Bristol_Jonesey
I still listen to the earlier recordings by Marillion & mixed by Nick Tauber (Jester Tear & Fugazi) and Chris Kimsey (Childhood & Clutching)
 
But Zappa was/is up there with the very best - boy could he engineer!

Well yes and no. I much prefer the sound of Zappa's early 70's recordings to his later 80's stuff which sounded a little sterile in parts. And let's not forget the disaster of the original CD release of "You Are What You Is," of which I will quote Wikipedia: 
 
"The digital master prepared for both the original Ryko/Zappa release and the later Ryko 1995 release suffered from several severe audio problems that appear to be caused by an overuse of digital techniques like compression and reverb and also contained a shortened version of the track "Dumb All Over," omitting the guitar solo that closed side three of the original LP in favor of an edit to the reprise of the "Dumb All Over" chorus heard at the beginning of side four of the LP. In 1998, the problems of these previous CD issues were fixed in an unannounced reissue, including a near-complete restoration of the guitar solo from "Dumb All Over". A further reissue in 2012 included the full "Dumb All Over" ending and fadeout from side three of the LP, as well as the reprise from the beginning of side four."
 
I had a copy of this CD from the early 90's and it also suffered from constant glitches in one channel of the audio (I believe the right), something which I've heard others confirm. The cymbals also sounded weird and swishy. In fact the high frequencies in that album were a mess. It made your eyes water to listen to on headphones.