The best Mozart piano recordings are by Alicia de Larrocha ("Mozart: The Piano Sonatas"). Also look out for her recording of Enrique Granados' Valses Poeticos.
If you need something symphonic, I recommend the 2nd movement of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No 2 in G major Op 44 (Andante non troppo) as performed by Stephen Hough, Jorja Flezzanis, and Anthony Ross. It's on the 2nd disk of "The Romantic Piano Concerto."
Feel like pretending you have a E36 M3ton of ecstasy? Drum n' Bass music on a good sound system is intoxicating. For that euro drug lord vibe, Kruder & Dorfmeister is my go-to (the "DJ Kicks" is a good start).
Jazz? "Duke Ellington & John Coltrane." That's the recording. Both of them on one album. Awesome. I don't know enough about jazz to actually be able to recommend other recordings, but this is arguably the deepest genre for audiophile recordings.
"2001" by Dr. Dre always feels right. I can't believe I didn't actually find this album until last year. I was seriously missing out. "All Eyez On Me" is a very good selection of 2Pac songs (Shorty Wanna Be A Thug being my favorite).
"The Life Aquatic - Studio Sessions" by Seu Jorge is a nice collection of David Bowie songs in Portugese.
ELECTRONIC! The best way to divide this is "musical" electronic and "dance" electronic. Most of the musical options are ambient, long, slowly build, and require full attention to enjoy. Most of the dance options are formulaic and lack in creativity, but make up for this in intensity and instant gratification.
The most musical electronic artists are Aphex Twin and Boards of Canada. Both have been producing music for a LONG time. The best album for older Aphex Twin is "Drukqs" (the track "vord hosbn" is very representative). "Syro" was released last year and is a masterpiece. For old Boards of Canada, the album "Hi Scores" was remastered in 2014 (start with "Everything You Do Is a Balloon"). Other old excellent tracks are "In A Beautiful Place Out In The Country" (2000), "Roygbiv" (1998), and "Dayvan Cowboy" (2005). The new album "Tomorrow's Harvest" is pretty excellent and really requires listening to the whole thing (the whole album is a fugue), but if you have to pick a starting place, I'd recommend "Reach For The Dead" and its mate "Come To Dust."
Most American dance electronic has blended heavily with dubstep (Skrillex anyone?). The best "I want to feel happy and not care about anything else" artist for this is Dillon Francis. His classic track is "IDGAFOS." Excellent tracks are "Drunk All The Time (feat. Simon Lord)," "Coming Over (feat. James Hersey)," "Bootleg Fireworks (Burning Up)," and "Get Low." I'm also a fan of the Dillon Francis remix of "Runaway (U & I)" by Galantis. Another good source of "feel good" dance electronic is Jack Ü ("Take Ü There (feat. Kiesza)" and "Where Are Ü Now (feat. Justin Bieber)").
The best sources of "I'm angry/driven" electronic are Dog Blood (a Skrillex/Boys Noize collab) and Kill The Noise. I seriously recommend "Chella Ride," "Kill The Noise (Part I) (Original Mix)," and "Dying feat. Ultraviolet Sound & Emily Hudson (Original Mix)." KTN's new album "Occult Classic" isn't great, but it at least has a few earworms.
The M Machine is amazing. "Ghosts In The Machine (feat. Pennybirdrabbit)" is awesome, musical, and well-rounded. Another good track is "A Shadow in the Rose Garden." I strongly recommend their albums Metropolis Pt. I & II. They sadly changed styles with their latest EP "Just Like".
One last one. Julio Bashmore. This is dance without the dubstep. Check out the songs "Au Seve," "Holding On (feat. Sam Dew)," and "Battle For Middle You."
I have an Outlaw Ultra-X12 subwoofer arriving on Monday that I'm bringing to work. I'm excited! Now I'm going to spend all night listening to music.
But a good system will pick up the musicians turning their pages, and of course there's a massive range of dynamics and timbres to give it a workout. No real cannons in the 1812, though.
...until I switched over to La Grange and you could hear that blown woofer distorting like crazy.
