Your comment about rain, crickets.....
It's been a year or so, but Signs has some pretty good suround sound effects in parts. Especially in the scenes with the corn fields, and where the alien is scrambling over the roof/trying to get into the house. As I recall, the surround effects were real enough to be startling.
The opening battle of Master and Commander is still my current 'you gotta see this' demo material. Along with the LOTR trilogy, I've always been a fan of The Fifth Element for demoing systems because there's are so many great visuals and detailed audio in the movie. The movie is too weird for some people, but it's one of my favorites.
The storming of the beach in Saving Private Ryan is a classic for demoing a system because it's such an intense scene that makes full use of every channel. Also, the HBO series available on DVD, Band of Brothers is excellent for wartime effects, and also a very powerful story of WWII.
As far as music goes, that's a tough one because it's so sensitve to what people like. I have a few albums from Chesky records of south american bossa nova-ish jazz that (IMHO) have jaw dropping acoustics. All of their recordings are top notch.
I'm also a big Dave Brubeck fan, and so the classic jazz album Time Out on SACD is very dear to me. I've listened to the popular "Take 5" so many times that it's my reference track for any system. I can plainly hear differences in soundstage, presence, and detail depending on the system. But that's just me. YMMV.
All of Norah Jones' albums are stunning, with her first one being nearly legendary for its acoustics. It's a definite chills-down-the-spine CD when played from SACD on a good system.
A fairly unknown group that I like for music demos is Flim & the BB's. They're basically the pre-cursor to the smooth jazz genre from the early and mid 80's, and some of the first albums ever produced on CD. A lot of their stuff is absolutely jaw-dropping on a good system.
Last edited by PeterChenoweth; 04/05/07 08:31 PM.
