High quality CDs

The CD Red Book sampling rates simply aren't high enough. The standard was fixed in 1983 to be the bits that would give 80 minutes of programme and fit on a 5 inch disc at that time.  Since then storage capacity has increased exponentially.  CD should be abandoned.

Anyway no digital system can eliminate dither and clock error.

Get a record player.

@retiredfarmer  Don't agree about Chesky CDs.  I bought one (classical, can't remember what it was, I played it once and didn't get to the end) when the company was young (?30 years ago) and it sounded so bad I never bought another.  Far worse than CD, even then.

OP

Regarding “so many choices”…the Classical Market used to be dominated by 3 or 4 “Major” labels—Columbia, RCA, EMI, DG,Phillips and Mercury-and their dominance was gradually broken up by budget and independent labels.  The CD era really facilitated the growth (and now streaming) of these labels so now they now dominate the Classical Market.  Many of them place a much greater priority on SQ than pop labels, because the goal is to capture the sound of a live ensemble, not some end product created at a mixing console.

  Another trend is to use concert performances for recordings, as this reduces studio costs.  This presents more of a challenge to record accurately, but the performances tend to be more exciting.  It may be worth sacrificing a bit of sonic accuracy for extra performing juice.

@clearthinker  what was your cd player at the time? 

@retiredfarmer 

On the face of it, a pertinent question but remember I said the Chesky disc was far worse than other CDs.  So you can deduce the player paid other CDs satisfactorily.

To answer your question the player was a Wada 16, an expensive leading high-end CD player at the time.  CDs did play much better on it than on cheapo Japanese tin boxes.  The Wadia was my first CD player.  I have only had one other, an Audio Research CD9.  It is a good bit better than the Wadia.

Reference Recordings ...

https://referencerecordings.com/

try ...

https://referencerecordings.com/recording/bernstein-candide-suite/

Anything on LINN ...

https://www.linnrecords.com/

especially any of the Kuniko marimba recordings ...

https://www.linnrecords.com/artist-kuniko