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Japanese Vinyl Pressing Malarkey


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I find Japanese vinyl varies a lot. More often than not, rock recordings are thin, lacking bottom end, but every so often you find a great sounding one. On the other hand, I've read many times that their jazz titles are great sounding. Maybe we need a thread on good and bad sounding Japanese titles - could be very useful.

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I thought Japanese pressings were deliberately thin with little bass. Most Japanese live in an apartment so a deep bass would not be the best for getting on with the neighbours.  Could be rubbish of course but that's what I always believed.

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9 hours ago, rodders3 said:

I thought Japanese pressings were deliberately thin with little bass. Most Japanese live in an apartment so a deep bass would not be the best for getting on with the neighbours.  Could be rubbish of course but that's what I always believed.

 

It's not true.  My Japanese pressing all have the normal amount of bass.

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1 hour ago, aussievintage said:

 

It's not true.  My Japanese pressing all have the normal amount of bass.

Fair claim but you'll really only know that if you have done same album (or even same band) comparisons between Japanese pressings and 'country of origin pressings' or  just pressings from 'countries that are not Japan'. Having said that, my Japanese INXS "The Swing" is packed with bass but my Duran Duran "RIO" is thin and lacking compared to my Oz 'Maxicut' of their s/t debut, which has very dynamic bass.

 

If you indeed have compared, I take back the first sentence above!?

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The MOFI Sticky Fingers was done in Japan, what a bass bloated POS that is. I can't believe they released it. As far as most of my Japanese pressed jazz goes, usually they are far better. Yes, I have compared to other "audiophile" and first pressings. For jazz I generally prefer a good Jap pressing to MOFI. There are duds though, like any other country/lable. I will concur with a previous comment that the EMI releases are generally the best, closely followed by Denon.

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On 08/11/2019 at 5:44 PM, stevoz said:

I just finished reading the whole thread.....wow, talk about THE definitive Maxicut thread. The posts by those Aussie mastering engineers were enlightening indeed. Great stuff!?

Slightly off topic re the Japanese pressings....but it would be a hoot to compare the Maxicut Love Over Gold press to the newly released MOFI version....Have yet to read any reviews of the new MOFI Dire Straits cuts.

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18 hours ago, ochremoon said:

I find Japanese vinyl varies a lot. More often than not, rock recordings are thin, lacking bottom end, but every so often you find a great sounding one. On the other hand, I've read many times that their jazz titles are great sounding. Maybe we need a thread on good and bad sounding Japanese titles - could be very useful.

Its funny - I have a few Japenese presses

Foreigner - inside information (excellent)

Pink Floyd - DSOTM (excellent)

Deep purple - machine head (thin, no bottom end - disappointing)

Dire straits - Dire straits (excellent - only bested by my half speed master of it)

 

So indeed a bit hit n miss

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5 minutes ago, benny said:

Plenty of reviews from what ive seen of the brothers in arms release.

 

I have it - and really like it!

Will definitely buy the rest of them when they come out?!

Yes, have read plenty of glowing reviews of BIA in MOFI version. I doubt the new DS titles will disappoint either.

 

I only have a couple of Japanese pressings, and mostly they don't disappoint either.

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4 hours ago, Jebediah said:

Slightly off topic re the Japanese pressings....but it would be a hoot to compare the Maxicut Love Over Gold press to the newly released MOFI version....Have yet to read any reviews of the new MOFI Dire Straits cuts.

Read the whole thread, it got derailed in this direction early on?.......and the obvious conclusion? Maxicuts are better than Japanese pressings! ?

 

Obviously I'm only joking.....but Maxicuts are certainly excellent and always 'full bodied" and emotionally involving, a quality the usually technically perfect Japanese pressings don't always possess.

 

MOFI? Yes, it would be good to compare although I lost confidence in MOFI after my Oz 1st pressing of B52's "Wild Planet" completely smashed the MOFI 'Silver Label' version for SQ and dynamics....the MOFI version sounded like there was a thick blanket covering the speakers. It was an expensive failure.....so I don't get too excited about MOFI.....mind you, I don't have any 'GAIN 2' efforts, which I've heard can be quite outstanding and I think the Dire Straits Mofi's are Gain 2.?

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15 hours ago, stevoz said:

MOFI? Yes, it would be good to compare although I lost confidence in MOFI after my Oz 1st pressing of B52's "Wild Planet" completely smashed the MOFI 'Silver Label' version for SQ and dynamics....the MOFI version sounded like there was a thick blanket covering the speakers. It was an expensive failure.....so I don't get too excited about MOFI.....mind you, I don't have any 'GAIN 2' efforts, which I've heard can be quite outstanding and I think the Dire Straits Mofi's are Gain 2.?

There's a reason for that.

Both those Silver Label B-52's releases denote that MOFI were unable to use original master tapes for their release, and relied on digital files instead. As the cost is lower (no payment/costs for finding, cleaning up and using original master tapes), MOFI denote the Series as 'Silver'. As you have found, the resulting records are a little under-whelming.

 

But, that does not apply of course to the 'regular' series that MOFI produce, including GAIN 2 recordings and naturally, the One Step boxes. So though I'm no MOFI fanboy at all, you certainly can't judge their usual releases on the Silver Label series - as those are very different.

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6 hours ago, candyflip said:

There's a reason for that.

Both those Silver Label B-52's releases denote that MOFI were unable to use original master tapes for their release, and relied on digital files instead. As the cost is lower (no payment/costs for finding, cleaning up and using original master tapes), MOFI denote the Series as 'Silver'. As you have found, the resulting records are a little under-whelming.

 

But, that does not apply of course to the 'regular' series that MOFI produce, including GAIN 2 recordings and naturally, the One Step boxes. So though I'm no MOFI fanboy at all, you certainly can't judge their usual releases on the Silver Label series - as those are very different.

And yet, the Mofi Silver Series Dead Can Dance titles are outstanding.

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6 minutes ago, ochremoon said:

And yet, the Mofi Silver Series Dead Can Dance titles are outstanding.

Which is great - and I agree.

Different horses for different courses.

Digital files, in the right mastering hands, have been proven over and over to be the equal to *some* analog master tapes - so, really, it's suck it and see first.

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Okay, I'm debunking my own theory here on little if no bottom end on Jap pressings. I purchased a heap of lp's in Japan, a lot I have not listened too as yet. By chance I found two PIL 45's that I hadn't played. One is Virgin UK pressing, the other Columbia Japan. Both are from 1983.

 

The UK is excellent condition but the Jap one is mint - looks to never have been played! Gave both a fresh clean in the KLaudio.

 

Too my surprise the Jap dusts the floor with the UK. Exceptional bass. The UK seems to be a little brighter and nowhere near as much bass. 

 

There you go!

 

 

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