Richardbrand, With all due respect, you asked a very bad, very open-ended question with many ambiguous edges (the question pre-supposes that analog is in fact superior to digital and that there is or could ever be such a thing as a recording that could possibly prove such a tenuous proposition to all listeners), and yet some have tried to respond. Amazing. No doubt this thread will live on for yet a few more weeks.
Kind of Blue is not and never was revered because it was a great recording per se. It is revered because it was revolutionary in terms of musical structure in 1958 and probably because of Miles Davis' mystique and that of the other members of his group (Coltrane and Evans in particular). Technically, it was famously off-speed and originally in mono.

