You should read Robert Harley's excelent article on this in the July/August issue of The Absolute Sound.
Like Harley, I agreee the mastering is typically much more important than the medium. I have about 2000 Jazz LP's, mostly from the 50's to 60's.
A great number of these are LP's that never got reissued or only got poorly mastered reissues as Harley describes. The record industry keeps reissuing the same couple hundred "Jazz Classics" in ever "better" reissues. Most of these are, actually, very good. But if you ever want to go much beyond Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue", and the other "jazz classics", vinyl is essential.
P.S. As to noise or pops and clicks on vinyl. I find it unacceptable. 85% of my LP's have no significant noise beyond MAYBE a few light clicks per side on the begining deadwax - and most are 50+ yrs old. The other 15% are either in remediation or on their way out. The way you do this is 1) insist on NM vinyl and send it back if it isn't 2) a very rigorous cleaning process (I clean mine on a Loricraft every time I play and they improve over time) 3) a very good TT - I have a Transrotor Fat Bob with ZYX Airy3 cart and Graham Phantom arm - the TT is the most important for noise. Of course you also have to realize that you can pay 100's to over a thousand dollars for a NM version of an earlier (forget original) edition of a Classic Blue Note while an excellent RVG remaster might be $25. That's why I also have a few thousand Jazz CD's.
Sorry, but there is no perfect answer here. Those who claim "Vinyl rules!" or "CD's are superior because vinyl = pops and clicks" are uninformed.
Like Harley, I agreee the mastering is typically much more important than the medium. I have about 2000 Jazz LP's, mostly from the 50's to 60's.
A great number of these are LP's that never got reissued or only got poorly mastered reissues as Harley describes. The record industry keeps reissuing the same couple hundred "Jazz Classics" in ever "better" reissues. Most of these are, actually, very good. But if you ever want to go much beyond Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue", and the other "jazz classics", vinyl is essential.
P.S. As to noise or pops and clicks on vinyl. I find it unacceptable. 85% of my LP's have no significant noise beyond MAYBE a few light clicks per side on the begining deadwax - and most are 50+ yrs old. The other 15% are either in remediation or on their way out. The way you do this is 1) insist on NM vinyl and send it back if it isn't 2) a very rigorous cleaning process (I clean mine on a Loricraft every time I play and they improve over time) 3) a very good TT - I have a Transrotor Fat Bob with ZYX Airy3 cart and Graham Phantom arm - the TT is the most important for noise. Of course you also have to realize that you can pay 100's to over a thousand dollars for a NM version of an earlier (forget original) edition of a Classic Blue Note while an excellent RVG remaster might be $25. That's why I also have a few thousand Jazz CD's.
Sorry, but there is no perfect answer here. Those who claim "Vinyl rules!" or "CD's are superior because vinyl = pops and clicks" are uninformed.