what are the "must have" CD's

Me; I think it's more about the music.---but; hey--I'm old and maybe 2/3's of my hearing is gone,huh? So my favs are of stuffs of my youth. Carpenters XRCD has excellent sq. Then on to my most recent purchase: Beatles Remasters. The tone qualities of Paul's bass guitar is what grabbed me first off. It just isn't there on the early recordings, like it is on the remasters.((My nurse tells me it's time for my pablum.))

I like the music and her wit, but her dics are also very well recorded and can thrill from an audiophile standpoint.

Patricia Barber - Cafe Blue, Modern Cool, and Companion.

Willy Porter is an under the radar guitar whiz and his Live album has me looking at the sacd switch on my player. One of the best redbook recordings I own.

Have Fun!

It's a bit hard to suggest things without knowing something about the music you enjoy.

There's a raft of female singer/songwriters with excellent recordings - Janis Ian, Melody Gardot, Rickie Lee Jones and so on.

If you like a well recorded R&B sound, a lot of the Taj Mahal records are excellent - check out "Blue Light Boogie" for starters. Etta James also has some recordings that'll knock your socks off. Try "Seven Year Itch" or "Mystery Lady" for starters. Another artist that is a lot of fun is Jimmy Smith, known for the amazing sound he gets from a Hammond B-3 organ. He's been around a long time, but two releases within the past 10 years or so are "Dot Com Blues" and "Angel Eyes".

There's a ton of excellently recorded jazz. I discovered one recently that is a lot of fun to listen to - "Cachaito" by Orland Cachaito Lopez, the legendary Cuban double bass player. (He was also a member of the Buena Vista Social Club group.)

Same with classical - you can run all the way from a beautiful and intimately recorded single instrument (such as Norbert Kraft's classical guitar) to full-tilt orchestral recordings of Mahler.

In short, a little additional detail about the type of music you like will help people get you where you want to go.

Bela Fleck's Flight of the Cosmic Hippo, that'll test your subwoofer.....