tried before, some Webcor 12AU7A's. They were OK, not great. I listened to Pat Benatar Tropico on Chrysalis. It is a damn fine recording with some really great dynamics. It's quite a demonstration of a beautiful voice, some very deep bass and some of the most dynamic drumming and percussion that you will hear on a pop album.

Sepultura - Beneath The Remains

Queensryche - The Warning

Billy Joel - Turnstiles

Pink Floyd - Animals

Just a few but be sure to give tubes at least one hundred hours or so to burn-n and open up in order to appreciate the sq. 

Try Camille Saint-Saens Organ Symphony (wide frequency range including a 16 hz bass fundamental that only whales can hear but people can feel :)

As mentioned previously Steely Dan-Aja-great musicians in a tight band

Verdi-Requiem-allows your rig to show it ability to show it vocal chops from basso profondo to soprano along with transients from full orchestral passages.

Miles Davis-Kind of Blue- trumpet,tenor sax,bass,drums-piano, transients travel the full range.  One of the great assemblages of jazz musicians, Adderley, Chambers,Cobb,Coltrane,Evans and Kelly ever.

Bruckner Symphony #4-Zibin Mehta conducting ((Romantic version II)

Enjoy the music 

billpete, I choose then because they must sound as good as possible even if not recorded well.

Besides, true class of a system is defined by how well it can reproduce poor recordings.