I think its always tough in these " whats a great sounding record" hreads as it hard to tell with a poster if its the music that makes it a great album or whom mixed (or mastered it). I tend to follow the mix engineer, as these are the folks most closely deciding what the album sounds like. Engineers often work with the same mastering engineer over and over. Mastering is not remixing it so its not massive changes at the mastering level..
So follow the great engineers and that's a good palce to start. Al Schmidt- now passed- was a great engineer. Ed Cherney, Elliot Scheiner, Bill Schnee. to name only a few, Follow engineers and you are more likely to find a good sounding record.
Brad
