My 2 cents ... downloads from Sound Liaison are excellent across the board, but unfortunately there isn't much to choose from. HD Tracks has the best selection, but I've found sound quality to be hit or miss. More recently, I've become a fan of Blue Coast. With the purchases I've made to date, sound quality has yet to disappoint. Range of selection doesn't compare with HD Tracks nor are the offerings mainstream, but I really like that one can preview most albums/tracks in their entirety and even when a full length preview isn't provided, the sample of a track that can be previewed is of a decent duration.
As for 3 specific recommendations, I recommend the 3 ÂisoMike albums that are available from Blue Coast: Fan-Ya Lin ÂEmergingÂ, The Fry Street Quartet ÂJoseph Haydn String QuartetsÂ, and Joe McQueen ÂTen at 86 (the first two are classical, the third is jazz). Unfortunately, these three albums are only available in DSD, and the list price of $40 per album is ridiculous; however, when Blue Coast runs one of its Âbuy one get one free sales, then the pricing is at least palatable. Of course, if one doesnÂt have a DSD capable DAC, then these particular albums may not be the best choices although DSD file formats can be converted to hi-rez PCM file formats via software such as JRiver.
As for 3 specific recommendations, I recommend the 3 ÂisoMike albums that are available from Blue Coast: Fan-Ya Lin ÂEmergingÂ, The Fry Street Quartet ÂJoseph Haydn String QuartetsÂ, and Joe McQueen ÂTen at 86 (the first two are classical, the third is jazz). Unfortunately, these three albums are only available in DSD, and the list price of $40 per album is ridiculous; however, when Blue Coast runs one of its Âbuy one get one free sales, then the pricing is at least palatable. Of course, if one doesnÂt have a DSD capable DAC, then these particular albums may not be the best choices although DSD file formats can be converted to hi-rez PCM file formats via software such as JRiver.