I'm a Wagner buff, not quite the fanatic that Andy Quint is. Been to four Rings in my life, and I think I have about 25 Rings in a combination of vinyl, tape, CD, DVD and blu-ray. I would agree that the Solti is the best studio Ring ever done. As Fitzcaraldo mentioned, some of the cast were getting a little old - with the great Kirsten Flagstad singing Fricka instead of Brunnhilde, and both Hotter and Windgassen past their prime. My favorite two Rings come from the early to mid '50's recorded at Bayreuth. My favorite, despite sonics, is the Clemens Krauss 1953 Bayreuth Ring, and a close second is another Decca recording but never issued by them (rights issues complicated by EMI's Walter Legge) - Keilberth 1955 Ring (with the wonderful and underrated Astrid Varney singing Brunnhilde) which came out on Testament, in stereo a few years ago. I have those two both in vinyl. Sonics are quite amazing for such an early stereo recording. Roy Wallace, who designed the original Decca tree was the stereo engineer, while the great "Wilkie" Wilkinson was the mono engineer.
Many consider the 1950's as the true Golden Era of Wagnerian singers, although the '30's, with Melchior and Leider were right up there. Unfortunately at that time, there were only 78's, not the way to listen to Wagner.
I have the Solti Ring in original Decca vinyl pressings (including both the original Rheingold SXL-2101-3 and the later remastering SET382-4 from the late '60's). I also have the complete London issues of Reel to Reel 4tr/7.5ips Solti Ring. Producer John Culshaw's "The Ring Resounding" tells the story of the ups and downs of this mammoth project and is a very good read. I quote from him in my Decca book.
If you want to understand the Ring at a deep psychological level, I really like Robert Donington's "Wagner's 'Ring' and its Symbols", a Jungian analysis of the Ring. Bernard Shaw's "The Perfect Wagnerite" takes the Ring as a social class struggle, and is a fun, breezy, book. The centennial Ring, directed by Patrice Chereau and conducted by Boulez is based on that class struggle conception of the Ring. It now gets raves for conception and musicality, although it was very radical at the time.
Famously Mark Twain said "Wagner's Music is better than it sounds."
Larry