Recommendations for a jazz record which demonstrates vinyl superiority over digital

@herman 

When I re-started down the vinyl path, I took a few records I know very well to my favourite dealer to play on a deck I had previously heard, when it was used as the source for a speaker demonstration evening.  That experience has not put me off.  In simpler words, I liked what I heard.  The dealer now wants a copy of one of my records, so it was a win-win.

Yes, it is hard to do a tangential arm properly, but that just means money has to be spent on precision engineering.  The Holbo happens to be something of a bargain although it is certainly not cheap, at least in my book.

Regardless of what you think of my current (deliberately undisclosed) set-up, I will be taking my new records to play on quite high-end systems. Some for example with the A$300,000 speakers which I listened to a couple of days ago.

I hope this concept has not gone over your head ...

@cundare2 

Thanks for the clarification on the ESL!  As it happens I was looking for a pair of substitute speakers while repairing my Quad 2905 ones.  First thought was KEF LS50 but I saw a video (cannot remember whether it was TAS or Stereophile) where an ESL-2905 owner was impressed by the stand-mount KEF Reference 1, which is almost ten times the price of the LS50.  I bought a pair, and in many ways prefer them to the big Quads.

Harbeth and KEF both came out of BBC engineering (thanks, taxpayers) but KEF concentrates on apparent point-source coincident drivers.

Yep, I now live down-under in Oz, having once been a ten-pound pom!

Ultimately, I want to be able to judge whether it is worth spending any more on my vinyl hardware, or stick with digital.

You can play leapfrog with you vinyl and digital front ends for the rest of your life.  Upgrade your vinyl system and it will outperform your digital.  Then upgrade your digital front end and it will outperform your vinyl rig that you just upgraded, etc., etc.  You get the idea. 

Just figure out what you want to listen to and dump most of the money into one of the two or achieve lesser performance and have both.  If you have unlimited funds, build two state of the art front ends.

If you like records that aren't available in digital formats or if you listen to a lot of albums where the vinyl mastering is much better than the digital versions, then you kind of need a good analog front end.  If neither of those cases apply to you, then it probably doesn't make sense to mess with vinyl unless you just like to learn about and play with TTs, carts., and phonostages (which is a totally valid reason to have a TT in my opinion).

@richardbrand

You may be able to tell that my last response was posted before I’d finished editing. There was a lot more there, which would take me too long to reproduce.

But the gist of it was that you can find outstanding recordings used if you shop by known good labels: RCA Living Stereo, London ffrr, Mercury Living Presence, any of the early Telarcs, especially that label’s first release, the direct-to-disc "Great Organ of Methuen Memorial Music Hall."

Just be aware that it’s not only pressings that matter with these legacy LPs. Stampers, plants, and the # of impressions made by a stamper can make a huge difference. In my lost message, I detailed a hands-on experiment I conducted after reading Michael Fremer’s lengthy postings on this topic. THe album was "Bridge Over Troubled Water" by Simon & Garfunkel. I bought a half-dozen used first pressings, all from different stampers and countries of origin, and compared them to my MoFi 1-Step version. Although the 45RPM MoFi was somewhat better in terms of dynamics and surface noise, in blind comparisions, my 1971 pressing from an early stamper had them all beat in terms of realism and (hate to use the term) "musicality." No comparison, even to other first pressing from later stampers.  When Art’s voice comes in on the title track, it’s breathtaking in a way that not even the pricey 1-Step could duplicate. And I paid only $8 for my NM copy on eBay!

Anyway, nice to chat with you, Richard.

@lewm

The UHQR version I have found in Sydney does indeed have the speed corrected.

Other details:

 Mastered by Bernie Grundman from the Original 3-Track Master Tapes
 Pressed at Quality Record Pressings using Clarity Vinyl®