Wow, thank you guys all so much for your responses to my inquiry. As I am just now getting into purchasing a few things to make a decent system, I am putting a lot of thought into where I want to put my resources. For now, I know that I have a decent record player and I don't have anything digital, or at least not something that stems from an MP3 format file. I know what a lot of you are saying about surface noise, I have a few records that are really quite black in the background, and others that are maddening to listen to because of the amount of service noise. I'm sure some of that comes down to cleaning, and I have a lot to learn on that front too. I have recently had the opportunity to audition a set of Paradigm speakers coupled with emotiva amplifiers, and I'm considering this as my first serious set up. I guess I may have to take a record player and a couple of records with me to give it a really solid listen. Do any of you have good recommendations about how to audition, other than to take an album with which I am very familiar?

The analog experience
 

As much as I love vinyl, I don't take records to a shop to audition equipment unless I'm auditioning turntables or phono stages. If you're auditioning speakers and electronics, I'd suggest taking discs or a thumb drive with a variety of music you know well. There was a good discussion in a thread on auditioning tips here: https://www.audioaficionado.org/show...ic+auditioning

I find for myself,if I started listening to the album when I was younger on a turntable then it's never quite right on CD or digital formats.Some of the music I hear on digital I still remember where the little skips ,pops lead- ins etc. Should be.

So true...