To celebrate the launch of our new Mini Theatre series we have compiled an all-time top 10 list of Blu-Rays to really test your home theatre system.

1: Star Wars: The Complete Saga

Use it to test: Everything!

Resplendent in 1080p HD and endowed with a freshly remastered HD-Audio soundtrack, this sci-fi epic remains the standard by which all other home cinema experiences should be judged. Skywalker Sound’s Matthew Wood supervised a four-year audio restoration process, with every soundtrack sourced from the archival prints and remastered in uncompressed 24-bit/48kHz form – and the results are simply astonishing, especially with the older films. You’ll find familiar sequences take on a whole new energy, most especially in surround sound standouts such as the walker assault in The Empire Strikes Back or the Death Star’s destruction in A New Hope.

Test Track Moment
So many to choose from…but if you had to pick one moment, we’d go for the speeder bike chase in Return Of The Jedi. It’s a staggeringly realized 360-degree whirlwind of sound.

2: Super 8

Use it to test: Dynamics

Directed by J.J.Abrams and produced by Steven Spielberg, Super 8¹s cinematic credentials are impeccable. While its core themes may be familiar ­ aliens, middle America, conspiracies and cover-ups ­ there¹s nothing hackneyed about its execution: indeed, you¹ll seldom see a slicker or more technically accomplished film, its beautifully composed cinematography and bravura set-pieces combining to creative an endlessly entertaining experience.

And if anything, the film¹s soundtrack is even more impressive. Super 8¹s soundtrack was created by what could best be described as a Supergroup of Skywalker Sound¹s finest engineers, with contributions from David Acord, Ben Burtt, Gary Rydstrom and Matthew Wood. The result is, quite simply, a masterpiece.

Test Track Moment
Chapter 3 begins with spaciousness, with expertly applied foley effects that transport you to the scene¹s remote train station in uncanny fashion. And thenŠthen there¹s a huge train crash, an extended, sofa-shuddering adrenaline rush of sound and fury unparalleled in modern home cinema. Hang on to your sofaŠ

3: Inception

Use it to test: Scale

Chris Nolan’s wildly ambitious, dazzingly complex thriller demands your attention: it’s a challenging watch, one that will reward repeat viewings, if only to bask in the splendour of its special effects. And if the watching is impressive, the listening is, in many ways, even better: Hans Zimmer formidable soundtrack sets an appropriately majestic tone throughout – it’s astonishingly dynamic – while Gary Rizzo (another Skywalker Sound alumni) relishes the film’s many opportunities to challenge every speaker in your system, most especially your subwoofer. The results are brilliant, as richly textured as they are formidably dynamic: Inception garnered both an Oscar and a Bafta for its sound in 2010, and rightly so.

Test Track Moment
The film’s final, climactic ‘kick’ scene, as everyone attempts to make it back to reality, is a masterpiece: sound effects and soundtrack intertwine to create a massive, seamless soundfield that can’t fail to excite.

4: Inglourious Basterds

Use it to test: Dialogue clarity

After his Grindhouse project (eventually released as Death Proof and Planet Terror) met with a distinctly mixed reception, it would have been easy for Quentin Tarantino to fall back on what he knew best, but Inglourious Basterds is much more than a khaki-clad retread of Reservoir Dogs.
Forget explosions and firefights: here, the real weapons are words, with Tarantino’s exceptional ensemble cast relishing the opportunity to wrestle with the script’s crackling intensity. Historical accuracy be damned, too: throughout, Basterds is as exuberantly inventive as Brad Pitt’s cod-Italian accent in the film’s final scenes. The result is a war film like no other, and a great home cinema tester – but not in the sense you might expect.

Test Track Moment
To get a measure of your centre speaker’s clarity, check out the 20-minute long opener, as Christoph Waltz’s sadistic SS Colonel Hans Landa interrogates a French farmer he suspects of harbouring Jews. The tension is almost unbearable – as is the scene’s shocking, brutally dynamic finale.

5: Talking Heads: Stop Making Sense

Use it to test: Musicality

Unlike almost every other Blu-ray release you can think of, Stop Making Sense is no advert for the virtues of high-definition video. Its picture quality is mediocre at best, its age (and the relative lack of care devoted to its 1080p transfer) showing through in its grainy, comparatively soft image. But the sound…now the sound’s a different story. Presented in DTS-HD Master Audio, it’s fantastic, capturing the band’s best-ever performances at their deliriously rhythmic best. If your system doesn’t sound musical when spinning this disc – and, in particular, if your subwoofer sounds sonically distinct from the rest of your speakers – then you need to rethink your system’s set-up.

Test Track Moment
As the concert unfolds you get the sense it’s been working its way towards one big moment, and ‘Girlfriend is Better’ is it. Byrne in his iconic ‘big suit’, keyboard player Bernie Worrell (formerly of Parliament) to the fore: it’s the very essence of funk.

6: True Grit

Use it to test: Spaciousness

When the Coen brothers last tackled a remake it was with The Ladykillers, and things did not end well (as the few of you to have seen the film will doubtless attest). But True Grit is far more successful, eclipsing John Wayne’s original in every regard: Jeff Bridges, in particular, invests his iteration of Rooster Cogburn with an irascible humanity that Wayne’s inevitably bluffer performance lacked. Cinematographer Roger Deakins conjures an evocative, sweeping feel to the film’s visuals, while Craig Berkey (sound designer in X-Men: First Class, above) creates an equally grand soundfield, one that should immerse you in the story from the first minute.

Test Track Moment
Nothing sums up a Western like a good-old-fashioned showdown, and True Grit’s confrontation is a peach, the wide-open atmosphere of the open prairie contrasting wonderfully with the brutal gunfire of both Cogburn’s pistols and LaBoeuf’s mighty Sharps rifle.

7. Star Trek

Use it to test: Bass

For all the enthusiasm of its devoted fans, the Star Trek franchise was ailing, the paunch of its increasingly careworn cast matched only by the ponderous bagginess of each new script.  Kudos then to J.J.Abrams for so successfully reviving Gene Roddenberry’s much-loved sci-fi saga: the director’s high-octane, all-action style and pitch-perfect casting ensures 2009’s take on Trek appeals to both devoted Trekkies and the wider audience alike. The youthful cast do full justice to their illustrious forebears – with Zachary Quinto’s Spock an especial delight – while the special effects are suitably out-of-this-world throughout.

Test Track Moment
Most earlier Trek films relished any opportunity to blow up the Enterprise: here, director Abrams takes aim at an all-new and much larger target, destroying planet Vulcan – Spock’s home – in a dazzling fifteen-minute rush of full-bore sound and fury.

8. Saving Private Ryan

Use it to test: Punch

Few soundtracks have been so rightly acclaimed as that of Steven Spielberg’s 1998 war epic. Conceived by seven-times Oscar-winner Gary Rydstrom, it’s a tour-de-force of authenticity, its shockingly graphic opening scenes proving so convincing that some WWII veterans reportedly felt traumatized watching them. The film’s key sonic signatures are absolute realism – as just one example, every gunshot is generated from a recording of an authentic weapon firing live ammunition – and thunderous, hitherto-unparalleled levels of volume. Your subwoofer will be assured of a thorough workout, most especially during the film’s climactic final battle.

Test Track Moment
Ryan is book-ended by a pair of savage battles, the first the assault on Omaha beach, the last a brutal confrontation to save  the bridge at Ramelle from a German advance. Both are extraordinary sonic workouts in every possible regard.

9. Master And Commander: The Far Side Of The World

Use it to test: Power

Although more modern war films – Saving Private Ryan (above) springs to mind – can provide even more visceral tests of your system’s power, there’s something uniquely appealing about Master And Commander’s period sense of muscularity. Set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars, there’s a thrilling sense of authenticity coursing through every scene: sound designer Richard King insisted that no stock (ie prerecorded) audio be used to create any of the film’s effects. Instead, virtually every audio component in the film’s soundfield was generated as a bespoke recording – and the result is wondrous. Cannonfire has seldom, if ever sounded this forceful before.

Test Track Moment
As Russell Crowe’s ship HMS Surprise chases its French quarry the Acheron around Cape Horn, your system should come alive: the soundfield is astonishingly complex, full of the furious power of the storm-lashed seas and the creaking protests of the tortured ship.

10. Foo Fighters: Live At Wembley Stadium

Use it to test: Atmosphere

Live concert discs are usually a great way to test your system’s ability to convey ambience, and this pulsating set is no exception. 86,000 devoted fans do their best to wrap you in the action while the Foos thrash out hit after forceful hit, each performance made all the more exciting by the soundtrack’s 24-bit/48kHz-mastered PCM 5.1 audio. You’re placed at the heart of the crowd, with audience effects and stadium reverb wrapping you in the atmosphere. It’s a raw and raucous listen, the band preferring a warts’n’all presentation rather than the polished, studio-enhanced mixes favoured by some of their contemporaries, but none the less impressive for that.

Test Track Moment
As the concert nears its climax, Dave Grohl introduces two special guests – Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page and John Paul Jones – before taking to the drumkit to thrash into a blistering rendition of Rock and Roll. He’s grinning like an excited child throughout, and it’s easy to hear why…