I like Bach's Magnificat, maybe doesn't apply to your search, but I like it.
My binder has Magnificat in the chant mode VIII/G on the front, nice with the red staff lines. That;s gotta be my second fave.

Hmmmmm, tough one. If I have to choose just one I'd say it's the Antoine Busnoys in sexti toni. This is the only reference I have for it right now. Once I have a score I'll make a performance edition.
http://www.amazon.com/Musical-Book-Hours-Pomerium/dp/B0018OC3PM/

This is a fun one to sing.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FShw3LWMKSQ

Well, if it's about tasting, there is a Magnificat Port that is quite lovely and satisfying.
I think maybe someone amongus (that was on purpose) should taste Mormon composer Mack Wilberg's setting, just for the novelty.

Latin? or English?

CH, imo, the English sounds just a bit silly while the Latin is grand. But if it's music, who cares? Paix, Paart doesn't do it for me, particularly, though some of his music, like Fratres, for example, is marvelous.

William, I take it that you have not heard some of the great Anglican Magnificats ("My soul doth magnify the Lord") ... such as the Byrd from his "Great Service" (which is a gem). When I sang with Zephyrus in Virginia, we sang the Magnificat and Nunc Dimittis from the Great Service frequently at Choral Evensong or concerts, including a concert in which we sang the entire Great Service.

There are also excellent more modern settings of the same text ... for instance, by Andrew Carter (octatonic, no less).

P.S. Some of us actually came to the Catholic Church via the Anglican church and gladly identify with the Anglican Ordinariate. So "My soul doth magnify" is not at all out of place in our musical heritage.

Chuck, I've heard many, too many English versions. The English word "magnify" is part of what I perceive as the silliness in English, and despite it being the Episcoplian/Anglican theme song: is Mary's soul some sort of lens to make the Lord look bigger? But in Latin, Magnificat (It upholds, glorifies, show true color of, praises, worships:verb), anima mea, (my soul: subject), Dominum (the Lord: object). I also appreciate, perhaps wrongly, the questionable Latin pun (I know, the ablative or instrumental case would be a different ending for Dominus), since after all Mary is being told she is pregnant, "it greatens". Most English settings I know just ratttle right through all this in a rush to the end (my Latin setting, on the other hand, dwells for five minutes on these combined thoughts ...) .

Here's a Byrd, complete with flapping wings by the conductor,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V-dAnzc0ODA Do I love it? Nope.

Laugh at the arm-waving or wing-flapping, if you will. The music, however, is superb (although I've heard and sung better performances).

Phil,
Take the time to "hear" lots of William Byrd, start with his Ave Verum Corpus, Mass for Four Voices, Mass for Five Voices.
Major, huge genius in the RCC musical pantheon.

Byrd? Never heard before. Do not like, I think the composer has never heard music.

WHAT?!?!?!?!?!!!!!!??!?!?!?!!??!?!!?!?!??????!!!!!!!!

How can you think "magnify" sounds weird in English, but not think "Magnificat" sounds weird in Latin? THEY ARE THE SAME WORD AND MEAN THE SAME THING.

I think this is true. Luke's word Μεγαλύνει sounds somehow "greater" than either word, and additionally conveys a divine subtext meaning in that Mary becomes "great" with Child. That her spirit rejoices ἠγαλλίασεν τὸ πνεῦμά is like saying she's about to burst with explosive exuberance in the Greek, as if she is about to burst into song at the top of her lungs. Yes that sounds like rejoicing, but the spirit is also the breath in Greek. So I think more meanings and poetical values were lost in the first translation than going from Latin to English.