I have a pretty narrow view on what constitutes audiophile recordings. And no, a recording does not have to on an audiophile label to quality as an audiophile recording. In fact, there are a couple of budget labels, with some audiophile level recordings.
For me, not only does a recording have to have: great dynamics, full frequency spectrum, very low distortion, detail, timbral accuracy, but, it also has to have a naturally recorded soundstage and image.
What I mean by a naturally recorded soundstage and image, is: where all the musicians are playing at the same time, in the same acoustic space, where the recording engineer takes great effort to capture the spatial cues, the natural ambience, and the musicians locations within the acoustic space. Usually this entails using a Decca Tree, Blumlein Pair, AB, or similar microphone setup.
As opposed to the vast majority of studio recordings, where each musician is recorded separately from the other musicians with a mono mic, and their position within whatever soundstage exists, is created by: panning, using delays, phasing, etc, etc.
The end results of the former are, for example, when a musician sounds like they are coming from the far left, 10 feet back in the soundstage, it is because that is actually where they were playing when the recording was made. Not because some engineer panned them to the far left, and added the right amount of delay to make it sound as if that is where they were.
Of course, the vast majority of these types of recordings are classical and acoustic jazz.
So, even though I listen to a lot of studio recorded rock and jazz-fusion albums, and even though many have: great dynamics, full frequency spectrum, very low distortion, detail, timbral accuracy, without that naturally recorded soundstage and image, they don't qualify, for me, as audiophile recordings. Great recordings yes, audiophile no.
I am a big Pierre Moerlen fan, but, by my criteria, the album in the OP, although it is a great sounding recording for sure, does not qualify as an audiophile recording for me. Same with the Steve Wilson mix of Thick as a Brick.
The following album, for me, qualifies as an audiophile recording. It is on the budget label, Varèse International.
This recording, has a soundstage that extends past the outside edges of the speakers, and loads of depth. And each musician is well defined within the soundstage, and I can 'hear the walls' of the acoustic space. It is quite easy to hear, that the soundstage is a reproduction of the actual music event, and not one created in the studio.
Musically, it is late 20th century classical music, and pretty angular and thorny sounding, so YMMV.
