What are the best sounding classical CDs

I'm surprised noone mentioned Decca/London label. I have a few of their CDs including some from the Decca Legends series and I though the sound AND the performances were excellent. My system is not expensive but neither is it midfi (Spica, Densen, Monarchy, Rega), and almost all Decca CDs are very enjoyable. To pick one ... Decca Legends "Romantic Russia". recordings from 1966 and 1956 which sound like they were made yesterday.

I guess my name is noome.

I am pretty surprise that there is no advocate of Harmonia Mundi or BIS. For Baroque music, they both make excellent recordings.

Also Deutsche Harmonia Mundi produces some good recordings.

Happy Listening!

Otto

Sorry sugarbrie .. I didn't see your later post.

DG is a strange label. Usually good performances (in my limited-knowledge-opinion), usually bad sound (to my ears, on my system).

The reason I like Decca so much is they seem to get the perfect balance between reproducing the reverb/ringing of a large concert hall, without overdoing it and letting the sound becoming too much of a mush from all the ringing.

DG seems to have very very dead acoustics .. almost like it was recorded in an anechoic chamber. Perhaps that's the German taste ?

I agree with many of the observations regarding DG CDs, but I look at my CD collection, and a fairly high percentage of the recordings are on DG. If you listen to more modern classical music, you will find that there is very often only one recording of a piece, and that it is on the DG label. That said, quite a few of the 20/21 recordings that have come out recently on DG have excellent sound.

Quite a few recent EMI recordings (especially the BSO recordings) have excellent sound, as well.

And, of course, as has been mentioned, anything on Reference Recordings is always top-caliber.