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One of my five German Beatles albums. MMT is out of this world....demo quality!

Stereophile Test CD.

Planet Drums, Joe Henry: Shuffletown, and MM&W: Shackman.

On my two-channel system, it is Jerry Gonzalez' Y los Piratas del Flamenco. All the timbres and pacing are natural and as real as I've ever heard.

Folk Singer by Muddy Waters (Mobile Fidelity Gold CD).

Jane's Addiction: Kettle Whistle. The track "Jane Says" has the combo of driving percussion with the steel drums and soaring vocal—it tells you volumes about a system. Good recording quality.

Coldplay: Parachutes

Shelby Lynne's new disc.

I'm going to cheat. Here are three: 1) Wagner: Siegfried Idyll, Conductor Glenn Gould (co-produced with Kevin Doyle). Fabulous, dry, the rosin is as loud as the strings. A wonderful indictment of the modern tendency towards too much reverb (something Gould railed against); ) Star Of Wonder by the San Francisco Choral Artists - Keith O. Johnson. Listen to track two, Rutter's Nativity Carol, and tell me Johnson isn't an artist in his own right. 3) Rickie Lee Jones: Pop Pop, produced by David Was. When the production world was enamored with the AMS reverb sound, Was gave us an artful combination of Rickie, nylon string guitar, and upright bass, sounding uncannily like Rickie, nylon string guitar, and upright bass.

An Accent CD of the Kuijken brothers playing Haydn trios for Flute, Violin and Cello. Real (single point) stereo, lovely music, and tout ensemble!

1812 Overture by the Dallas Symphony, Andrew Litton, conducting. Recorded in Meyerson Hall in Dallas. Nominated for an audio grammy. Best recording I've heard. Gorgeous choir recording to start.

It is all about the music. What is the point of great sounding, musically mediocre releases anyhow?

For me, it's the track "Ball and Chain" on the Cheap Thrills SACD by Big Brother and the Holding Company, with "Combination of the Two" a close second.

The Beatles Collection (LP Box Set) on MFSL); The Police: Reggatta de Blanc, Zenyatta Mondata, Outlandos d'Amour

Jefferson Starship: Red Octopus (Miracles). A close second, The Best of Al Stewart (Year of the Cat).

Paul Simon: Graceland. It's magic. And it's a CD! This proves it's possible. Why do so few discs reach this level of satisfaction?

The Great Jazz Trio: Someday My Prince Will Come

I'm sure that I will not be the only one to nominate Janos Starker's Bach's Solo Cello Suites on LP.

Royal Dan: A Tribute to Steely Dan, find it if you can. All instrumentals, with super clean and crisp guitar work leading the way, and the accompanying instruments extremely detailed and dynamic. Check out Al DiMeola's take on "Aja!"

Jorma Kaukonen: Blue Country Heart (5.1 SACD) I love the sound of sitting in the middle of an acoustic string band in surround sound. Not enough recordings like this. Great players, great sound!

Lew Tabakin: Trackin' (45rpm). An oldie but still a goodie.

Rhythm and Stealth by Leftfield.

Live (Akus SACD)

The Blue Note reissue series mastered by Steve Hoffman are pretty spectacular.

Bert Jansch: Avocet

Holly Cole: Temptation

Without doubt, the best sounding recording in my collection is a brown label A&M British import of Cat Stevens' Tea for the Tillerman. Absolute demo quality.

Jazz at the Pawn Shop (XRCD) and Jacqui Naylor: Live at the Plush Room.

Trinity Sessions by the Cowboy Junkies.

It's an oldie, but Jazz At The Pawnshop is still amazing.