Recommendations for a jazz record which demonstrates vinyl superiority over digital

And idler drives… Old coveted Garrard. 

Since the majority of idler drives are rim drives, like the well known Garrard, I went with that rather than Idler. Others like Lenco are not rim so you are technically correct since rim drive is a subset of idler drive. So yes... idler, belt, and direct is more correct.

@herman

Ok, time to confess.  I am restoring / upgrading my dad's Garrard 301 grease bearing model.  So far I have upgraded the main bearing, pulley, idler and its bearings, new springs, etc.  It is in an SME plinth which is mainly hollow and has springs for the mounting board.  I am working to fill the plinth with layers of mdf separated by constrained layer damping, held together by gravity.  I will be able to bypass the mounting board springs, so the table is not directly connected to the SME plinth, or leave the board suspended.  The look of the plinth won't change, and it will keep its dust cover.  The whole thing sits on blocks of good old Sydney sandstone. One day I might even open a new topic!

So far I have spent ten of the best KoBs on it ...

Before there was a thing called Rock n Roll, there was jazz. At one time in America it was jazz that was the popular music of the younger generation. Who cares it got side tracked by a thing called bebop. The musicians desired, and deserved, to be respected. 

You like what you like. But saying you don’t like jazz, is akin to stating you don’t understand jazz. You don’t have to be a jazz musician to understand jazz. That’s part of why you’re asking the question where should I start? Well, KOB is about as easy as it gets. But then again, there’s always Spira Gyra. 

Coltrane, perhaps you didn’t mean to infer that bebop is anything other than “jazz”. But if you did, I must protest. Bebop IS and was jazz after WW2, pioneered by Charley Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, and many others. By the mid-50s, bebop was dominant. One of the important reasons why KOB was so noteworthy at that time (1958) was that it represented an experimental departure. But jazz musicians still play bebop style and structure to this day, just not exclusively.

Richard, I’m not sure what you’re doing with that plinth, but 301 plinth building is a vast subject. One common solution is to build a plinth out of layers of Baltic birch cut precisely to embrace the working bits as snugly as possible. I am sure you can find videos on YouTube which demonstrate the process, and you can even find the patterns for the many layers with precise measurements also on line. The chassis is not suspended over the base because the object is to soak up energy and noise from the motor and idler wheel. Food for your thought. What you describe seems not the best approach.