Whats your current Reference CD at the moment?

Renaud Garcia-Fons "La Linea del Sur"

Jamey Johnson "That Lonesome Song"

Arturo O'Farril "Live In Brooklyn"

For Midrange and treble: Bob Dylan: Modern Life #3
For Bass: Embrya by Maxwell

To show off:

Pop/rock
Fear of a Blank Planet - Porcupine Tree
Blue Moon Swamp - John Fogerty
The Essential Michael JAckson
The Beatles Live at the BBC (who knew some of these could actually sound very good?)

Jazz
The Classic Concert (Torme + Co.)
Black, Brown and Beige and Far East Suite (Ellington)

Classical
The Planets - Dutoit/Montreal Symphony
"Mussorgsky - Pictures at an Exhibition; Stravinsky - Three Dances from Petrouchka " (Dorian CD) Jean Guillou, organ

SoulFly 3, some surprises in the sound stages on this one

Instruments:

Dave Grusin - Two for the Road

Great recording values, wide range of instrumentation and Diana Krall doing vocals on two songs.

Vocals:
Linda Ronstadt- Heart Like a Wheel

Young Linda wailing at her best

Tpreaves,

You forgot to include a silky, smooth female vocalist.
May I suggest Yoko Ono?

;-)

Anything by Slim Whitman,Boxcar Willie,Tiny Tim or Zamphir.

eva cassidy, songbird

I always take some poorly recorded CD's, too. Some essential music isn't available as a good recording and it is nice to know if new equipment makes it unbearable to listen to. It can infuriate salespeople because they of course frequently stack the deck with their own outstanding demo CD's to make their stuff sound great. The real world isn't as peachy as stereo shops and it is nice to know what you're getting into rather than be unpleasantly surprised after plunking down your dollars.

Chesky CD31, Dvorak's "New World Symphony," The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jascha Horenstein (recorded in 1962, which you won't believe if you hear it!).

Sheffield Lab, Prokofiev's "Romeo and Juliet," The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Erich Leinsdorf (I have it on the original direct-to-disk LP, but it is presently available on CD).

Sheffield Lab, "The Sheffield Track Record" (ditto re LP & CD).

Regards,
-- Al

To show off bass and dynamic
Poem Of Chinese Drum - Master Of Chinese Percussion

To show off vocal
Flying Cowboys, Rickie Lee Jones
The Best Of Bonnie Raitt

To show off piano dynamic
Midnight Sugar

To show off violin
Selections from The Miracle Makers

To show off pipe organ
Antiphone Blues

To show off scale and symphony
A Dark Knight - The Dark Knight Soundtrack

To show off a little bit of everything
FIM Audiophile Reference IV

Lou Reed -- Perfect Night in London.

Excellent recording technology that Stereotimes reviewed and gushed over.

Hugh Masakela - Hope
Keb Mo - Peace ..Back By Popular Demand
Antonio Forcione - Tears of Joy
Eva Cassidy - Live at Blues Alley

Love the albums and they are great sounding CDs.

Oz,

What is your ref. CD?

Cowboy Junkies- Trinity sessions