I joined Audible a few years back and although most narrators are OK, I noticed very quickly how a bad narrator could ruin an audio book. I started paying attention to who the narrator was, and Ray Porter immediately stood out as one of the best. Someone else must have noticed too, because he's narrated a surprising number of the books I've read so far.
I've been listening to the Aubrey / Maturin book series by Patrick O'Brian, narrated by Patrick Tull. To my untrained ear he seems to do a good job with the various UK accents of the different characters, as well as various other Europeans.
My favorite narrators (that I follow more than authors them selves):
- Ray Porter
- Jeff Gurner
- Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Carl Prekopp
Plex (media server) and Prologue (audio book front end) on iOS is a magical combo.