Just wandering what are the 5 DVD's or CD's you would take with you for auditioning Amps, Speakers ( front, centre and or rears ) and the almighty sub.
What do you look for from the Centre channel what scenes do you use?
for the front mains music wise ?
and what scenes do you use for the side rears, back surronds ?
And I hear the Master and Commander for the sub but any others?

Just interested in what people play and look out for ?

For me, as I posted for detail and pans, I like Behind Enemy Lines when the series of trip wires take off. good for left to right and left to right rear.
for mains I like music in stereo no sub, And Alynas Myles love is nice and punchy low end kik drum also I will then turn on the sub and see how well the sub reacts with the quickness punch.
As for bottom end in movies for the sub and mains.... as mentioned Master and Commander.
for over all detail I like outdoor scenes where you can hear the wind, crickets, birds stuff like that. I can't even think of the movie but it is a recent western. Damn I gotta go home now I get it out.

Open Range perhaps? The surrounds get an awesome workout, when its raining I felt like putting on my poncho(not Sanchez)but the gunfight at the end is IMHO one of the best sounding gunfights ever recorded that I have heard anyway.

Chris

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.

Signs, yes forgot about that one ... and the Norah Joans brings another one I must dig out is the other Canadian girl out West sings that song in the Cadillac commercial Jazz artist ? they would be great and I have both.

and ahhh yes, Open Range thats the movie actually I think I will watch it after the Leafs beat New York tonight

Found It
Diana Krall

I was listening to emerson,lake and palmer the early years cd and it is really nicely recorded. There is lots of pipe organ lows and highs. The vocals are very clear. I did notice the SSS and TTT in the 80's that other people have brought up. Though noticeable, I found that the SSS and TTT's are the way they are supposed to sound. With that said; I love this system.

Underworld (the first one).

I have always liked that movie (so does my wife), and we bought it the other day, watched it last night...WOW, talk about some awesome surround effects and crazy low LFE.

I absolutely loved the sound in that movie, highly recommended (do not know which scene i would play for a demo, but there are numerous great scenes).

-Hutz

For LFE, War of the World tri-pod scene is pretty hard to beat. Easy to find, quick and impressive. There’s many, many others, but this one never fails to get the trousers shaking.

For CD, I have numerous favorites, but I find myself grabbing the SACD Pink Floyd, Dark Side of the Moon every time someone wants to listen to my system. The entro to Time sounds amazing to me, no matter how many times I play it. The clocks then the tight drums……I love it. Alison Kraus, New Favorite is quite good too. I just got a new CD the other day and think it’s going to be one of my top five. Gomez, How We Operate. The title song is a real treat with some unique sounds and great sound stage that moves from left to right a back and then just keeps getting better. Great recording too. If you haven’t heard this CD yet (anyone), you owe it to yourself to hop over to Amazon. I was thinking about posting a thread on this CD, but no one listens to me anyway…. http://www.amazon.com/How-We-Operate-Gom...0243&sr=8-1

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but no one listens to me anyway….

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Err, sorry Mike, did you say something?

I keep a running list of CDs to get, and Gomez is on there. Thanks for the tip--I'll have to move it up a couple of spots.