What CD sound is the best?

For the Moody Blues album it is hard to go past the Mobile Fidelity - MFSL UDCD 576 UDII. But I also like the Deram PolyGram MCPS 820 168-2 made in West Germany. Both are miles ahead of the remaster, in my opinion; and ahead of the SACD, which is not that flash.

For the King Crimson, my best is on E'G Records Virgin EGCD 1 (jem Records) made in the USA. As others have mentioned, this is not a stellar sounding album.

Regards,

Thanks Mapman, you answered my question. Specifically in regard to clipping.

RE: In Search of the Lost Chord"
The song "The best way to travel" (I think it's this one)
This song has one of the highest notes I've ever heard on a recording. There is a passage where the instruments back down and some sort of extremly high pitched sound goes between the right and left speaker. Back and forth a couple times. My old hammered LP plays this sound supperbly. I used blow the tweeters on my Pioneer CX80's once a year on that passage. So much so, Pioneer ran out of spares.
Anyway, you know you have a great copy if this passage is extremely clear with no reverbrating except in your ears. We atre talking high pitched!
Good luck, John

Gave a quick listen to part of ITCOTCK last night just to refresh my memory regarding sound quality and to compare to other recordings for overall quality.

I think it is This One.

I listen to everything these days from lossless file (.wav in this case) ripped to music server, not the CD live.

I would say the recording quality is very good to excellent and not overly loud or artificially compressed at all.

Caveat is that I detect a lot of variation in sound quality from recording element to recording element within the mix. The best elements are very good, some are not as dynamic or detailed as one might like.

So I think this is a very good quality recording overall, but there are sonic flaws in specific elements that went into the mix for whatever reason. The good news is that you can hear the really good (which is most of the CD) and the sonically flawed mix elements quite clearly. That's a sign that this product in particular is of very good quality, even if some of the musical elements that went into it in teh recording studio originally had flaws.

Note that the flaws are more just imperfections, nothing horrible. IT actually adds a certain "earthy" element to the proceedings, rather than the whole production shining clearly from start to finish.

All in all, this particular product is a huge success, 8 out of 10 stars minimum overall I would say, probably more.

Just listen to the closing mellotron passage of Epitaph. The mellotron was a analog keyboard that predated synthesizers that used tape loops to produce sounds. MEllotrons are revered almost as much for their quirkiness and difficultly to maintain as they are for teh lovely sounds they can produce. The details of that quirkiness are on display in this recording. Were they intentional given the overall nature of this beast, or just quirky artifacts that happened? Listen and hear and decide for yourself.

THe music in ITCOTCK speaks for itself in this release. That's all that is really needed, but yes, audiphiles will find much to enjoy in hear. It is after all in teh minds of many the first and still maybe the absolute quintessential progressive rock release of all time.