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The Lord of the Rings trilogy also sounds great. I also like to use side B of the extended edition of “Fellowship of the Ring” for listening tests since there are several good audio scenes easily reached by chapter paging. The first scene, “Gilraen’s Memorial“, is very quite with lots of subtle ambient sounds. Also the scene “The Bridge of Khazad-Dum” has lots of surround action with the Orcs crawling around and some nice bass and LFE when running from and fighting the Balrog.

Ha! Funny. I have the extended trilogy sitting on my shelf. After 5 or 6 times through (pre HT) I'm a little 'ringed' out.

I used the Bridge of Khazad-Dum scene to check things out when I did my initial calibration.

And let's not forget Jurassic Park for a good speaker workout - the 3rd being the best with THX

I just purchased Master and Commander on blu-ray this weekend and I have to agree, the sound is by far the best sounding blu-ray I own. The creaking of the boat and the footsteps above were kind of freaky!

Hee hee hee. I'm one of the big M&C cheerleaders around here, so it's fun to hear others find so much enjoyment out of the movie.

That opening battle, from the point where Jack sees the cannon-flashes from the Acheron behind the fog - "Down!! DOWN!!!!" - to the moment they pull the HMS Surprise into the fog bank contain the most amazing movie sounds I've ever heard. From the raw power of the cannon fire (it's broken my house), to the creaking of the men running above, to the splintering of the mast & rigging. Stunning. When I eventually pony-up for a Blu Ray player, it will be my first BR DVD.

It's been my 'reference' scene for a couple of years now and I've not found anything that elicits more, 'I didn't know a movie could sound like that!' comments from guests.

It did win the Academy Award for Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Cinematography back in 2003. It's pretty easy to see why.

And for anyone that enjoyed the movie for the plot and characters, the books are pretty good too. I'm up to the 4th or 5th one in the series. There are 21 of them, M&C is the 10th.

I hear ya Peter ... not only do I need to pony-up for a Blu-Ray player but I'm in need of a new receiver to get the full sound benefit from these disc. I absolutely love this movie and can watch it over and over again without ever tiring of it, one of my reference disc for our (ah-hmm) outdated system.

I'm half-tempted to get this movie even though I have trouble tolerating Russell Crowe. I want this audio experience everyone else has had already.

You can skip his dialog scenes and skip straight to the action.

They were forced to increase the aspect ratio of the film to accommodate his ego.

In fact, they shot it in 9x16 ratio to accommodate the chip on his shoulder. You need to turn your TV on its side.