Start off with old recordings (relatively so, that is) of 'old faithful' pieces. Don't buy new releases (yet). You're building up a library, so get the classic versions of the classic pieces. Recordings as far back as the 60s (and even before) can sound great, and some of these performances are the 'standards'.
You can get good box sets for very little money, and these are often excellent recordings. I recently got Tennstedt's Mahler symphonies (11 discs for £25), and both performance and sound quality are superb. This makes it quick to get a library. The magazines (and websites) are geared to getting you to buy new releases - they need advertising. Rarely are these really worth the £15 each, IMO - although I do subscribe to Gramophone. The Penguin (and Gramophone) CD guide books are good in helping you to decide what *music* should be in your library (they have decent guides for this), and what the 'classic' recordings are, and so are worth having. I found Penguin the best, but it's hard to get now I think. Once you have a decent starter library (£200 will get you a fair way, I reckon, but opera tends to be more expensive), you'll be able to justify starting to get alternative versions of your favourite pieces. Then you'll start subscribing to Gramophone, complaining about the kids of today and their PM3 players, and you'll be lost :) Adam -- adamslim SB3 into Derek Shek d2, Shanling CDT-100, Rotel RT-990BX, Esoteric Audio Research 859, Living Voice Auditorium IIs, Nordost and Anti-cables http://www.last.fm/user/AdamSlim/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------ adamslim's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=7355 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=33496
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