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.
inna
i appologize for such offence before all japanese citizens and take that meant-to-be abbreviation back as no-way meant to offence citizens personally.
Post removed 
I constantly seek out Japanese CD's in stores and on-line. I have found most of the recent 24 bit, DSD Mastering and XRCD CD's to be very musical and open. Needless to say, I like the different packaging on a lot of these discs also. I am a fan of Rock/Classic Rock and Jazz primarily, but freinds also love the Classical imports from Japan. By the way, I find the widest choices of imports at www.towerrecords.com and www.redtrumpet.com, if you're interested.
Jonathanochi, maybe it's because we don't complain about it enough. But hey, we're brought up not to complain, just grin and bear it.

It hasn't been until recently that most people in the US knew about places like Manzanar, Tule Lake, Poston, Heart Mountain where Japanese Americans [American citizens] were stripped of their property and "Inalienable Rights" and shipped off to, so such oversights are bound to continue.

The only time I have fought in anger was when I was hurled that slur, and I took great pleasure in ricochetting that guys head off the asphalt. Continuously.