It certainly depends on the brand and label inside Japan itself, but mostly yes, the jap CDs are more expencive due to their pressing and mastering quality. US CDs are not bad except the club ones from BMG and Columbia house. Lots of jap LPs laid back in dynamics and sometimes too bright IMO though.
Japan vs.the rest
Recently there was a short thread about Japanese and other countries' records.I would like to share my experience comparing Japanese and British, and Japanese West German and American CDs.The first recording was Dead Can Dance-Spiritchaser-.Recorded in Ireland,master tape is somewhere in Britain,the recording and mastering done in analog.I also treat all my CDs with Optrix,it always improves the sound;no exceptions.The two discs sounded very different.Japanese had better resolution,did vocals a lot more convincing and presented the entire space in a more natural and coherent manner.Overall I would describe its sound as balanced and sophisticated.The British was much less refined but had better dynamics and more bass.It sounded louder too.I thought that the bass was exaggerated and called too much attention to it-bloody-self.So,a little more of the dynamics would not hurt the Japanese ,but British was definitely inferior to my ears.Before that test I had compared the British to American and Italian and laughed-both much worse than the Brit.Interesting,isn't it? The second album was by Al Di Meola entitled'Cielo e Terra',great acoustic guitar music.AAD as well.The results were somewhat similar. This time American and West German were very close though German a little better;both sounded excellent.But Japanese was just great,two steps above, with the same dynamics as the others.Of course, in both cases everything was the same except the country of origin.Did anyone do the same thing I did? Why do you think even European CDs sound like mass-market,while regular Japanese like audiophile? Perhaps you had different experience.
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- 6 posts total
- 6 posts total