Music to evaluate Speakers and System

the music that you are familiar with, whatever it is.

Another stress test is this:

Erich Kunzel & The Cincinnati Pops - Very Best of Erich Kunzel: Top 20. Lots of variety and almost all of it dynamic.

Here's a link to an article on the Audio Note website. I found it very helpful in evaluating different pieces of equipment. It's definitely worth a read. Good luck in your quest.

http://www.audionote.co.uk/articles/art_audio_hell.shtml

it is not possible to "know" the sound of a recording.

having listened to a recording many times does not achiev knowledge.

it is not necessary to be familiar with a recording to detect a sonic signature.

selecting a variety of recordings and genres is sufficient to evaluate speakers and stereo systems.

even if you have never listened to a cd before it does not disqualify it to be used to evaluate speakers and stereo systems.

since recordings sound different, the chances that say, 5 recordings will have the same "errors", i.e., frequency response imbalances, etc., is remote.

"Body Acoustic"
David Chesky

For imaging and soundstage.