What are the best sounding classical CDs

Anything on the Reference Recordings label. Don

My general rule of thumb for sound quality (ignoring the performance) for a high end system, is to avoid Deutche Grammonphon CDs. While there are a few good ones; generally the way they are engineered they sound great in a budget system, boombox, or in the car; but cause me to have quick listener fatigue in a better system.

Anything on the Delos label. www.delosmusic.com

Anything on Astree and Reference Recordings.

As far as the Penguin guide mentioned above: I personally find that they do a very very good job of choosing good performances; but do not do such a good job on sound quality. I suspect that the systems that some reviewers use are mid-fi at best, or they don't believe in better cables. I have compared a number of remastered CDs with older versions. Many that got worse in my opinion, they thought were a big improvement. I do agree that those new issues sound better on budget gear and boom boxes.