Best Quality Recording On Vynil

Yes. Agree with much of what is stated above. It really depends on what "quality" you value. It's a very subjective word.

Some would say that the 45rpm reissue of the "Firebird Suite" is one of the greatest symphonic recordings on vinyl. I think this is surely one of the contenders but one needs to be able to look past the notorious Mercury tape hiss.

I'd pretty much second Viridian's comments, but will add one or two further remarks. I tend to distinguish the musical performance from the audio quality -- there are some superbly recorded LP's that aren't very interesting from a performance standpoint. Very few "audiophile" recordings have great performance AND great sound.

I think one of the most realistic recordings I've heard is the Reference Recording LP of Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique", conducted by Verujian Kojian. The 4th and 5th movements are simply astounding when heard on a really good, full-range system.

As a body of work, the Sheffield recordings are probably the "gold standard" for D-to-D recordings, but I'd have to include the M&K recording titled "For Duke" among the top several, and some of the EastWind recordings ("The Three", "LA Four", etc.) are superb.

Last, one of my personal favorites is an LP released in the early 1980's by Wilson Audio called "Magnum Opus", which is a taped recording of the Flentrop organ in St. Mark's Cathedral in Seattle, WA. The cathedral is rather large and boxy, with a reverb decay time of 6-7 seconds, and this recording is as close to the actual sound of that organ as anything I've ever heard. If you ever find a copy of this LP, buy it -- even if you don't like organ music.

Among the larger labels, there is a group that consistently manages to produce good-to-excellent performances AND good-to-excellent sound quality. The obvious choices are the RCA "Living Stereo" releases of the mid-1950's to early 1960's, and the Mercury "Living Presence" LP's of that same era. I'd add to that list: Harmonia Mundi; Decca; London; BIS; Opus; Nimbus; Lyrica; Vanguard (mostly their folk releases); and some of the Supraphon and Hungaraton releases.

When it comes to jazz, I've been pleased with many of the LP's by Contemporary Records from the late 1950's and early 1960's that were engineered by Roy DuNann; many of the Blue Note recordings of that era by Rudy Van Gelder; ECM; some of the recordings on Verve, Atlantic, and Riverside; and most of the releases on the "Black Saint" and "Soul Note" labels (an Italian company, owned by Giovanni Bonandrini).

Sdcampbell's comments are right on target for me, and I'll largely just add "ditto" - including the recommended labels for classical music. My additions would be: (1) many of the reissues of the RCA, DECCA and Mercury classical LPs are superb, and (2) those who enjoy classical music should explore Arthur Salvatore's "Supreme Recordings" list (all vinyl). I agree with virtually all of his recommendations based on sonics. (Don't miss the detailed descriptions on succeeding pages of his web site.)
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sdcampbell wasn't 'magnum opus' a song Kansas's Leftoverture?