Just like your car, your music is an individual expression of yourself. These recordings have proven to be some of my favorites, not just for testing what your system can do, but as musical statements that have stood up well over the years. Plus, they're fun to listen to — give them a try!

Bruce Springsteen, Born to Run (1975)
CBS CK 33795
If "The Boss" had made no other recordings after this one, he would still have left an indelible mark on rock and roll with Born to Run. It's a hemi-powered muscle car of an album — a high-octane explosion of gritty nighttimes, lonely roads and broken dreams — rolling over us, unsubtle, powerful, and thickly layered. The album, produced by Springsteen, Jim Landau, and Mike Appel, contains music of undeniable, physical force that swoops between the plaintive, lightly accompanied vocals of "Meeting Across the River," to the exhilarating, densely-instrumented rock anthem "Born to Run." To fully experience its dynamic range, your system will need amplification with enough headroom to bring out the details in the grand, concluding coda of "Thunder Road" and to reproduce the edgy sound and intensity of David Sanborn and Randy and Michael Brecker's horn work in "Tenth Avenue Freeze Out." The dense low end is a solid test of your subwoofer's ability to not only play loud, but with control. Turn it up and hit the road!

Lush Life — The Billy Strayhorn Songbook
Various Artists
Verve 314 529 908-2
Jazz composer, arranger, and musician Billy Strayhorn was a long-time collaborator of Duke Ellington, known for the classic tunes "Take the 'A' Train" and "Satin Doll." As important as his work with Ellington was, however, he shouldn't be remembered only for that. Jazz music is much richer for the many sophisticated and oft-covered tunes he contributed. This Verve collection does justice to Strayhorn's legacy with a well-chosen selection of recordings and artists. The sonic quality of the CD is excellent — intimate on Sarah Vaughan's fatalistic rendition of "Lush Life," expansive and deep on Art Farmer's energetic proto-bop recording of "Rain Check." If your speaker output is well-aimed, you'll hear Dizzy Gillespie's trumpet at dead center in "Upper Manhattan Medical Group," while Ella Fitzgerald's soulful vocals on "Something to Live For" will radiate sultry warmth from somewhere beyond your windshield. It's a compilation that not only shows off the capabilities of your system, but also highlights one of the most underestimated of jazz composers.

Bonnie Raitt, Luck of the Draw (1991)
Columbia
After years as a favorite of musicians and critics, Bonnie Raitt found commercial success with Nick of Time in 1989. Her 1991 follow-up album, Luck of the Draw, is a smoothly recorded and musically satisfying vehicle for her soulful, blues-rimmed mezzo-soprano. Raitt teamed with her long-time producer Don Was in Luck of the Draw, and their collaboration produced an impressive range of material, from the slyly upbeat "Something to Talk About," to the smooth ballad "One Part Be My Lover," to the Caribbean-influenced "Come To Me." The album features well-balanced and recorded instrumentals throughout — you should have a clean and deep soundstage in front of your listening position, complemented by tight, muscular lows from the bass and kick drum. There are plenty of effective musical contrasts — the opening bars of "I Can't Make You Love Me" have an impressive expansiveness that should surround you, while the solid drums and rhythm section on "Slow Ride" are a sure test of your system's ability to project a tight bass line. In the end, however, it's Raitt's husky but agile voice that's the real star, ranging from soft, understated gentleness on "No Business" to searing emotional depth on "All at Once." Luck of the Draw is a mature and convincing work that plumbs the emotions and stretches the capabilities of your audio system.