What Are Your Reference Discs? or Specific Reference Tracks


Looking for new gems!  My reference discs are: Graceland, Paul Simon  Avalon, Roxy Music  Brothers in Arms, Dire Straits  So, Peter Gabriel  Ten Summoner's Tales, Sting 

What are yours?

wweiss
I’m right there with millercarbon.


Then consider "Year of the Cat"...

https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/tekton-design-moab-2/post?highlight=Year%2Bof%2Bthe%2Bcat&postid=1996673#1996673

millercarbon 08-06-2020 4:50pm:


Last night my standard Year of the Cat the sax sounded more like sax than ever, the piano had more of the complex resonance of a real piano. Each note on a piano is three strings, and they are tuned individually. Its one of those things tells you its a real piano not a recording, and its way more real now than ever. The electric guitar solo at the end really shines. Probably most impressive is the degree to which all these things are rendered so clear and distinct from each other. There’s recordings like Ronstadt with Riddle, Sinatra with Ellington, Satchmo King Oliver, where the vocals seemed fine but a lot of the accompaniment was sort of buried down in there somewhere. Not any more!

My new reference is Count Basie - Basie Jam Analogue Productions. I also like the Cisco Music pressing of Aja. 

On the mono turntable, Miles Davis Kind of Blue or Paul Desmond Take Ten.
Those 4 albums Vuch19 just mentioned are all audiophile classics and a must have in one form or another.
I suggest having at least one "One Mic recording" in your collection for perfect speaker placement.
The Visual Sound, the Sound Liaison DXD sampler is a good place to start; it's available at https://www.soundliaison.com/ as well as on https://soundliaison.bandcamp.com/

Another option is the excellent CD "Don't You Cry". also a one mic recording; https://carmengomes.bandcamp.com/
I want my system to play the music I love the best it can.  Why demo things you never listen to?
For me, I want to hear Eva Cassidy sing Woodstock, Dave Brubeck et.al. play Take Five and listen to the drummer, and of course The Allman Brother “Live at the Fillmore”.  One last test would be Pink Floyd DSOM.

If my system delivers on those (and it does to me), then all is good.
It seems to me that MC is the only one who answered the question accurately. Not because He agrees with me nor because I agree with him but because he spoke the truth. Instead of putting the focus on recordings that make our systems sound their best, we should be talking about how our systems make recordings sound their best. Every LP on my rack is a reference disc because I have a reference sound system.