Trittico (Telarc label) - any track with the orchestral bass drums. This will show you whether or not your midbass and/or subwoofers can handle realistic hits.

Diana Krall - self-explanatory. Female vocalist whos voice can melt bricks. Shows off the midrange nicely.

Chic Corea - "Eye of the Beholder" titled CD. One of THE BEST analog stereo recording I have ever heard. It's right up next to...

Pat Metheny - "Imaginary Day" titled CD. This was recorded digitally but it is damned good for everything - dynamics, imaging, bass clarity, etc.

Telarc's demo CD with Jurassic Lunch. If your subwoofers cannot reproduce the stomp at 13/14 seconds then you need new subwoofers.

Webster----we can still goes halfs on the Disney CD if ya want!!

someone host it so we can all DL it

x2 on the Telarc stuff. Nothing can touch the quality of their recordings.

Today I found a "Hagood Hardy - All My Best" CD from 1988 - With only ONE scratch on it after all this time! Needless to say, it's pretty dated music, but it is a very well-produced and recorded album, and has some great orchestral passages that show off an accurate system very well.

I can't ignore some of the potential issues raised here. Now, not that I am trying to lecture anyone here, and I'm certainly not being hypocritical, but someone has to play "good conscience" here. I know everyone here has their "sources" for downloads, it might even be members on this board.

BUT, If you are serious about your testing, there is no substitution for a full-resolution program material, be that CD-A, SACD, or DVD-A. Often, you can find a used CD for sale at ebay or amazon much cheaper than you can buy the files from a legitimate music download/subscription service. Another option to consider might be if the community here started trading physical test discs (or uncompressed rips - but you didn't hear that from me). I think this could be easily implemented - as long as people are putting down some collateral to cover possible problems such as loss/theft or damage. The bottom line here is that sharing file downloads/rips of copyrighted content, as it currently stands, is illegal, and I don't see any reason why we can't somewhat comply with law.

Your system will only sound as good as the program material you play on it.

Something else to consider here is that no matter what you download, chances are favorable that it is going to be some form of compressed audio - i.e. Missing the subtleties, dynamic range, resolution, and detail from the original. The majority of the "less-than-legitimate" audio you find online is also poorly ripped, often over-compressed and full of errors. In this case, we are talking about critical review and testing here, not casual listening. Quality is what we all want, and I think we can all help eachother out here in an even more positive way by keeping things kosher.

That is all - happy testing everyone...