[Bob in St. Louis]

Sure, Amanda would work. 
Some might consider a few of her songs to be "old" audiophile demo tracks and are tired of hearing them. I know of more than a couple good songs I can't stand to hear anymore due to excessive "testing". 

Bob

[thunderbrick]

Would one of those songs happen to be "Bottle of Wine"?     

[rockadanny]

I've done this recently with two different groups of non-audiophile friends/neighbors/acquaintences, most of whom were within 10 years of my (old fart) age, a different song for each group:

1. Di Meola, McLaughlin, De Lucia, "Mediterranean Sundance / Rio Ancho", which is the first track off of, "Friday Night in San Francisco";

2. The Guess Who, "American Woman", off of 2000 remastered, "Live at the Paramount".

Both resulted in positive reactions.

[tshifrin]

I think my first decision would have to be source: vinyl or CD (I don't have computer music yet). And that would depend on the audience.

Tom

[Elizabeth]

Need: Female vocal, LF blast, massed choir, strong beat
My recommendation:
A cut from Carl Orff: "Carmina Burana" .

The right cut from it will rip thier socks off.

[asset]

I like the idea of letting the audience select the music, at least for part of the demo. I do it like this: invite one or two (not a crowd) to hear and judge your pride and joy. Have each bring his or her favorite album, select one or two cuts from the album(s), and you play those.

Then go conversational while you turn down the volume and step up the content. Play what you play for yourself when casually listening, your good stuff that shows off your system without dominating or overpowering the space: an incidental background soundtrack to your conversation. This way you're not hard-selling or control-freaking, more providing an environment conducive to their discovering for themselves.

No matter how you approach turning your friends on to hifi it won't happen in one session, anymore than your first ride in a high-performance automobile made you a car freak.

anyway, this is how I approach it, and it works sometimes. 

Barry

[thunderbrick]

+1!

I like "Carmina Burana",  but while it's a sonic spectacular that would knock to socks off of audiophools, the musical style can be off-putting to the casual (at this point) listener.

I'd go with something far less intimidating, something more touch-feely that people could feel good about listening to.  Too much change can be just that, too much.  Could overwhelm the experience we are trying to sell.