Classical Music-High Quality


I want to get in to classical music.I like intrumental,I would like some advice on which cd's have the best sound quality.Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thank You
xmikex
if you go back to the opening page of the "audiophile forums" section of AudiogoN, you'll see a "search headlines" dialog box. you might wanna use that function before you begin a thread. HINT: your query ain't exactly unique. don't be scared off, though. everybody's got something to learn, else there'd be no reason for this site. good hunting. -kelly
Hmmm. It is easier to tell you what in general to nuy or avoid. Years back when I had just a typical Receiver and then Mid-fi setup Deutsche Grammophon (DG) CD's sounded the best. They also sound pretty good in a portable stereo at work. However, as I've gone upstream as far a equipment, DG sound more bloated like they have been run through an echo chamber or something. I've concluded they are mixing them to sound good on mid-fi and lower systems which may be more typical to Europe. I now find the British lables such as Decca/London and EMI sound the best now. They sound slightly thin in lessor systems to me, but now are great in my current better system. Telarc are pretty good also.
PS: When I say Mid-fi, I mean systems where most components are under $500 each, such as lower-end NAD, Rotel, etc; B&W 300 or 600 series speakers, etc. So what I am saying the best sound may depend on your system to some degree.
I also find that recent analog recorded CD's (Those coded "ADD" on the cover) sound more natural than pure digital recordings ("DDD"). I qualified my term Mid-fi because under $500 is considered budget audiophile equipment to some/most audio enthusiasts.
Cornfedboy is right, there are a lot of threads on this. As a general rule, Harmonia Mundi, Reference Recordings, Delos, Telarc (some controversy here, as some don't like the Telarc spaced omni sound, which tends to lack the pinpoint imaging of other labels), EMI, Decca/London and more recent Teldec recordings are all excellent sonically; performances vary according to tastes. There are a lot of smaller labels and budget labels that come up with good offerings as well. DG, as Sugarbrie points out, and older Columbia/CBS are not up to the same level, particularly the older digital recordings, many of which are excrutiatingly bright. I don't like DG because what they do, generally, is stick tons of microphones in the players' laps, then rely on their mixing console and tonemeister to make a mix that sounds like the real thing. Plus, on the earlier recordings, there is very little deep bass--if you listen to the Bernstein Copland 3rd Symphony on DG, you would never know there was a bass drum in the scoring. The only low bass in the disc is the sound of Lenny bouncing around on the podium! Despite all that, some of their recent efforts sound fairly natural, which I find amazing. Anyway, take a look at the many threads on this and related topics, there is a wealth of information at this site.
If you search AudiogoN also use the names of Composers. There are threads like Best or Favorite Beethoven, Mahler, etc.