What is the best LP to demonstrate a system?

I am not talking about setup/test LPs but musical LPs that will bring out the best in a system to show its full potential. Classical or rock is OK that is available new.

 

What ever you like the best. I don’t think that is so damn important at all …

 

I use the following LPs to test audio systems:

*Running Wild: Gates To Purgatory
*Led Zeppelin: Presence (Classic Records 200-gram vinyl re-issue)
*Bad Religion: Generator
*Pat Benatar: In The Heat Of The Night
*Strunz & Farah: Misterio

Those are my personal reference series of LPs.

 

Boy that's tough...

Are you demonstrating it to other people to blow them away
or for your own reference?

If its for you, I always suggest somthing that you have heard
a million times, so you know the nuances. That's where you
really hear the difference between things.

If its to blow your friends away, think intimate vocals, male
or female, perhaps something that is really dynamic
and or something with a wide frequency range...

This one will only end in tears.

However, what works with me is to always ask a friend to
play their favorite CD or LP. That usually is a good one
for the same reason!

good luck

 

The first one I usually reach for is Joe Jackson's "Body and Soul."

 

That is a great sounding record!

If I were having friends over to listen to records, I would surely pull out my Quiex II pressing of Dire Straits "Love Over Gold".

 

Some of the Oasis albums do I often put on to show people my system.
What's The Story (Morning Glory) has in my opinion the best sound. But maybe you don't like the Oasis.

 

Garcia/Garcia Green WB
PF/WYWH japanese half speed
Earl Wild/Boston Pops Gershwin Shaded Dog (sorry not rock)
Neil Young Zuma german reprise
Supertramp Crime of the Century Speakers Corner

anyone of those will come out, unless the guest has a request

 

I have one for dynamics and soundstage:

Scheherezade Fritz Reiner on Classic Records. Powerful stuff.

 

Any of the vintage Soundstream recorded Telarc discs should do the trick for you. Beware of the 1812 overture release though. The cannons are virtually impossible to track!

 

Jeff Beck Blow by Blow CBS Masterwork 1/2 speed master LP

 

Last night I was playing my Classic records reissue of Cannoball Adderley's Somethin' Else (stereo). And this is really of demostration quality. Highly recommended as jazz demo material!
The title cut in particular is dynamite!

 

The The - Uncertain Smile from the self titled debut album.

 

Good rock/pop demo material (some plentiful and cheap!). Hard to choose just one...

- Steely Dan's AJA

- Queen's A Night At The Opera

- Rickie Lee Jones, Self -Titled. Domestic pressings are sometimes noisy though. My japanese pressed issue is very quiet but $$$$$

- TOTO, TOTO IV

- Sade: Diamond Life

- Swing Out Sister: It's better to travel

- Dire Straits: Brothers In Arms

- Richard & Linda Thompson: Shoot Out The Lights. Hokey Pokey, reissue from the 80s is great as well.

- Sting, Dream of the blue turtles and Nothing Like The Sun

- The Police: Synchronicity and Ghost in The Machine (Nautilus is best here)

- Cat Stevens, Tea For The Tillerman (MFSL seems to be the top choice).

- Al Stewart, Year Of The Cat

- Alan Parsons Project, Eye In The Sky

 

When I want to show off my record player or I usually pick one of:
Donald Fagen - The Nightfly
Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms
Jean-Michel Jarre - Zoolook
or Alyson Moyet - Alf

Alf is the best for illustrating the difference between CD and LP. All of them are great sounding albums.

 

I still use Erich Leinsdorf conducting the Prokofiev 2nd for this

so bump to whomever said "use what you know"!!!!

 

Thelma Houston: "I've Got The Music In Me" - Sheffield Lbs direct to disc.

 

Thanks for the responses. I'll start hunting for some of those titles. From what was mentioned, I have Cat Stevens "Tea for the Tillerman" (MFSL) nad Alan Parsons Project "Eye in the Sky"

 

I have read on other threads that the opposite is true. I'm in that camp as well; I find that their recordings sound quite bad, even the SACD. It's unfortunate, too, because it's something I'd like to hear well done.

 

Genesis - Trick Of the Tail -Mofi

 

sometimes...Poco "legend" Mofi or domestic (both sound outstanding)

 

To demonstrate just what the system is capable of doing, I think some of the old direct to disc vinyl is very effective. You can usually pick up something like the Sheffield Track Record at a reasonable cost.

However, I find that if you really want to impress some friends, play something for them that they've heard hundreds (if not thousands) of times before BUT let them come to the realization that they really haven't heard a fraction of what is in the song until you've played it for them. Your system is now good enough that you should be able to pull this off. Two of my favorites for doing this:

1. Take it Easy from the Eagles self-titled debut album. You must get the original gatefold pressing (apparently, the original master was destroyed and all reissues are at least second generation). The vocal and string complexity is amazing, but you'd never know it from hearing it on the radio a gazillion times.

2. Whole Lotta Love from Led Zeppelin II. You guessed it; you must find one of those RL mastered versions (with the RL and small ss in the deadwax on side 1). Again, this song has been played about as much as any other song in history other than Stairway to Heaven but there is a lot more to hear with a good system.

I'm sure you can find other examples on your own.

 

I agree...
That's why I put some run-of-the-mill ordinary stuff in there. Most folks from the 80's generation are very familiar with stuff like TOTO IV or Diamond Life. Playing this stuff back on top flight equipment would blow them away. Specially after years and years of low-fi reproduction on boomboxes, rack stereos, supermarket ceiling speakers and elevators!

 

Asia - Asia

Prism - Armageddon

Robbie Roberston - Include the song "Somewhere Down The Crazy River"

Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble - Texas Flood

The Mason Williams Phonograph Record

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers - Damn the Torpedoes


Just to name a few

Be careful with that Mason William Record !!!

Thanks