Hey all,
 
It's becoming increasingly difficult for me to listen to commercial mixes without cringing...much less seeing their waveforms.  They're just grating.  I've been trying to implement the K System recently, and at the moment, I'm using some tracks from Aaron Neville "Warm Your Heart" from 1991 as a goal that I've been importing into projects.  A little before the loudness wars went insane, it's quiet by today's commercial standards, but happily, I find that I'm using only about 1-2 dB occasional limiting on the master bus, and very little to no track compression on my latest effort, which I think is a great thing.  The goal is that the mix should be right and that "mastering" should not have to rescue anything too much.  The most difficult thing however, is to remind your ears that louder is not better.
 
Donny

You could do a lot worse than taking a walk down Bob Katz's honor roll of dynamic recordings....there's plenty of GREAT mixes/masters here. 
 
http://www.digido.com/honor-roll.html?option=com_content&Itemid=54&id=46&lang=en&view=article&fontstyle=f-larger

There are two different things going on here, great mixes and great mastering. Don't confuse the two. Firstly with great mixes that will always be an inspiration and one should listen to great mixes. It will make you mix better and it gives you something to strive for yourself. (Steely Dan = Great Mixes)
 
Using the K system is separate to mastering. You can use the K system right through a project right up to the final pre mastered mix. eg I might be using a K-14 reference so my tracks and buses and final stereo master are up at K-14. Great.
 
Mastering however is a different story. I then take my K-14 master and push it up through mastering to a higher average rms value eg K-7 for example which is what I know I can get to easily without smashing the master and still sounding great and that is where a lot of commercial CD's seem to be at. This is where a decent limiter comes in and something like the PSP Xenon can do just that. It is still possible to have a loud master and still have nice transients. For example I have been listening to Michael Jackson's 'Dangerous' album in my car. That is LOUD  but yet it is still snappy and very transient. It can be done. (BTW the vocals are mixed too low on that album, period! What was he thinking! It sounds stupid. They obviously must have been going through a lets bury the vocals down in the music phase but there are some killer grooves in there though)
 
Yes it would be nice to just leave the final master alone eg K-14 and stop right there. People would have turn up their Hi Fi's loud in order to hear a loud mix which is obviously the better way to go. So it is at this point that the K system actually steps out of the equation and you either just leave it at K-14 and be done with it or gradually raise that level and then by how much. 
 
Just out of interest the Steel Dan's CD 'Everything Must Go' is sitting at around K-12 which is rather nice and a refreshing change. They obviously decided not to push it too far.

an extraordinarily good mix:
 
Brand X, "Masques"
 
with a DR of somewhere between 12 and 17, it's super clear, sounds great

doncolga
It's becoming increasingly difficult for me to listen to commercial mixes without cringing...much less seeing their waveforms.  They're just grating.

 
I agree.  Looking at waveforms of some classic stuff, it seems that maxed-out saturation was something only used sparingly and in short sections of a song, maybe on the first bar of a verse or chorus or during a transition.  The result was far more effective than routinely using it all the way through the song.

Donny, perhaps you'd get more relevant suggestions if you gave some examples of the genre and style you'd like to emulate . A "good" mix for a contemporary country song would probably not be appropriate for a trad jazz recording.
 
That said, you can often glean tips from genres outside your own comfort zone. One of my references is "The Nightfly" by Donald Fagan. I really don't care for it musically, but it's one of the best-recorded and best-mixed records ever. Same with the 90's-era Steely Dan records; not something I think of putting on for pleasure listening, but a great technical reference to aspire to. 
 
Avoid greatest-hits collections, as they're usually remastered for the compilation so that recordings from different eras will be out at comparable volume levels. For mix references, records with gentle mastering are preferred because you're interested in the mix, not the mastering. Lyle Lovett and His Large Band is a record with essentially no mastering at all, and the sound quality and dynamics are astoundingly good. 
 
Avoid remastered versions in general. George Harrison's All Things Must Pass was an extraordinary record for its time - a little noisy like most things from that era, but the mix was excellent. Unfortunately, if you buy it on CD today you'll probably be getting the remastered version, which is severely overcompressed and harsh-sounding. Makes me ill.
 
IMO the best references tend to be from the 90's. 

You can't really go wrong listening to anything recorded by Al Schmitt. I'm kind of obsessed with that guy. He's a breed of engineer we'll likely never see again - I hope his friends and colleagues hassle him daily to publish books and videos of his techniques and thought patterns, otherwise the world will lose all of that knowledge and experience when he leaves us. Anyway, listen to Al's work - his work with Diana Krall, Natalie Cole, Ray Charles - hell, his work with anyone - is outstanding!

Thanks for the responses guys.  Regarding Nightfly, I had a CD of that ordered from Half.com, but it ended up being out of stock...I need to place that again.  I picked up some other things from Bob Katz Honor Roll...Bonnie Rait, Sting.  I like things that lean to the electronic side, but also like the sound of Sara McLachlan, Aaron Neville, Steely Dan, Keb Mo.  I was listening to Donald Fagen at work the other day on Spotify...just amazing.

Donald Fagen's latest album is very tasty mix-wise. Was just listening to Miss Marlene...such a balanced frequencies and everything sits so perfectly in the mix. The mid range is beautiful and the kick is just about perfect. 
 
Steely Dan's "Janie Runaway" really impresses me as well. The bottom end is perfect. The whole mix is ear candy. 

jamescollins
You can't really go wrong listening to anything recorded by Al Schmitt.

+1 to that! Unfortunately, most of us here would have a hard time relating to Mr. Schmitt's way of doing things. We can't imagine not putting a compressor or EQ on a vocal, for example. Mainly because we're not recording Diana Krall.