"Must-have" SACDs Out There

I'll add Alison Krauss and Jacintha. Also Beck (sea change).

Dave

If you like classical music and Mahler, the San Francisco Symphony Mahler cycle (Symphonies 1, 3,4 and 6 so far) is superb, has plenty of dynamics, bass and emotion. The more recent Telarcs, from the Vaughn-Williams Sea Symphony on (particularly the Jarvi/Cincinnati SO recordings) are all very good recordings and performances. And Allison Krauss/Union Station Live and New Favorite are terrific! Plenty more coming out daily, it seems--just got five new ones in to listen to the next few days. There are clunkers out there, but plenty of good ones, and the new DSD recordings are excellent at showing the potential of the format.

be careful comparing the cd layer of an SACD hybrid disc to the SACD layer. i have found that a 'pure' redbook CD often outplays 'redbook' playback on hybrid SACD's? if this is done with marketing purposes in mind, or just 'sloppy' mastering as seeing the SACD layer to be the method of choice on these discs, i cannot answer, but i've found it interesting comparing redbook CD's to the redbook layer on SACD of the same title. as for must own SACD titles, i would add:

michel camilo's live at the blue note

Here are some of my favors. All of them are great performances and terrific recordings.

All SACDs from First Impression Music (FIM), particularly:
Audiophile Reference IV SACD (if you are going to buy only one from FIM, buy this one)
Autumn In Seattle
River Of Sorrow
Jazz At The Pawnshop

Yo-Yo Ma Solo (Sony)
Ray Brown Super Bass Two (Telarc)
Film Music Of Jerry Goldsmith (Telarc)
Mccoy Tyner Quartet: New York Reunion (Chesky)
Paquito D’Rivera:Tropicana Nights (Chesky)
Mark levinson:Live Recordings Volume 1 (Red Rose)
Chet Baker:Chet (Analogue Productions)
Fitzgerald & Armstrong:Ella & Louis (Universal/Verve)
Hilary Hahn: Bach Violin Concertos (Universal/DG)

Picking up on jh2os's thread, on multichannel disks, is the SACD Stereo mix kind of a minimum requirement that may not get the same level of attention and qualty as in stereo only SACDs? I guess it makes sense that stereo only SACDs would in general be better then the multi/stereo versions. Is the stereo mix different on SACD and redbook or is it just SACD that is different.