What songs/CD's do you guys feel is the best to demo speakers to customers?

Thanks

I used to use

Floyd - Wish You Were Here : Intro on the guitar takes lots of people by suprise. Hard center image gives some people their first real experience with speaker imaging.

Cranberries - No need to argue : nice sounding female vocal combined with a pipe organ that makes any decent speaker sound impressive compared to the low end client's home speakers.

Then there are the standards or songs that clients have heard repeatedly on other systems and can make analytical comparisons such as David Brubeck - Take 5, Miles Davis - So What (first song off of Kind of Blue), Beethoven - PSno14C#m(Moonlight) - PSno8Cm(Pathetique) (usually go with Rubenstein's "unique" interpretations, Horowitz, or Earl Wild), Tchaikovsky PCno1bm (must go with VanCliburn here, the American that beat out the Russians in Moscow!), Buena Vista Social Club - Chan Chan... just too much to list.

1. Put Em on The Glass
2. Shake that Nasty Thang

try Thomas Dolby- Pop Culture
Lenny Kravitz- Livin in fear
Floyd- Money
queens of the stone age-new album
Nirvana- inutero
for the rockers...
cant forget Def Lepard

Wow, someone who wants to demo music NOT movies. A change has begun....

and I like it.

I think one of the best is

Sting-Englishman in New York.

It all depends on the speaker in question, you should demo something that will showoff the speaker, not the other way around,

Or maybe show off the INTENTION of the system. To be honest, I think more people listen to music rather than watch movies, and thus, systems should be more dual purpose rather than sound good only on movies...

Oh yeah, Sting... I also like Shape of My Heart.

Dual purpose is good and all, but there is also the client... manybe 5% of them... that really need to go with a dedicated theater and then a dedicated music system. The requirements can be so different that it would be difficult to get 1 system to do everything.

"So... you're telling me I need 7 speakers and 2 subs to get great audio for movies and music?"

answ: "Oh, you want to listen to music to? In that case, you really need to get 9 speakers, then."

Just kidding. a bit of the salesman in me getting out.

I saw (heard) a series of THX trailers at a trade show once and it was really great for demoing surround sound (especially the rear speakers). Has anyone seen this? and is it available anywhere?

for older customers, i use Russel Watson's "The Voice"

For middle aged customers I use Motley Crue's first album, specifically, "Piece Of Your Action" which has a raw, crunchy sound to it (i point out how bad the production is, and since these speakers are good, you can REALLY hear it... this, while the low end is so good it's ripping your face off...LOL)

For younger customers... well.... haven't had any of those yet- no money!

Holly Cole Trio- Don't Smoke in bed- Incredible

If you would like to test the subwoofer, I'd go with:
"Pimp Juice" by Nelly (Track 6 from the Nellyville CD)

:)

try it...

Don't got the disc in front of me, but I have an extra if you want it.

Then there's the DTS music sampler, and the DVD audio sampler.

Yes, I would like to get a copy. Is it publicly available?

I don't think so. It was given to us by one of our reps.