Recommend your best sounding LP's

I noticed the artists you're listening to; they are superb vocalists, and at the same time, I'm recording those artists on my Technics reel to reel, plus I'm breaking in my new Grado Master cartridge.

"Grado" is the poor man's Koetsu, and that's exactly what it is. I've heard Koetsu many times; when an acquaintance put Carmen McRae on, she came into the room through his Koetsu, that's just how fantastic it is.

You mentioned a source for records; I was just perusing the latest "Music Direct" catalogue and I noticed it has records of all the artists you mentioned: Sinatra, Nina Simone and Ella. It also has some of the records that others recommended. Since I'm the kind of guy who puts the music first, I can't help you on special records, but maybe some of those in the "Music Direct" catalogue will qualify.


Enjoy the music.

mm- no one source. Discogs is a decent starting place, but grading and pricing is all over the lot. For stuff like Warner green labels, many can be found in bins in used record stores all over the U.S. The Steve Hoffman forum is a good place to get a handle on some better known pressings of "classic rock"- just run a web search for "best vinyl pressing of X" (where X= band or artist or album title) and you'll probably wind up in one of the Hoffman threads. (Don't take anything on faith, but the better informed threads usually involve comparisons of different pressings, and rarely conclude that there is "one" best). I've gotten records from all over the world, and do rely on a few established dealers, but like many people buying used records, I also bid in on line auctions. You need to do your due diligence on pressings- some of the descriptions are not always accurate, and as I already mentioned, I tend to take grading with a grain of salt. (Visual grading tells you the record looks good, that's pretty much it-aside from play grading, which is also subjective, ask about warps). Part of the fun is the discovery, the research and the chase, rather than one stop shopping. 

play-grading can fail even on sealed records.

Cz- not sure how you play grade a sealed record, but I usually don’t buy old sealed records b/c there is often no recourse, and it is truly an unknown. PS: if you mean that a sealed record can have problems, I agree. Perhaps I misunderstood your point. 
regards,

Correct, whart, 
I came upon sealed Bellafonte at Carnegie Hall german issue with loud pop on first track side 4 lasting near half of song.