As a semi-professional musician and have been trained for 80% of my life for music, I can say that the Cleveland Orchestra IS indeed on top of my ranking list. I have also lived in Chicago for a few years and I couldnt really tell a BIG difference between the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra.
I think given the location, it is very impressive that this orchestra is so successful right now. The music hall is just breathtakingly beautiful. I have been to 10+ concerts so far and there was no single concert that has let me down. One time, they had a jazz music event, called martini or something. It was one of the greatest experiences that I had with the fusion of classical and jazz music. Multiple music stars like Yoyo Ma and Joshua Bell have come to cleveland for performance as well. The players do rotate from time to time and yes minor errors are unavoidable but they are very minimal that I would not really frown on that.
If you are a student, they have a student fan card, which you can get for only $50 for a whole year's concert, except special events. If you catch the sale season, which is usually the first month of September or something, you only need to pay $25 for the same card. You do need to go get the student ticket at least 1 hour before the concert. I usually go a day or two before the concert.
Parking is a pain in the butt. The garage parking used to be $10 and now it's $11. Street parking is almost never available, unless you are willing to park somewhere that's 10 min away or get there 2 hours early.