What are your favorite songs or albums for illustrating a deep soundstage?


I’m optimizing my seating position and speaker position in my room and need some new musical selections to use as a reference for projecting depth well beyond the speakers. What are your top choices?

Bonus points if they are available on Qobuz or Tidal, though vinyl record suggestions are welcome.

Thanks in advance!

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I just wanted to thank everyone so far for providing stellar selections. I’ve finally gotten my system to a place where I have a full 180-degree soundstage AND the depth of the center image can go much deeper than it did before. It was always a toss-up previously but your references helped me out a bit.

As a thank you, I’m building a Qobuz playlist of my favorite soundstage demonstration tracks and will share on this thread as I complete it. 

Feel free to keep the suggestions flowing, and thanks again!

Robbie Robertson, Somewhere Down the Crazy River! Apple Music, Robbie Robertson Essentials. 

Janacek String Quartets, the Mandelring Quartet on Audite SACD.  The instruments frequently sound well outside speaker boundary.  The Haitink Shostakovich Symphony cycle on Decca from the Eighties is an excellent for front to back orchestral depth in an analog recording 

Hopefully, this thread doesn’t end once Juan has his system setup. This has been a great thread with many superb suggestions.

A first for my system was my wife actually sitting down and listening to it. While I was playing Madonna’s Voque she entered the room on her own and sat down, listened until then end and then remarked how great it sounded. Of course, upon leaving she told me that the room was a mess and that I should clean it up. She is especially fond of the idea that I should eliminate all the wires.

I had just returned from the audiologist where I learned that my high frequency hearing loss was moderately severe…then she (the audiologist) told me this was the frequency range occupied mostly by female voice. I bit my tongue, thanked her and left.

Birds, Dominique Fils-Aimé 

NASA, ariana Grande

Late to the flight, Laura Marling 

You go to my head, Julie London 

Take Five,  Brubeck

All on Tidal. Let us know what you find are best!