What's the most common boring audiophile demo track that you encounter Odin?
Your question got me thinking and it deserves a proper answer. I guess what bothers me is when exhibitors play only one music genre as part of their demo. Female vocal jazz would be my exhibit A. I've heard Diana Krall's 'Live in Paris' at more demos than I can remember. Now don't get me wrong - Diana Krall has a great voice (and she's hot), but there is other music to show off your system. Besides, knowing that a system sounds great with near-perfect jazz recordings tells me very little of how it will sound with less-than-perfect recordings (of which I have many). I think Andrew Jones does a great job with his Elac speaker demos - he plays everything from Count Basie to deadmau5.
Now, I have my share of audiophile classics that I enjoys as well. Keith Don't Go, Fly Me to The Moon and Hotel California come to mind. The benefit there is that I can hear how the same track sounds across different systems.
One of my favorite things about THE Show and other audio and headphone shows is to discover new music. We have a thread for gear impressions after each show - maybe we should add the new music that we discovered to that thread as well? For what it's worth (and this is a totally and completely subjective list), here's a list of the new music that I discovered at THE Show this year. The format is track - artist (album):
Hometown Glory - Adele (19)
Famous Blue Raincoat, Bird on a Wire - Jennifer Warnes (Famous Blue Raincoat)
Coming to Town - John Lee Hooker (The Hot Spot Soundtrack)
It Ain't All Flowers - Sturgill Simpson (Metamodern Sounds in Country)
Space Oddity - David Bowie (Live Santa Monica 72)
6 inches - Beyonce (Lemonade)
When I Fall in Love - Chris Botti (When I Fall in Love)
Alexandra Leaving - Leonard Cohen (Ten New Songs)
Get Here - Oleta Adams (Circle of One)
Leisure Suite - Feist (Let It Die)
Sara Lee - The Evens (The Evens)
Ode to Billy Joe, A Taste of Honey - Patricia Barber (Café Blue)
Bye Bye Love, Bird on the Wire - Madeleine Peyroux (The Blue Room)
Dance Me to the End of Love - Madeleine Peyroux (Queer as Folk - The Final Season)
Tin Pan Alley - Stevie Ray Vaughan (Couldn't Stand the Weather)
Safe Like You - Airbag (Identity)
Good Vibrations (live 1966) - Beach Boys
Robbed Blind - Keith Richards (Crosseyed Heart)
Embraceable Moon, Claire Cadillac - Malia (Convergence)
Thanks to the folks at the Elac, Peachtree, Zu Audio, Schiit, Vinnie Rossi, McIntosh, AudioEngine, Focal, Naim, Woo Audio, Mr Speakers and others that I forgot that helped me discover this music. Extra special thanks to Mike at Woo Audio and Dan at MrSpeakers for taking the time to personally recommend some of their favorite tracks for me to listen to. This is what makes audio shows fun!