Must -have SACD's

The Telarc Dukas disc, the Delos Mahler Second (the massive orchestral climaxes on this one are light years better than on the CD version). Both of these are hybrid discs. If you like choral music, the dmp Gaudeamus is very nice as well. A lot of the older Sony titles sound shrill on the top because that's the way, unfortunately, Columbia recorded them. I'm going to listen to the two Bruno Walter recordings on Sony (Beethoven 6 and Brahms 4) soon; I'd expect them to be good (the former is good on CD, the latter sounds good on the Classic reissue) because Columbia didn't really overmike their Bruno Walter series.

Actually, the Dukas and dmp discs and Appalachian Journey (excellent recommendation!) are DSD recordings, but cornfedboy's point is valid and well-taken. Part of it is that there just aren't that many DSD recorders available; Telarc has only had theirs for a little over a year. Interestingly, Telarc, if they ever get time at the plant, is supposed to be releasing some of its earlier digital recordings, like the Firebird and Carmina Burana. I'm told that the Soundstream recorder they used for those recordings was actually an early form of DSD recorder. But I'd never want to get an SACD made from a Sony pcm 16-bit machine; can't see how that could improve on a CDs resolution.

The Bruno Walter Beethoven 6 and Brahms 4 on Sony are quite good, even for old master tapes. There are two nice chamber music recordings, one on Hyperion with the Floristan(sp) Trio doing Debussy and (I think) Ravel piano trios, a Tony Faulkner recording, and the other on Lyrinx, Musique Francais, with piano and clarinet pieces by Frnch composers (I've always liked the Poulenc piece on this disc). Very natural sound on each, and I like the performances as well. Got them through Music Direct, I think, or else Acoustic Sounds.

There is a Lyrinx recording of the Beethoven 1st and 3rd Piano Concertos available on SACD which has extremely natural sound, particularly the piano (as does the Sony Classical disc of Periah playing the Bach Goldberg Variations, also a good disc). The recording was made with tubed microphones, I think, and may have had the main array of mikes set back a little from the orchestra, because the sound of the strings on this recording has none of the brightness you associate with any modern recordings of orchestral strings--in fact, some may think it sounds dull on the top, or that their tweeters have cut out! Anyone else out there tried this one?