What is a good movie to test out a system, I was think maybe The Matrix or The Dark Knight. Does anyone have another idea?

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Master and Commander has to be the ultimate for amazing sound detail from all directions along with rib shaking cannon battles.

The superhero genres seem to really be pushing sound production these days. Both new Batmans are great but I actually use them more to demo visuals and the great sound is a bonus. Ironman has tons of great effects and The Hulk has some base thuds that can really test a sub woofer. Also Transformers and any movie at all from Pixar.

The Tripod rising from the sidewalk scene is a great subwoofer tester too in War of the Worlds.

Lots of others but those are the ones that always come to mind for me. Master and Commander always seems to impress visitors the most at my house and it has audio awards to back me up. Fun to watch peeople look up and wonder if somebody is walking upstairs or was that really from the movie. It really puts sound everywhere.

Some personal favorites:
- Batman Begins
- The Dark Knight
- Incredible Hulk
- Iron Man
- The Matrix
- Transformers

Anything produced by Pixar is a great choice as well. (Cars, The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Wall-E)

A friend of mine recently recommended "Kung Fu Panda" and "Master and Commander", but I haven't had a chance to check them out.

I've been using Batman Begin's for calibration issues. But in the end, I suggest using a film you know well. That way, you'll get that mind blowing first experience, and still be able to pick up on anything that needs to be adjusted.

If you have "Band of Brothers" - many scenes are excellent for both base and surround. In particular, the taking of the German Artillery Battery in the second episode has great surround with the whizzing of bullets as well as decent base when the guns are firing.

Lots of great movies listed so far. The will surely impress in the sound category. I would also add Black Hawk Down, Kung Fu Panda, I, Robot, Kill Bill Vol. 1, Hitman, Cloverfield

I still chuckle when I think about how my son jumped out of his skin the first time the cannons let loose. People walking around on the top deck was cool too. I could have sworn there were people walking on my roof!

The Balrog and cave troll stuff from LOTR is pretty good too.

I love to use the second side of the extended version of Fellowship of the Ring to test my settings. Starts right off with a very quite scene in Rivendell to test your base SPL. Chapter forward to Balin’s tomb for some nice surround effects when bucket falls down the well and then some bass when the cave troll (not to be confused with a Klipsch troll) shows up. Followed shortly by more great surround effects when the orcs are crawling around the walls/pillars in the great hall. Then more surround effects as arrow are flying buy on the stairs and deep bass as the stair collapses. Then some in your face bass when the balrog shows up. Nice thing about this disk is all these scenes are easy to access w/o lots of fast forwarding and it has a little bit of everything…quite, ambient surround, directional surround, mid bass and bass.

My favorite opening scene is in Appleseed (2004). Cool techno music. Gunfire from all directions, people running up from behind and then onto the screen. Shell casings bouncing on the floor from gunfire. Glass and concrete shattering and hitting the walls all around you (one place where Audyssey will show off by making the breaking glass and concrete sound almost holographic).

As already mentioned Master and Commander. The opening has a quite scene with creaking and moaning of the ship. The opening battle lots of bass and great surround effects as wood splinters around your and people run above your head on deck. To bad the movie bites IMHO.

Opening of Star Wars IV. Cool base during the opening flyby of the star cruiser. Lots of panning effects across the front and some to the rear. Cool echoing scene inside the command ship. Nice bass as the ship crashes on the planet. Nice visuals also.

Opening of Kaena - The Prophecy. Very good front to back pans as the ship flies toward you and you go through it. Cool effects as you are submerged in water passing through the ship. Very cool side to side pans that also move forward as the ship flies way from you as you are looking back at it. Best scene I’ve found for testing directional cues moving from side to side and back to front. You will know if you have the surrounds calibrated and placed optimally if the effects on this scene move side to side and back to front seamlessly.

These are the ones I use to test any new settings especially since I’ve become very familiar with them.

I also forgot to mention Serenity. That is a fun one for sound.

That was the first movie that rattled my windows (at 1:00am at reference. I thought I was gonna get complaints).