My best sounding CD so far

[Feanor]

And perhaps my best sounding recording, clearly beating most SACDs is ...

John Rutter: Requiem & Five Anthems
Timothy Seelig, conductor with the
Turtle Creek Chorale and Women's Chorus of Dallas
Reference Recordings RR-57CD

RR really lives up to its reputation hear. Fabulous choral recording and ultra deep, ultra clean pipe organ sound.

As for the compositions, though, I really only like 'Requiem' which has some real sensibility and depth. The other pieces are sappy religious stuff, (in a Church of England sort of way), IMO.

[newtrix1]

And perhaps my best sounding recording, clearly beating most SACDs is ...

John Rutter: Requiem & Five Anthems
Timothy Seelig, conductor with the
Turtle Creek Chorale and Women's Chorus of Dallas
Reference Recordings RR-57CD

RR really lives up to its reputation hear. Fabulous choral recording and ultra deep, ultra clean pipe organ sound.

As for the compositions, though, I really only like 'Requiem' which has some real sensibility and depth. The other pieces are sappy religious stuff, (in a Church of England sort of way), IMO.

I own that Requiem title, plus a few other Reference Recordings titles and they do rank as some of the best (if not the best) standard cd's I own (from a sound quality standpoint). RR-70CD Stravinsky by Eiji Oue/Minnesots Orch is another that has some awesome moments but overall ain't my cup of tea. The only hi-res albums I've purchased to date are remasters of older (70's) albums, so it's hard to compare to Ref Recs, but you're right, RR's are closer to hi-res format than to std cd's.
I haven't checked their catalog lately, but I always wished thay would have tried recording some piece of music outside the classical & jazz genres, like rock or pop.

[Feanor]

I own that Requiem title, plus a few other Reference Recordings titles and they do rank as some of the best (if not the best) standard cd's .... The only hi-res albums I've purchased to date are remasters of older (70's) albums, so it's hard to compare to Ref Recs, but you're right, RR's are closer to hi-res format than to std cd's.
...

As ever, IMO, it's the record production and engineering that make the big difference rather than the medium. I own a few DSD remaster from analog tape, (e.g. Charles Mingus: Mingus Ah Uhm), that are great, and a couple that recent, all-DSD efforts that are also excellent, (e.g. Bruckner: Symphony #9/Harnoncourt), that are excellent. So SACD might have the technical edge, but it is minor at most, at least to 60 year old like me who can't hear anything above 10kHz.