The best labels for the best sound in classical music

[CatManDo]

The most impressive recordings I've heard are from Reference Recordings.

 

Impressive maybe, but like Telarc they have a tendency to produce a sound that appeals to audiophile tastes, i.e. they often have such a powerful bass that seems unrealistic to me. I like those recordings, but I don't see them as a true reflection of the sound you can hear live.

 

I think the level of recording quality in classical labels is generally very high today. The most important limitation comes from the fact that recordings are now often done live, which requires a more close-up recording to reduce audience noise. Many productions by top stars on big labels (Rattle on EMI/Warner, Grimaud or Mutter on DG, and many more) sound average for that reason.

 

On the other hand, I found Pentatone, BIS and Channel to produce the most consistent high quality sound. But there are many other small labels with state of the art sound, and none really stands out.

 

Some people focus on the recording format (PCM or DSD), but IMHO this is just a detail that hardly affects the end result. Until only a few years years ago, BIS recorded in 24/44 PCM, while 24/96 was already the standard. The sa-cd.net forum had a big BIS fanbase (BIS owner Robert von Bahr posted there), and many people where shocked when they heard about this, but funnily nobody ever complained about "low-rez PCM sound" on BIS SACDs recorded in 24/44, while many say CDs are generally unlistenable because of the 16/44 limitations.

[CatManDo]

I'm pretty sure that CatManDo was not comparing live music to HiFi, but rather live recorded music to studio music, such as the LSO Live label.

 

No, I was comparing the recorded sound with sound that I'm used to hearing live (in other orchestra halls of course).

 

Many Telarc and Reference Recordings albums I have heard have a powerful bass sound that I've never heard live, and rarely on recordings by "non-audiophile" labels. I think that this is deliberate, because the target audience of these labels (hifi fans) likes that "wall-shaking" sound.

 

I enjoy those recordings, but they are a bit artificial, like silicone breasts