Your top three demo tracks and why.

[thoppa]

Hi,

I thought I'd start a thread getting people to list 'best demo' tracks and why. It's been said before that the best ones are ones you know, but I know a lot of dance tracks very well and wouldn't consider them for demos.

So, any favourites ? What should I listen for ?

[Mallette]

1. Bradley Hunter Welch, Widor Toccata, Dan Garland Organ of the Church of the Annuciation, Lewisville, TX

Extraordinary 32' bass and a killer performance on a maginificent instrument in a great space.

2. Stuart Wayne Foster, "Clair de lune," piano.

Best performance I've ever heard, piano image is present but not spread accross the whole stage like so many, and you hear EVERYTHING down to the final string release of the last note that would be totally lost in noise on an LP.

3. Midnight Oil, "Diesel and Dust"

Pins them TO THE FRAKIN' WALL at 110db or more... I usually reserve this for those who've never heard a Klipschorn struttin' its stuff and release them after about 30 seconds or so to get color back to their faces.

Dave

[Me Loves Khorns]

DIRE STRAITS

On Every Street.

Starts of kinda slow, builds up, has great drums. Great song on Horns.

Paul

[edwinr]

I've got quite a few discs that would qualify but I'm nominating entire discs rather than individual tracks. My most recent favorites are;

Emmylou Harris, Linda Ronstadt and Dolly Parton - Trio II. (This is a great disc only occasionally spolit because Linda Ronstadt tends to 'yells'. Very good sounstaging and it features some incredibly low bass which only a very good system can reproduce.)

Muddy Waters - Folk Singer. (This disc can sound absolutley stunnig on a good system. Everything just hangs in the air. Poorer systems tend to shrink the soundstage and make the acoustic intruments sound small)

Count Basie - 88 Basie Street. (You wanna give your Klipschorns a workout? Give this disc a run. You wanna know why you bought Klipschorns in the first place? Give this disc a spin. P.S. This disc sounds great on Martin Logans too. On lessor speakers this disc sounds... small).

P.S. Another disc that comes to mind is Glenn Gould's Goldberg Variations. Parrot gave me a copy and it's amazing. Just Gould and a piano - but what a combination - stunning dynamics, and a good disc to test the overall musicalitiy of your system.