Does it matter where a CD is manufactured?

What I have found over the years is this:
US manufactured CDs of US music typically sound superior to the same CD produced in the EU (European Union). (The EU CDs are not labelled more specificically than "produced in the EU".) I am talking about normal CDs, not special audiophile editions. And yes, Japanese CDs do beat them all.

I remember a label representative saying a few ago that "when you send a master to five differnt production plants you get back five different sounding CDs". If you study JVC's XRCD process you will see where standard CD production methods can and will go wrong. A lot has to do with proper clocking of all the involved components.

Also, do not forget that the "red book" (i.e. audio) CD standard requires that the data be treated as a real time data stream (translated: there is no re-reading of data until it can be read correctly, which means that error correction needs to chip in when there is an error). I suspect that differences in sound between different pressings of CDs really all boil down to how hard the error correction in the CD player has to work.

I will note that sugarbrie's response to the comments of Hifimaniac seem to be quite appropriate. One must compare apples to apples and not assume something sounds better because the package is more attractive. And of course, one should expect that a remastered cd would be much better than a cd released in the early 80's.

Columbia House CDs are wretched! They are harsh and edgy. I've heard that it may be because of double-speed mastering? I don't about that, I just know they sound awful.

I've been told that the answer is YES. Alot of it depends on the format of the "master" sent to the duplication plant and how they handle that format. If you send a DAT tape or a CD-R to the duplication plant, they will then convert it to an Exabyte tape format (done via an audio dedicated computer) from which they will produce a glass master for stamping purposes. This transfer process, while entirely digital, is not completely transparent. Jitter and clocking issues could be the culprits.

Any generalizations about U. S. releases manufactured in Canada?