There are huge numbers of CDs of old 78s now available!  Companies such
as EMI or BMG reissue material their constituent companies originally
recorded, while the smaller companies trawl all the available material.

Labels such as ASV in England have specialised in reissues for many
years, and have a fine selection of both American and British
mainstream popular material (search amazon.com for 'ASV Living Era').

Another company that has a large catalogue of old stuff is Pearl /
Flapper.  Their catalogue seems to be of groupings such as complete
recordings by artists, covering more obscure stuff than ASV.  They have
issued a series of great CDs of syncopated / novelty piano, many of the
artists being familiar ones to piano roll collectors (search for
'Keyboard Wizards of the Gershwin Era').

If you want Jazz, then 'Jazz Classics' now run to some hundreds of
CDs, all of them chronological reissues of artists or bands.  Their
transfers are not always the best, but the material is superb.

If you want seriously obscure stuff, then there are specialist labels
for that as well!  I recently got a CD of Len Fowler 78s; his piano
rolls are great, and I wanted to hear how he sounded on disc.  That was
an Austrian label (I'll dig out details if anyone wants).  They also do
a CD of Jimmy Blythe.  Liner notes by Mike Montgomery, so really they
are a must for jazz piano roll fans!

The thing to be aware of is the quality of the transfers.  It's an
art, and someone like John R.T. Davis or Robert Parker will achieve far
better results than domestic efforts, even if they use the same
equipment.  Robert Parker's artificial-stereo products may offend the
purists, but they sound great.

Searching the web just now, I came across a company called Venerable
Music ( http://www.venerablemusic.com/ ) who have a great list of old
stuff for sale.  Seems to have lots of useful links as well.  How can
you turn down a company that says it is "Dedicated To Promoting and
Preserving All Kinds Of Traditional Recorded Works Of The 78rpm Era !"

Julian Dyer