How to find the good CD recordings?

Thanks for all the great advice and discussion folks. I'm still all ears.

Okay Nicholas, how about dropping the names of your 5 favorite prog rock CDs? Or more if you have the time.

I looked up my Zeppelin CDs on the dynamic range database. My 1990 Zep I Diament did not rate very well, but II and III by Diament and IV by Page all rated very high.

I'm going to look for a Physical Graffiti CD next. I'll use the database but open to suggestions as well.

I have all of their major releases on vinyl but most of those are worn out. I have two In Through the Out Door albums. One is still in the brown rapper and the sleeve is unmolested by water so it is in decent shape. The others were mishandled......and played on a record changer stacked high! Remember those?

One can’t help wondering how many Led Zeppelin CDs and LPs over the years were mastered in Reverse Polarity. I bet a bunch.

Some CDs have skyrocketed in price, to the heights of rare LPs. An average Gold DCC jazz or rock CD typically is listed for $150 to $250. Some of my rare Pearl and Biddulph CDs are in the same range. Classic CDs $400 to $600 each.
I have most of the Classic CDs, dozens of gold DCCs and a smattering of the high value Pearl and Biddulphs. I paid less than $15 for any of them. The remastering engineers such as Kevin Gray and Steve Hoffman for the DCCs should have kept a box of each of their CDs (let alone their LPs) which would have brought them a fortune today. They didn’t for space considerations.

As you can tell, I’m not into streaming yet (or ever). I have had multiple CDs from the same pressing facility sound different which is an unfortunate situation as we all can attest to from LP stamper/pressing differences.

I didn’t start collecting CDs until the early 1990s because they did not sound good relative to LPs. The vast improvement in CD players made them currently equal to my LP playback equipment (both high end now). So, now I have 25,000 LPs, 7,000 CDs and 7,000 78s (dynamic and room filling mono sound, lacking in frequency extremes and for orchestral recordings, missing many subtle sounds). If it weren’t for CDs, great remastering engineers such as Ward Marston wouldn’t have produced such exquisite sounding early vocal and piano recordings at very affordable prices (Many recordings are priceless with CDs filled with 25 78s for only $18/disc). These are not recordings available on Tidal or any other streaming service.

I prefer owning the media because of the accompanying booklet/back side/information. I really appreciate large collections well remastered by Sony/RCA/Columbia, DGG/London/Mercury and Warner for classical, but they rarely have adequate booklets as do the individual CD release booklets.

Off topic, but my late uncle, a neurologist in New Orleans, was a classical music aficionado first and probably an audiophile second. I remember his Klipsch speakers from the 1970s and that his components were McIntosh.

For a long time one whole wall of the listening room in his house in the Quarter was shelves of LPs from floor to ceiling.

He went entirely to CDs when they came out. I do not know what happened to his LP collection. The last few times I went to see him that same wall was completely replaced with CDs. He had some sort of connection with Sony and Sony would send him CDs to preview before they were released. I think my aunt, his sister, donated the CDs when he died or they were sold in the estate sale. I have a handful of them, maybe 10. I like mainstream symphonic works but have only a basic knowledge of classical music. My cousin has the speakers but does not use them. I think they are in a self storage unit.