Naxos, the way to go for classical?

To answer your original question I would not recommend building classical collection of "only" Naxos Cds, you must do research and mix and match labels/artists. Also some composers are not well represented in current Naxos collection.

There are many many choices for popular works at all price levels and performance levels from many labels......sometimes you can get the excellent performance at budget price. A perfect example it the recent Tintner/Naxos complete Bruckner symphony set, great sound/performance/price, highest recommendation!

The sound quality of Naxos CD's now is usually very good and competes with full price offerings, however most of the best conductors/artists have contracts with major label like DG/Sony/EMI/Phillips/London etc. Fortunately the major labels have released older recordings at mid and budget price sets which are often great buys for building classic CD collection for beginners.

To sum up I own many Naxos Cds which are very good, but I think you should research getting buget/mid priced sets from major labels with name performers as primary source of classical Cds for beginner. I do sometimes buy new recordings at full price, but there are so many older quality recordings at reduced price if you do some research.

Naxos often pays an absolute pittance to their artists - some guitarists I know personally have gotten as little as $1500 for a solo cd, with no royalties. Its a real Barnum & Bailey type exploitation outfit in a lot of ways. Best thing to do is try to buy the cd's directly from the artist's website.
Most guitarsits on Naxos (particularly the younger ones) are as good if not better than the big names but there are a few duffers as well.

Nobody beats Naxos for value, and it's a great way to hear a lot of music at a reasonable price. Yes, performance and recording quality are all over the map (though the same can be said for all but a handful of lablels). But if you're just getting into classical, my advice is not to worry too much about performance and recording quality. You're not really ready to judge the former, and you can learn a lot about music from less-than-ideal recordings, just as you can learn a lot about music listening on less-than-high-end equipment.

Thank-you all for your thoughtful responses. This should provide me with enough to get started in the genre. Always on the look-out for new music, this will be a fun and rewarding experience.