well, some labels hae a consistently superior hoouse sound, even when they are as criticisable like telarc is for their impactful early discs. but then, live music is impactful. the lorin maazel pictures and the yoel levy pics are Good examples. many of the others are laudable for their naturalness and accuracy. the eric kunzel things are mostly very good, an example of how a label's stable of artists can draws you in. audiophile labels arent always the source of good music; everyday labels sometimes will bowl you over in quality. muse label for instance. some of mark murphys record will stun you in that regard. on that note, get a load of kurt elling! the messenger is a good place to start. the xrcd discs are too exhorbitantly priced for a company thats not paying the musicians and porducing the recordings themselves. the doug mc leod was good enuf on aq. the merc living presence reissues supervised by wilma cozart are a good contrast to the xrcd. not only are they fine reissues, sometimes exceeding the orig LPs, but they usually give you 1.5-2LPs morth on 1 disc for cheeeeep--$10! at nearly $30 a pop new, or $16 used, its too much...... mfsl, go figure some of the choices they made--matthew sweet? gimme a break. el&p tarkus??? as the magazine in britain is named:"what hifi" i havent even started to paw my thru my LP (6k of 'em)collection or cd for that matter, so i coould crow loudly about some of the stuff thats out there for the grabbing. i'll be baaaaaaaaack. tr
