What is the best sounding Mahler symphony cycle?

Regarding Fisher and Budapest, I heard them in concert here this year on tour.  Their Channel Classics recordings strike me as being faithful at capturing their sonority.  They have a lean, finely chiseled sound.  Their woodwinds have great character.  The brass is finely tuned.  The CSO   brass would undoubtedly blow them halfway to Milwaukee if they had a shootout, but the Budapesters aren’t trying to win a testosterone war.  The Orchestra that they remind me the most of is the Czech Philharmonic, but the Budapest has a bit more heft in the strings.

@mahler123 that’s just the point with Budapest. They are a fine orchestra but really not at the same level as an orchestra like Chicago. While interpretation is a part, at some point it’s closer to a professional sport and some teams just have more talented players. Perhaps I am showing my hand, but as a player in professional orchestras, I find Budapest’s playing quite dull. 
As for that recording of Mahler 3 with CSO. I’m assuming you’re talking about the Resound release? That’s actually my favorite recording of the work. Maybe the “recording” sounds a bit dry, but the sound is there. The opening with the horns is intense and bright, with great attack. The posthorn (cornet is this case) solo in the 3rd Mvt is as wonderful as it’s ever been performed.  The strings and winds throughout play with emotion that comes through on every note. Really my only criticism is the trombone solo in the 1st being a bit too herky jerky, having heard it performed in Philadelphia by the wonderful Nitzan Haroz. 
I offer another example where most orchestras including Budapest just can’t match the top orchestras. Mahler 9. It is such a wonderful work, but must be treated with care. Budapest plays the notes on the page, but that’s not enough. In contrast, the more recent recording of Dudamel and Los Angeles is divine. It’s hard to put your finger on it, but it feels like they play every phrase just a bit longer than the page says, giving it this sweet, flowing character. Everything is rounded, and this brings a connectedness not found in other recordings. 
Like I said, if you’re just listening to a recording for how closely it matches the live performance, you’re an audiophile. I get it. When it comes to orchestra I care about that too, but I care far more about the performance. I want to hear how the very top musicians perform these works. The conductor is but one person. The manager, for sure, but an otherwise much less talented team is not going to perform a miracle. 

Mayor Adam

Sorry, hit the wrong button above.
I am not just an audiophile.  Most of my favorite recordings, of Mahler or any other Composer, would not win audiophile awards.  However, this is an audiophile site, and I would like to get feedback on what people think are the best sounding recordings.  I post in a few Classical Music sites, where audiophiles are routinely ridiculed as we are elsewhere.  So here I would like to indulge my love of sound and not be censored for it.

I think that you are being hard on the Budapest Festival Orchestra.  I am not claiming that it can equal Chicago or Vienna , etc.,for lung power, and I thought I made that pretty clear.  What they have done, however, remarkably well, is create a MittelEuropa type of sound, that may have been what the finest Orchestras that weren’t Berlin or Vienna may  have sounded like in Mahler’s day (and let’s not forget that GM worked quite a bit in the Hungarian Capital).
  If you wish to limit your listening to “how the very  top Orchestras perform these works” be my guest.  To imply that the Budapest is some kind of semi pro outfit that is out of their depth, however, is engaging in hyperbole.  I agree that the Fisher /Budapest Ninth isn’t competitive, as a performance with the very best, nor have I heard any Mahler recording by them that displaces any of my favorites.
This isn’t because the Budapest cycle is bad, but because the bar is so incredibly high.  Look how many Mahler recordings are out there!  Most of the greatest Conductors of the last 50 years are represented, along with quite a few “Who?”  What the Channel Classic recordings, are, however, are the most realistic reproduction of how the actual Orchestra sounds that I am personally familiar with.  They represent a fine Orchestra faithfully reproduced.  The performances are at worst passable.