I would be interested in seeing your list for the best recordings. From experience changing everything in playback systems, and taking the same SACD from one system to another, I think that after some reasonable level of performance is achieved by your playback equipment and room, the recording itself is the limiting factor. I have some recordings that are just about unlistenable, even though I love the music.
What makes a great recording? It could be the Absolute Sound (sounds like a live performance, somewhere in the concert hall), or it could be the Absolute Experience (a great example of the recording engineers craft). What I would like to avoid is the absolutely disappointing bad sound some major label recordings have.
I would be interested in seeing your list for the best recordings. From experience changing everything in playback systems, and taking the same SACD from one system to another, I think that after some reasonable level of performance is achieved by your playback equipment and room, the recording itself is the limiting factor. I have some recordings that are just about unlistenable, even though I love the music.
What makes a great recording? It could be the Absolute Sound (sounds like a live performance, somewhere in the concert hall), or it could be the Absolute Experience (a great example of the recording engineers craft). What I would like to avoid is the absolutely disappointing bad sound some major label recordings have.