Test tracks

To Zion – The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill – Lauryn Hill
Great for listening to a wide range of the FR: slamming hip-hop bass + delicate spanish guitar + Lauryn's vocals. Decent dynamics for a non-orchestral piece. Emotion of the vocal comes through loud and clear on a system with good synergy.

 

Necromancy: I believe this thread can be very useful to this community at large, though I think we should be even more specific so people can understand what we are paying attention to, here's a contribution:

Artist - Album - Song

Colin Stetson - New History Warfare Vol. 2: Judges - All the days I've missed you (ILAIJ 1)
Aspect: Sub bass extension, definition, and balance in recorded sounds (Timecode 00:00 - 00:08): There's a contact microphone recording of fingertips subtly drumming on the bass sax keys, the sound should be deep and rumbly, but with enough resolve the individual tappings should be easy to discern and not appear as just random low-frequency blobbing, there should be a slight 'hit' sound with a trailing rumble at each tap.
[Spotify]

John Hammond - Rough & Tough - Get Behind the Mule
Aspect: Sub bass extension (Timecode 00:02 - 00:11): The song starts with rhythm guitar strumming and foot tapping on a wooden platform, the platform resonates in a very low frequency that's picked up by the microphone, this vibration should be present, subtly audible, and add to the dynamic dimension of the recording. With limited bass extension this vibration disappears completely.
[Spotify]

Aspect: Ambient cues, resolve of low level information (Whole song): This, being an expertly recorded unplugged session, contains a fair amount of environmental information, almost all sounds have a subtle to moderate trailing reverb an echo giving dimension to the space, this especially evident with foot taps. Equipment with limited resolve will eat up a lot of this and present the recording in a more upfront / simplified fashion.

Aspect: Microdynamic resolve (Whole song): The singer's voice should be presented with a full dynamic quality, giving way to the volume swings in his singing as well as the subtle changes due to the relative position of his head to the microphone as he shifts around.

Gary Burton, Chick Corea, Pat Metheny, Roy Haynes, Dave Holland - Like Minds - Like Minds
Aspect: Treble etch, resolution, timbre, shimmer in recorded instruments (Timecode 00:08 - Rest of song): The drum intro starts off with a hi-hat riff that changes 'color' while the hat is opened and closed as the sequence progresses. The instrument should sound distinctly metallic, and while dynamic and loud at the start, it should remain tolerable, every hit should be distinct and trailed by vibration and clattering, the sound resemble more a 'tchssss' than a 'chhhh' and not hurt your ears. Treble etch, distortion or lack of balance in the high frequency spectrum can render this part bothersome to listen to.
[Spotify]

Edit: Better english.

 

This is great and very helpful!

I'll add one of my go to tracks:
Joe Jackson - You Can't Get What You Want (Till You Know What You Want) - Body and Soul
Beautifully recorded live in a church hall. There is a tremendous amount of air in the drums and ensemble horns, with some close mic'ed instruments in the mix. The bass solo at 2:20 has a great mix of low and high tones with the snare reverberating throughout the room.