No aesthetic conservatism implied here. Plenty of great music in all decades (and now). But I'm not sure the 80s and 90s were, overall, great for recording quality. Digital recording still very digital, with exceptions, naturally.
Personally, I’d say the last ten or fifteen years or so. Or maybe we are both right, I haven’t listened to many recordings from the seventies or earlier, and I agree that the 80s and 90s were not that good. But while there are very bad recordings, too, today, many are of decent quality, especially if they were produced for a Hi-Res release (but there are some that are bad and Hi-Res, too, of course).
The golden age of the piano was the 1930s; of jazz, the 20's & 30's. One needs to know whose transfers to buy. For piano, (& other classical), the best engineer is Ward Marston; Mark Obert-Thorn is very good. For jazz, the JSP label. For later classical, Decca ~1958–1969. Then, RCA ~1955–1966. I like Columbia ~1959/1963–1972 too. Others praise Mercury ~1957–1964. It's not to my taste: kinda dry. But it *is* precise.
@dubharmonic In every period of the history of recording, there are excellent boutique labels. Occasionally, a talented engineer does fine work at one of the big labels. E.g. of each: The Bis label does record a little better than Decca ~1958–1969. Riccardo Chailly's Brahms on Decca (2012–2013) too. But these are exceptions. Our is not a golden age.
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