What are the best sounding classical CDs

Bioman, I agree with you. Without naming names, some DG reissues came to mind in my second post about the Penguin guide. Older DG is better. I have not cared for too many of those "DG Originals" CDs that look like an LP. I have some I like for the performance only.

London/Decca overall are quite good; and for historic, the "Decca Legends" and "The Classic Sound" are well made. For Bernstein fans, I find those newer "Bernstein Century" on Sony an overall improvement from the older "The Royal Edition" (which are OK as well).

I agree with those who like the Mercury Living Presence historic, and the RCA Living Stereo.

Reference Recordings, Delos, Cisco, the Living Stereo Re-issues on Classic Records, are some of the most consistent and excellent recordings. M*A, Goldberg Variations performed by Ito Emma deserves an award for performance and sonic quality. These would be my first tier for sonic quality. The second would be Sony Classical label--not their economy essentials, but the Sony Classical label. Many Telarc discs (but certainly not all--they tend to run the full gamut on sound quality) would also be in this category. MFSL is a great audiophile label, that never really got classical right. The engineers clearly knew more about rock and jazz than classical--but they didn't do too much classical anyway.

I'm surprised noone mentioned Decca/London label. I have a few of their CDs including some from the Decca Legends series and I though the sound AND the performances were excellent. My system is not expensive but neither is it midfi (Spica, Densen, Monarchy, Rega), and almost all Decca CDs are very enjoyable. To pick one ... Decca Legends "Romantic Russia". recordings from 1966 and 1956 which sound like they were made yesterday.

I guess my name is noome.

I am pretty surprise that there is no advocate of Harmonia Mundi or BIS. For Baroque music, they both make excellent recordings.

Also Deutsche Harmonia Mundi produces some good recordings.

Happy Listening!

Otto