Your Go to CD to Impress


Friends come over and inquire why you would spend so much money on a stereo system, what is the CD you load up? For me,

Patricia Barber  ---Café Blue

Dead Can Dance-Into the Labyrinth


styxtrekr
A song that sells a good system is 'If You Go' by Shirley Horn from the 1991 'You Won't Forget Me' album. You'll swear that the artists are in the room with you.  I can only imagine how good it would sound in hirez. 
MARK KNOPFLER - Sailing to Philadelphia, HDCD
NORA JONES - Sail Away wit Me - hybrid SACD
NEIL YOUNG - Greatest Hits DVD-A
K.D. LANG - Live by Request CD
"A song that sells a good system is ’If You Go’ by Shirley Horn from the 1991 ’You Won’t Forget Me’ album. You’ll swear that the artists are in the room with you. I can only imagine how good it would sound in hirez."

Hi cycles2,

Absolutely. YWFM is my #1 demo cd to discern sonic impact from changes in cabling, equipment, tweaks, etc. Fantastic sound. Don’t understand why it is overlooked by the remastering industry, although no remastering is necessary IMO.

Best to you,
Dave

I want to second what a couple of others have said,
Keb Mo - As soon as I get paid, is stunningly recorded, the whole album.
SRV - Tin Pan Alley, fantastic
Pink Floyd - Wish you were here, particularly Welcome to the Machine
Also add,
Eva Cassidy - Autumn Leaves, Who knows where the time goes
Robert Plant - Great Spirit off Fate of Nations is unbelievable
Chris Issac - Wicked Game
Getz-Gilberto - Girl from Ipanima, the whole album SACD is remarkable
Led Zeppelin - I, II, III of the most recent remasters - Finally they sound great!



Dionne Farris--Blackbird
    Got to be one of the finest sounding cuts that is also musically awesome.
The rest of the album is OK--that's all.
Hello, gang! 
Well, I always reach for The Rite of Spring conducted by Eiji Oue on Reference Recording
(RR-70CD).  Very dynamic - Powerful - Engaging!

Also, I must add, when listening to Vinyl - I pull out my original 1985 LP of Sade-Promise. The sound is breathtaking - performance excellent!   

Kind regards,
Lance
ATL, GA
Kiko ~ Los Lobos
Traffic From Paradise ~ Rickie Lee Jones
Night Ride Home ~ Joni Mitchell
Ultimate Mancini ~ Henry Mancini
Wrecking Ball ~ Emmylou Harris
Out Of The Cradle ~ Lindsey Buckingham
I Know Who Holds Tomorrow ~ Alison Krauss and The Cox Family
Tales From The Acoustic Planet ~ Bela Fleck
Fortunately for me it is not the CD that I play but my DHT DAC that makes digital sound like analog so no matter what CD I use, it probably sounds better than most TT set-ups.  Happy Listening.  I do like the RLJ Pop-Pop last song though!

@lewin_author  and @almarg  I envy you!!! I wish I had friends to whom I could play any classical LP!
usually the answer to what they like to hear is "whatever..." and I go for "Jazz at the Pawnshop" as a punishment. 
@lewin_author, you are my man! Symphonic Dances under Eiji Oue is my all-time favorite! Finally issued on vinyl, this is where I go to impress myself! ;-)
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Second,

Getz-Gilberto- any format and this one should be in everyone's collection!!!
+1 to wgutz for the Lindsey Sterling mention. She's awesome! Here are mine....

Andreas Vollenweider - Book of Roses, first three tracks
Dire Straits - Private Investigations
Neil Young - A Man Needs a Maid, Live at Massey Hall
Diana Krall - A Case of You, Live in Paris
Dave Brubeck - Take Five (of course)
David Gray - Please Forgive Me, White Ladder
Patricia Barber - Anything from Cafe Blue or Live in Paris
In keeping with the spirit of the OP's question, I'm eliminating all SACDs (such as Norah Jones' "Come Away With Me"), DVD-As and other specialized discs (except XRCD which is a standard CD). One of many possible great demo CDs is: "Mapleshade's Music Festival". Some have mentioned Patricia Barber but the exaggerated echo applied to her voice eliminates these otherwise excellent recordings, IMHO.
@andy8400 yours is an excellent tip! I wonder why Mapleshade CDs are usually disregarded as audiophile delights, they are dirt cheap and sound better than most XRCDs, RR, or CDs from Naim or Linn labels. No blockbusters in Mapleshade catalog, but the sound is stunning! An excellent demo/advertisement for their hardware though!!
Depends on the person: for a Baptist minister friend I played the Messiah; 
for a young guy who wanted soothing strings, a Mozart string quartet; 
for someone who liked it lively, Armik, the neo-flamenco guitarist;
for classical nuts like me, either the Bach B minor mass; or to check out the bass, Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances...
Any random person? James Taylor. 
Try to find a CD or record they love or already are familiar with.  Then blow them away with how it sounds on your system!
Well, I always reach for The Rite of Spring conducted by Eiji Oue on Reference Recording
(RR-70CD). Very dynamic - Powerful - Engaging!

+1
For someone not familiar with the Rite of Spring it might not mean much, but if you are.....prepare to have your socks knocked off by this recording!
Second the following earlier picks:
Nils Lofgren - Keith Don't Go
Patricia Barber - Alfie

A lesser known (probably because sung in French) fave of mine:

Michel Jonasz - Le Temps Passé
(From the album 'La Fabuleuse Histoire de Mister Swing')
Not only the best live recording I have ever heard, but with astounding soundstage and bass that will raise the odd eyebrow.
Ginger Baker's "Why?"  Specifically the first cut. 

Why?

Because 100% of my friends and acquaintances have some idea of who he is, and second, they have not heard anything by him since Cream.  Kinda wakes 'em up, ya know?


DiMeola, Ponty, and Clark - Rites of String - absolutely gorgeous production and execution


Dire Straits - "Why Worry" (from BIA)


Christian McBride--Night Train
John McLaughlin Trio--Que Allegria
Josefine Cronholm--In Your Wild Garden
Anne Bisson--September in Montreal
Brian Bromberg--Come Together
Marcus Miller--Bruce Lee
Michael Franks--Mice
Anointed--Send Out a Prayer
Take 6--A Few More Miles
Michael Franks--Tokyo


Most folks are familiar with the human voice. I like to demo ballad singers from the 50’s like June Christy’s "Something Cool," Jo Stafford’s recording she did with Art VanDamme, Doris Day’s "Day by Day ... or Chris Connor’s "All About Ronnie." .

If you notice, all the above are mono albums that were never issued in stereo. Mono recordings just seem to reproduce the great naturalness of the human voice. Modern recording engineers tend to strong arm the digital reverb dial too much for my taste, making it sound as though the artist is singing from the inside of a cave.

Frank
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Anything their little heart desires. I am not embarrassed of anything in my collection.