I am convinced that Japanese-pressed CD's sound somewhat better than their counterparts pressed in any other country (sorry Varese). In fact, you will find many Japanese pressings in my collection for that very reason. I know that Japanese pressings are valued among audiophiles for their superior mastering, though I don't know how much soundtrack collectors really care. In Japan they seem to take the cost-is-no-object approach to audio mastering, which is one reason why Japanese-made CD's cost considerably more money. Of course, you need a fairly good audio system to be able to hear any difference. According to my well-trained ears, Japanese mastering seems to be like 15 years ahead of everyone else. The same is true of Japanese vinyl records.

piano632, April 21, 2005; 6:02 AM

I absolutely 100% agree.

Plus, the artwork is usually original (and many times more beautiful than the "original"). Not to mention their attention to details, such as thicker paper, the inclusion of lobby sets etc. etc. The SLCS label was such a phenomenon.

Burnie


blinddoc, April 21, 2005; 10:15 AM

Thanks for the input!... Where do I buy these exclusive wonderful sounding cd's on line?... Are there Varese cd's made in Japan?... I own some Colosseum/Varese cd's made in Germany, and they sound fine.

serifiot, April 21, 2005; 11:38 PM

The best place to buy Japanese soundtracks is http://www.arksquare.com

Many Varese titles are pressed in Japan by Volcano/Culture Publishers.

piano632, April 22, 2005; 2:52 AM

Japanese vinyl pressings are always the best! Especially during the late 70's/early 80's when many mainstream American labels were churning out products so inferior and far behind.

I've always felt the Japanese pressings were produced by people who took much more pride in their work with beautiful colorful covers and superior sound quality equaling most any of todays compact discs.

When the Southern California label Varese Sarabande began popping up on record shelves with scores from lower budget films featuring exceptional music the big American labels were put to shame!

I remember when I first saw the score from the George Romero film "Martin" I had never seen anything like it before (or since).

Awhile back I found a Japanese Varese CD of the Michael Small score from "Mobsters".

I love the Japanese/Italian/French label vinyl score recordings. There seems to be an intelligence about much of it thats lacking in many American products (then and now).

Tower Records on Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles had such a wild selection of import film scores when they dealt in vinyl it was amazing!



, April 22, 2005; 6:14 PM

Hello,

I lived in Japan between 8-95 & 8-96. I used to raid ALL of the CD shops I could find. Back in
95-96 I discovered that almost all Japanese releases were published in a higher bitrate...I
believe USA CD's were 16bit and Japanese were 20bit or 24bit. I discovered this because
when I moved out there, I brought my CD collection from the USA. I ended up buying almost
every CD I owned already from the Japanese shops. I heard the difference right away. It's
amazing how much better it was. Not to mention... many Japanese releases came out sooner
than the USA AND some of them came with free stuff like limited edition stickers, posters, t-
shirts, buttons, etc. Kudos to the Japanese!

One more thing... the average cost of a Japanese release cost me around $18-$25. However,
the yen rate at that time was about ¥115 to $1. When I bought "The Crow" OST it cost me
around ¥2500 which = around $21.00. BUT WELL WORTH IT.

pswallace, April 3, 2007; 11:50 AM