Who uses high end TT setup for vintage records ?

I am with Audiofeil to make the story short.
Design done right counts and not everything we can buy today will do a real
good job.
Differences in Arm Design, Material, Bearing, Energy Transfer and a proper
Geometry will show you very different listening results, carts are not so critical
overall, some diamond cuts can do a better job than others and this is probably
the reason why you can hear that some sound better with older vinyl.
The older records have sometimes a very high dynamics, mainly from the
middle to the last tracks, some Arms can't track them well, they produce
distortions, not in a way that you can hear it clearly, but the musical flow is
different. VTF is also a chapter, 1.6gr and a soft cantilever will give you total
different results than a Cartridge which was designed for 2.5gr...
Reissues have normally a lower, pale high frequency area, needles which
compensate that can sound very different with Originals( 1960+) ... there are
indeed differences, but there are technical reasons for it.
Btw. I tried a few mono carts and my choice was Lyra Helikon with a modified
Diamond, good tracking, super silent, no hum...there is worse out there... :-)

I am always taken back by the sound those older LP's have hidden in them. I found that better equipment doesn't emphasis those ticks, pops, and noises that lesser equipment seems to bring out, yet does bring out those audiphile traits that make us smile. And too....someone on these posts said that digital LP's are no good....I completely disagree. Some of my best sounding records were done digitally

One nice thing about LPs from the 50s and early 60s is that they have an all-tube recording chain! The better your playback the more you get the benefit of that.

But I've got a lot of good LPs with a digital master tape as well. Most people don't realize that the biggest area of degradation between the digital master and the CD is the process of making the CD itself. If the LP is mastered from the master tape it stands a good chance of being better than the CD.

Yes, I believe the all analogue nature of early vintage vinyl recordings is the key to their often uniquely lovely sound.

Digital vinyl certainly can be better than CD, but the question is how often and what is the cost to enable.

Personally, I am have no preference for digitally mastered vinyl over good CD home digital, but that is just me.

I have recorded many vintage vinyl recordings to CD quality digital to play from my music server and find that much if not all of the original charm is preserved along the way. That tells me playback format is less important than how the recording is made.

Also, FWIW, I find vintage Mercury Living Presence recordings on CD to share a lot of similarities to more modern Mapleshade recordings. These are two of my favorite CD labels. Both are purely analog recordings on CD. The MLPs from the 50's and 60's and the Mapleshades current.

What are the best recent Jazz releases. Looking for the best sound and performance. Hopefully its analog. For the most part my modest jazz collection was recorded 50 years ago. I would like some new stuff to compare it with.