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Japanese Vinyl?

I've picked a couple of Japanese imports over the last few weeks. A couple of the reissues are really spectacular pressings of old recordings. One is a Contemporary reissued on Nippon Columbia and the other is a Savoy reissued on King.

On the other hand I picked up an original Toshiba which, while very spacious, has some distortion on the louder passages that kills it.

Which of the Japanese labels are more consistent with their quality? I've seen King/Blue Notes going pretty high on e-bay. Any advise on what I should be looking for? Also, and good sources stateside? Shipping from Tokyo is a bit pricey.
grimace

Showing 2 responses by mothra

mothra
110 posts
 
i like the victor pressing and king pressings which are a great value for jazz as they are usually clean and can sound great. Other stuff is hit and miss. japanese vinyl usually has quiet surfaces and a decent amount of detail, but the source material has to be questioned on a lot of the presings as they may be using generations down safety masters or digital masters, depending on what they could get.

Like anything, it's hit and miss.
mothra
110 posts
 
i have the same set. it is mastered a little funny but you know chuck's stuff is often thin. I don't know what masters they have but i know from my originals, that there are cut hotter in the mids and they sound better but i think p-vine commands high prices because they issue hard to find stuff in mono, and people in the states dont seem as interested in doing that, especially in mono. so the rock and roll stuff and r&b ike turner and ov wright things the japanese put out really has no competition. try finding a super clean little willie john early record and you see their market.

As for chuck, the mixes ar so all over the place song to song, i dont envy anyone mastering that stuff.
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