Recommendations for a jazz record which demonstrates vinyl superiority over digital

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®

@ketchup 

Thanks for the advice.  Fortunately for my wallet, I don't have much more life to live. In reality, I am at the stage where I "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)".

I am particularly curious about the high regard given to Garrard 301 spinners, and the prices they command.  Is it because they are inherently "neutral" or because they resonate harmoniously?  Or the beautiful engineering, and feel?  Or just that they start and stop almost instantaneously?

Another vinyl benefit is that my having to get up every few minutes to change a side lets my partner check whether I have croaked yet!

@cundare2 

I have many "RCA Living Stereo, London ffrr, Mercury Living Presence, any of the early Telarcs" on record and CD / SACD, but sadly not the "Great Organ of Methuen Memorial Music Hall."

A lot of my Telarc records are digitally mastered.  My go-to test piece is a London aka Decca ffrr.

In general, I usually prefer the first recording I hear to subsequent ones.  Weird how the brain works ...