As far as Tanach is concerned, there are many good translations that have many strengths and weaknesses.

I do not like the JPS edition because while it is a good translation, it looses much of the poetry of the original and it does not have the footnotes to explain this or that part of the oral tradition to look into further. It ends up being dry and somewhat sterile to my mind - and also, there are certain passages that simply can not be understood at all without the oral tradition.

The Stone translation from Artscroll, has excellent footnotes, diagrams, and references. It is commonly used in the observant world. The translation tries to capture some of the poetry of the original, however, it is bawlderized and to my mind, a little prissy. For some books, like Isaiah, who was a prince of the royal line, and wrote in very courtly Hebrew, it works quite well. For others, like Amos, who was a tough farmer from the hills of Judah, it just doesn’t work as well for me. Don’t bother with their version of the song of songs either. The extremely potent sexual imagery of it is too much for the folks at Artscroll to easily deal with.

My favorite overall, is Areyeh Kaplan’s translation, called the living Nach. He tires very hard to put the tension and poetry of the original into modern English (proper modern English!). His footnotes and points for further reference are well thought out. And all in all he is the most engaging, to my mind as an overall translation.