I have always evaluated with the same cds. What they are, is not important to this post. Instead I want to bring up a thought. There are a number of cds that sound great on many systems because of the recording quality. I had a Krell amp at one time that would blow me away with a good recording, great dynamics and detail. It would however dissapoint with mediocre to bad recordings. In other words, the things it does best, are the same things that make it unlistenable at other times. The same is true for other equiptment I owned. I think there are certain things that need to be sacrificed in order to get a balanced system that will give overall enjoyment and enable you to go deeper into your cd collection. So, my point is, you should listen to the music you like and will spend most of your time listening to. If those cds don't sound good when you demo, then the system is not for you, unless you are willing to listen to only audiophile quality recordings.
Music to test systems
If you were going over to someone’s house to evaluate their system and you only knew it was a high end system, what 5 LPs (if you are into vinyl) and 5 CDs would you take and for what purposes (test bass, imaging, soundstage, etc.). I have thought about this a bit and have not yet narrowed down either to just 5. I will post my answer once this thread gets going.