[danieln]

To make a long story short, I am not satisfied with the sound engineering quality put into most CDs sold at Best Buy or Columbia House... And I don't mean CDs with Elvis...

The first truly Hi-Fi components/recording equipment appeared in the 70s (?), DAT appeared in the 80s (?), and even today more than half of CDs available sound like crap... very frustrating.

I did a search and I found many references to Chesky recordings. Went to their site, but and their selection is pretty limited. Is there any place that sells well-recorded CDs (all kinds of music)?

 

[BenG]

For jazz and classical reissues, JVC XRCD gets my vote - but too expensive.
www.xrcd.com

DCC & Mobile Fidelity were re-issuers of classic rock, soul, pop, and jazz. Mofi went out of business but was recently resurected, while DCC just recently did go out of business. Classic Records is another good re-issuer.

Af for new issues, Mapleshade Recordings get's my vote. Mostly jazz but the performance can vary in quality. They sell a sampler for $7.50.
www.mapleshaderecords.com

Telarc is another good label for new issues. But the performances are not always that hot either.

ECM is a small independant label that puts out some jazz, classical, and world recordings that can be both creatively excellent and sonically pleasing.
www.ecmrecords.com

Retail outlets like Music Drect, Acoustic Sounds, and Red Trumpet pretty much specialize in high quality recordings. Even places like Amazon or CDNOW should carry alot of this stuff and much more(the major labels can still put out some sonically excellent records, especially jazz and classical). You'd be limiting yourself by going with Columbia House & Best Buy titles, although the prices there are great.

Hope that helps.

 

[legoman]

Chesky records

 

[KR...]

Telrac is also a great audiophile label.

As far as retail places goes, besides those listed, also check out http://www.redtrumpet.com/

 

[danieln]

Thanks everybody.

I have Telarc CD-80288, Angel Romero plays Bach (guitar) and it is indeed among the clean sounding ones.

I am only looking for consistency, since you cannot return a CD after opening it... Well, I cannot guess how it sounds by looking at it... A bit of a dilema here.

 

[Dusty Chalk]

Arts Music out of Germany (contact)

Classic Records

 

[gaineso]

Acoustic Sounds also has Blue Heaven Studios where they record a lot of Blues/Jazz and have all types of format. CD, SACD, and LP

www.acousticsounds.com

Mapleshade also has Wild Child. They have some variety, and do a lot of recording in an old plantation mansion.

www.mapleshaderecords.com

I have bought from Acoustic Sounds, but not from Mapleshade.

It is unfortunate that there is so much poorly recorded, poorly engineered, poorly mastered crap out there. It really is hard to know what to buy. I used to like to buy MoFi stuff, and I bought a lot both gold CD and LP. At least you knew the mastering and pressing would be perfect.

Just keep looking.

 

[uvak]

My favourites are OPUS 3 (Sweden) and Fim (Japan). Their recordings are superb.

To have a better idea on what are the so-called audiophile CDs, follow the link (Sorry, it is in Sweden ... but I think you will manage).

http://www.klubben.net/