What's your favourite setup disc/movie/track for tweaking or showing off your system?
Just wanted to know what the most popular source was for testing/showing off your system.
Kicking things off, here is my list:
Testing: Any THX Optomiser disc. I will buy DVD essentials at some point, just never seem to get round to it.
Viewing (showing off to friends, family, or generally anyone who is willing): LOTR The Return of the King (all out action & the thump of the olyphants in the final fight always impresses), Serenity (This movie's opening scenes will give your sub a severe load test; you and your neighbours have been warned!) or Pirates of the Caribbean: Worlds End - Blu-Ray (movie might have been a little dissapointing, but the soundtrack is still great.
Listening: Blue Man Group - Complex (DVD-A), Pink Floyd - Dark Side of the Moon (CD) - Both amazing to listen to.
The Magic Roundabout - good snails in that
I watched it with my daughter today!
Quod erat demonstrandum...
I would have preferred to watch that!
Well, last night I watched 'Moulin Rouge' with the family all shipped in for formal unveiling of the new TV. Colour, motion and genuine vibrancy. You can't put a price on sheer joy can you???
I am still walking round bumping into things....
So for me, its that....but only seen three so far 
JJ
Ratatouille is great, but I fel I have already seen it all from my endless hours in Currys and Dixons JJ
300 has to be one of the best DVDs (Lena Headey looking gorgeous also helps).
I watched the fast and the furious last night (switched my brain off for an hour and a half), the soundtrack and the fast motion colours are excellent IMO.
Yeh, Any of the now first 'Star Wars' all great testing stuff!
Plus 'Hero' is brilliant with all the various hues and landscapes. Lavish stuff.
Oh yeh and 'Cars' of course plus i like 'Gladiator' mainly cos the film is brilliant but also because the detail and colours are great.
underworld for checking out ya blacks on ya screen
jurrasic park the t rex attack on the car, never fails to impress, also the dts mix on jurrasic park 3 sounds awesome
Well for music testing I don't think you can go wrong with Massive Attacks Unfinished Symphony. If your system can play that without tangiling itself in knots then your onto a winner. It's the 1st song I tried when I had an upgrade in my car audio a few months ago.
I don't know if it's just me this happens to but I went to my usual car audio shop to get a new headunit ( CDA-9887R http://www.alpine-electronics.co.uk/index.php?id=imprint_technology0 ) and ended up buying 2 new amps as well. As the head unit has Audyssey MULTIEQ XT audio it has to be set up with a laptop and 4 microphones set at ear level in the 4 seats(included in the price). And after they had spent about an hour getting everything ready to go they soon found out that my very rare Denon 4 channel amp was faulty. Turns out 1 of the channels had very very low gain, and the 2nd channel had very low bass. I thought it was my rubbish old headunit that came with the car.
I've had my Denon amp for a good 8 or 9 years so it's lasted well. Due to it's age it wasn't worth repairing, parts would be almost impossible to source. Anyway I ended up getting a JL Audio 4 channel amp and a class d Alpine amp for my 12" infinity perfect 12 sub. They set it up with the 4 channel JL bridged to 2x150W rms to run my front Infinity components. Alpine amp is 1x250W rms obviously for the sub. And the headunit powers the rear fill JBL's.
With the new headunit and amps properly set up the sound quality is bloody amazing. I heard sounds on Unfinished Symphony I have never heard before. The dynamics and level of detail is staggering. The sound is now very balanced and crystal clear even at stupidly high volumes. And the timing has improved no end, it used to sound as if the bass was ever so slightly behind where it should be. It's as if everything has snapped into place. Hard to describe but I am very very impressed.
Im no expert but my dad's mate who has £7k + cd/vinyl system had a listen and even he was impressed.
And before I get flamed no it is not setup with enough bass to power a concert. The shop knows what im like, im not happy unless it sounds like a proper hifi system.I was in there for a good few hours going through systems and setup.We went for a low gain,high power system for improved sound quality.
As for dvd's The 1st Matrix film is a good test , or for an audio test some of the old digitally remastered Bond films. You can't beat a good Bond score in DTS . I have the whole set digitally remastered apart from the latest.
My show off cds are
Timing: Exodus (remaster)
Dynamic swing ability : dIRE sTRAITS - Private Investigations
Low....Low bass: Black Label Society - steppin stone
Amp's ability to control speakers: Ernest Ranglin - King Tubby Meets The Rockers
Midrange: David Gates and Bread -Lost without your Love
Forgot Massive Attack's Angel. A real test for any system
So much to choose from but examplsinclude Dylan, Bowie, The Doors, Fleetwood Mac, Jeff Beck Group, The Who, remasters are sublime. Jeff Buckley, Radiohead Waterboys fab; nb early pink floyd & led zep remasters nothing special!
Listen to Blood on the Tracks or Hunky Dory (remasters) on a decent system, they'll blow you away!
Ice Age 2, Saving Private Ryan and Star Wars - Revenge of the Cyph for surround sound showing off. Stereo show off is Radiohead, John Legend and Badly Drawn Boy.
Screen - Samsung UE46D8000. Sources - Dell Zino HD 410; Sky HD; Sony BDP S550; Wyred 4 Sound DAC1. Amps - Yamaha RX-A3010; SimAudio Moon I-3 RS. Speakers - Vienna Acoustics Mozart Grand; Vienna Acoustics Waltz Grand centre; Proficient Audio W690 rears; Monitor Audio RSW12. Cables - Van Damme Blue 4mm speaker cable; Townsend DCT300 and Atlas Voyager interconnects; Van den Hul Optocoupler.