Very best sounding Vinyl

Agree with the premise of what Michael said. My Stan Ricker Brothers in Arms is really good, but of course, digital. Doesn't compare to my original presses of other Dire Straits titles, especially my Love Over Gold (Masterdisk) stamper press. Agree with the above about the RL HOTH, which I prefer to the Classic. Houses is my least favorite of the Zep Classics... sure glad I own them though. I have a taste of what Mike's talking about with the 45's...I have the Stairway To Heaven 45, which came with my Classic 200 gram set of Zep I- IV...AMAZING. I have Rumors on RL, but just discovered the Winchester stamped press, and that's unreal...much better than my RL. Just recently realized I had 5 pressings of Joni: Court and Spark, and opened and cleaned a 1st US press with raised design on front cover. Just blew me away. Hejira is also fantastic, even the Rhino. Aja: best I have heard is my Cisco, or my original AB stamper press. Haven't determined which I like better, but would never part with either. Hank Mobley: Soul Station on Music Matters 33 is also one that I think is so good. There's just so much great stuff if you can find it. Test press of Tom Petty's first LP has something very special going on. The following not great sounding, but for me great music, and the best it will likely ever sound. My new (Old) pressing of Black Sabbath: Sabbath Bloody Sabbath on WWA label, a later UK press. The Vertigo may be better, but big bucks. The Sabbath may not belong in this group, but my point is choose the music that stirs your soul, and then find the very best sounding LP of it. I mean, Led Zeppelin sure isn't AUDIOPHILE sound, yet I could never live without my best sounding pressing of Graffiti or Zep III. Sorry, I RAMBLE ON when I'm tired (-:

Norah Jones as mentioned 
Walter Susskind conducting the London Philharmonic Crystal clear direct to disc everything you would want in a classical record.
Charlie's Byrd Crystal clear also d2d the drums are in the room.
The Band brown LP 45 rpm
I use these to demo my system.

@fjn04 -Bloody Sabbath was not released on Vertigo but their first album on the WWA label- the first four albums were on Vertigo and the cheap trick was to find those earlier albums on the WWA label bearing the Vertigo matrices that had been crossed out but used the Vertigo metal parts. Sabbath was my entry point into the Vertigo catalog which has some wonderful, obscure and well recorded prog rock.

I would recommend old mfsl vinyl, preferably mastered by Stan Ricker.  

For analog recordings the general rule is to find pressings from the home country of the label in question. The golden age for analog sound was late '50s to mid '60s. So for classical recordings from Decca or EMI get UK pressings, for RCA or Mercury get US pressings. For American jazz get US pressings (blue note, Prestige, Riverside et al). The earlier the pressing, the better the sound.

From the late '60s multi tracking became the norm, which changed the game with new engineering and production challenges. Some labels were more succesful than others in creating great sonics. Still, for British rock get UK pressings, for US rock, well you get the idea.

The most likely explanation is all record companies kept their original master tape and sent copy tapes to other countries. This quality step down at the source is elementary and can never be undone, no matter how good the engineering.

During many years of collecting vinyl records I've discovered that pressings which seem to be identical can differ greatly in sound. In some cases the matrix info on the deadwax with stamper codes and such can help explain these differences (the earlier the lacquer, mother and stamper, the better the sound). But many labels don't offer this kind of info, in which case comparative listening is your only option. This requires multiple copies (preferably in EX or NM condition), which is time consuming and costly.

This situation has created the business model of Better Records, who do all this work for you. I've never bought anything from them, but I'll bet their hot stampers are early copies from the country of origin.