Where I've been loyal to a label it has been because many labels tended
to have a "house sound" in their approach to recording, particularly in
the analog/LP era.  Thus I was particularly loyal to Decca/London & EMI
(but NOT Angel!), with their generally natural sounding, wide range
recordings engineered by the likes of Christopher Parker & Kenneth
Wilkinson.  From Lyrita whom I would buy most anything (I still have 6
or 7 LPs to track down).

Odd that Barrett would pledge his loyalty to DG, which in the bad old
days of the 60s & 70s was to be avoided like the plague for their glassy
and bass-less sound (ditto for Columbia & RCA Dynagroove).  DG had a
certain undeserved "quality" cachet, based on the fact that they were
good at PRESSING records (fewer ticks, pops & warps), never mind that
they sounded ghastly.  The general quality of recording has improved
drastically in the past decade-and-a-half or so, not thanks to digital/CD,
but to the persistent nagging of the audiophile press and the gradual
infiltration of audiophile-savvy engineers into the recording business.
Remastering has at least in part salvaged some of the sonic dogs from
DG and the other offenders, but I would still approach reissues like
DG's Original Masters (or whatever it is they call them) with caution.
When Decca tried the same thing several years ago many of the CDs sounded
worse than the original LPs.

Of today's labels, I'd cast my loyalty vote for Hyperion, not just
for high sound quality, but for their independence, top rank artists,
willingness to take chances on oddball repertoire, and thus far unswerving
commitment to big projects like Romantic Piano Concerto, and the Liszt
& Schubert cycles.

Art Scott
Livermore, Cal.