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Japanese Vinyl Pressing

I just returned from Japan and I must say I have fun at the Disk Union stores in Tokyo. They have a Disk Union store for all Genre. I spent hours at Jazz and R&B stores. I also like the fact that they clean the records and add new sleeves, at least the ones I went through. I ended up buying 30 LP's after going to the stores three days straight. But here is the interesting thing. It seems to me that the Japanese pressed records sounds better than most of the ones I bought here in the USA. The Japanese pressing sounds clearer and crisper, no darkness in the sound, and the bass not bloated at all. I am wondering if anyone have any comments on this, or have the same experience with Japanese pressing.......
almandog

Showing 2 responses by t_bone

t_bone
1,182 posts
 
Yes. Same impression, especially for 70s reprints of jazz albums I have. The
pressings by King, Toshiba, and Victor beat the US versions I have of a similar
age. Of course that's just me...

That said, some of it may be that Japanese people took better care of their
records once upon a time... The cost of a record in Japan in the 70s and 80s,
measured as a percentage of average monthly salary or disposable income,was
significantly higher than the US ratio at the time.
t_bone
1,182 posts
 
Justlisten,
If you have the obi (or sometimes on the back side bottom right of the cover), you'll note that they ranged from roughly 1500 yen +/- a bit in the late 60s to 1800-2500 yen in the 80s. All media (books, magazines, records) had artificially high prices at the time because of a byzantine set of regulations and distribution practices which meant that costs were high so prices were high. Enforced capitalism with socialistic aspects.
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