What CD has the best production/sound?

Here's another vote for "Songs of a Circling Spirit". Joni Mitchell's "Court and Spark" sounds fantastic, and is regarded by recording engineers as an examplar of the art, or so I'm told. Every re-mastered release I've heard is very good, on the other hand. All of the remastered Steely Dan works are quite enjoyable. If you remember Cat Stevens the first time around, the recently released disk of remastered hits will melt your soul. Or try the remastered releases of the first half-dozen or so of Elton John. I agree with a previous poster who commented that jazz and blues are often well-recorded (thanks to care taken by engineers and producers who know and love music). Here's a rule of thumb: if it's aimed at the popular mass market and in current release, it's probably not very good.The reason: excessive use of compression to make it sound good on a boombox or car radio. Go play "Supernatural" on your computer's CD-ROM drive and with crappy little plastic box speakers, and then go play it on a high-end system, and see if it doesn't sound better on the computer. On a high end system, the "wall of sound" of near-constant amplitude lacks dynamics and is relentlessly in your face.

If you're trying to get people's attention it's hard to go wrong with Holly Cole's 'Temptation' CD. The combination of the Tom Waits songs, her voice, the spooky, wonderful arrangements and superb production is amazing.

where do buy all these cds?

Kelleyann Try CDUniverse; CompactDisc Connection; and Music Direct, don't have the web addresses off hand but you should find most of what you see here on those sites.

For stringed acoustic, David Grisman, mandolinist, does a careful job on his Acoustic Disc label. "I'm Beginning To See The Light" by Martin Taylor (guitar) - David Grisman Acoustic Jazz Quartet would be a good example. Great playing, and swings... overall a little too tasteful and mainstream to be favorite music for me, but still a great listen, and in terms of showing off your system, the relaxed nature of the music makes it easy to listen for the many nuances of the playing and the sound. ..... How about piano? What do people like as a test of fidelity to the piano's sound, whether solo or not, classical or not?