At the end of the day, it's all about the music. Here are some of our favorite works by our favorite artists:

Favorite CDs from Audience's Richard Smith:

Concerto for jazz drummer - Harold Farberman

Three Suites - Duke Ellington

Jazz Meets the Symphony Collection - Lalo Schifrin

Favorite CDs from Blue Circle's Gilbert Yeung:

Greatest Hits of the 20th Century - Bela Fleck and the Flecktone

Live at the Shanghai Jazz - Marian McPartland Trio

The Millennium Collection - Chuck Mangione

Shortstop - Sara Hickman

Speaking of Now - Pat Metheny Group

Volume 1 - Michell Cusson and the Wild Unit

Wild Unit, Vol. 2

My Foolish Heart - Liz Story

Favorite CDs from Resolution Audio's Jeff Kalt:

Live at Leeds - The Who (deluxe edition re-re-released 2001) - "Arguably the best live album ever, The Who at their peak of raw energy."

Ostinato - Hesperion XXI. "Jordi Savall et al journey through improvisational virtuosos of early Baroque on period instruments."

Lateralus - Tool. "Deep exploration of a style all their own. After thorough digestion, consider their previous album, Aenima."

Band of Gypsys - Jimi Hendrix. "Post-Experience and live, Jimi Hendrix gets back to basics. Seen any good New Year's Eve shows lately?"

SCHEHERAZADE - Rimsky-Korsakov. "Reference Recordings delivers a reference performance of this haunting, beautiful masterpiece."

Favorite CDs from Resolution Audio's Mike McDermott:

My Favorite Things - John Coltrane

Making Movies - Dire Straits

Discipline - King Crimson

Adventures in Radioland - John McLaughlin

Aja - Steely Dan

Favorite CDs from Sonic Spirits' Philip Lam:

Mambo Sinuendo - Ry Cooder, Manuel Galban. "Cuban blues with a metallic guitar twang. More Manuel than Ry."

Live in America - Paco de Lucia. "One of the single most inspiring acoustic guitar performances I've ever heard."

Full House - Wes Montgomery. "One of Wes' best. Great swing!"

Root Down - Jimmy Smith. "A great live jam that should transform your listening room into a smokey, funky blues club."

The Dynamic Duo - Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery. "The title says it all. These two are my favorites of their genre."

Wired - Jeff Beck. "My favorite rock guitarist in his best fusion effort. And a surprisingly good recording. Track 1 is a little excessive, but after that this CD features some really soulful electric guitar-work."

Black Market - Weather Report "Jaco makes his debut. Probably Weather Reports' most raw efforts, resulting in a great musical performance"

Jazz at the Pawnshop. "Has been called the greatest recording of a jazz performance ever. The XRCD version by FIM is by far the most satisfying."

Getz/Gilberto - Stan Getz, Joan Gilberto. "A classic. From an audiophile perspective, this recording features good close-miked vocals (male and female) and saxophone, and it really tests your system's detail, imaging, and depth capabilities."

Saxophone Colossus - Sonny Rollins "Another classic. A performance that will engage and make you forget its a mono recording. This 20-bit remaster is superb."

Kind of Blue - Miles Davis. "Obviously one of the greatest jazz recordings ever made. However, this particular remaster (May 24, 2000 - Sony Intl from Japan) is by far the best digital remaster available. All phase inversions of individual instruments have been corrected, and the final results are spectacular."

Companion - Patricia Barber. "A live performance that puts you right in the venue."

Live at Blues Alley - Eva Cassidy. "This is my reference recording for testing a system's ability to recreate a live performance in a great venue for live music. From the very first track, you should feel as if you could actually measure the dimensions of the room! And it's a great vocal performance by a great singer, too."

The Sky is Crying - Stevie Ray Vaughn. "A compilation of tracks that were recorded for other SRV albums but never made it to those discs. My favorite SRV collection, and in my opinion, the best rendition of Jimi Hendricks' 'Little Wing' out there."

Carmen-Fantasie - Anne-Sophie Mutter. "A caricature performace and recording, in my opinion; almost cartoonish. And I mean it in a good way. Anne-Sophie Mutter's solo violin really sets your imagination to an off-beat land. The recording is detailed and has great dynamics."

Bolero! Orchestral Fireworks - Eiji Oue, Minnesota Orchestra. "A fantastic recording of great symphonic music performed by a great orchestra. This is also the first CD I will use to demonstrate my system."

First Impression Music Super Sound. "A collection of unique orchestral interpretations of well known pieces. Impeccably recorded, and sonic imaging that you will not forget"

Schubert: Quintet, op. 114 "The Trout" - Sonata, D. 821 "Arpeggione" - Yo-Yo Ma, Barbara Bonney, Edgar Meyer, Emanuel Ax, Pamela Frank.

Clarinet Concerto, Oboe Concerto (Mozart) - The Academy of Ancient Music, Christopher Hogwood.

Presenting Jian Wang (Chopin, Barber, Schumann) - Jian Wang, Carol Rosenberger. "In contrast to the heavy melodramatic cello performances most audiophiles like, this one features delicate tones played with elegance and beauty."

1812 Overture (Tchaikovsky) - Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra, Antal Dorati. "A guilty pleasure. This is the CD I use when friends want to hear something spectacular. Caution: on lesser systems, the digitally-recorded cannons will simply sound like static."