Why are Japan "First Pressing" CDs considered the best sounding?

Posted by LoWang (A) on April 13, 2007 at 18:03:15

Hello Everyone,
A while back I was researching which edition of "Dark Side of the Moon" to purchase. Everyone indicated that the Japanese First Pressing was considered to be the best. I also found several stores on-line, in Japan, that specialize in Japanese first pressing CDs and usually charge $100 to 150 for them.

My question is, what makes these CD so special? Is it the CD manufacturing itself or is it the mastering (that is, the binary files themselves) itself that makes the difference? I would have thought that a music label would sell the same master in all markets? Afer all, why pay more money to master a CD multiple times? In the case of DSOTM it appears that there are 5 to 7 mastered versions out there (even amongst the Japanese 1st pressing there appears to be two version, matrix codes A2 and A0). Some say that those first pressings did not use any "enhancements" like companding filters or other gimmicky DSP effects so that why they sound so natural. Anyone care to comment on this?

If anything, it makes sense that a recent remaster ought to sound better since A/D converter technology supposedly has come a long way since 1985. Then again, I guess a possible issue is that the original master tapes have also aged 20 years since CDs first came out so this deteriation in tape quality might negate any improvement in A/D converters if you remaster today.

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Topic - Why are Japan "First Pressing" CDs considered the best sounding? - LoWang 18:03:15 04/13/07 (20)

not really. a lot of early jap pressings are made from duplicates of mastertapes - jeromelang 20:38:32 04/15/07 (2)

EVERYTHING is made from copies of "mastertapes". nt - clarkjohnsen 09:09:03 04/16/07 (0)

Re: not really. a lot of early jap pressings are made from duplicates of mastertapes - ishmael 08:15:12 04/16/07 (0)

Re: Why are Japan "First Pressing" CDs considered the best sounding? - Quint 16:44:58 04/14/07 (1)

"Some sound great, while others are quite disappointing" - Metralla 14:19:19 04/15/07 (0)

Is "First Pressing" a specific series? Because... - clarkjohnsen 12:05:11 04/14/07 (5)

Slightly confusing - Metralla 14:37:03 04/14/07 (4)

Oboy oboy! I have "the best sounding DSOTM Redbook". I'm RICH! - clarkjohnsen 09:13:11 04/16/07 (0)

Good Lord! I'll have to go look, back to you later on that. Meanwhile... - clarkjohnsen 11:46:58 04/15/07 (0)

Re: Slightly confusing - LoWang 14:49:18 04/14/07 (1)

See my note just above, with this addition -- - clarkjohnsen 09:15:40 04/16/07 (0)

Remastering has not lived up to its promise - Metralla 11:29:18 04/14/07 (3)

One more question... - LoWang 13:05:31 04/14/07 (1)

No, I'm not quite saying that - Metralla 14:06:04 04/14/07 (0)

Oh thats just great... - LoWang 12:59:59 04/14/07 (0)

Re: Why are Japan "First Pressing" CDs considered the best sounding? - amdan 23:49:42 04/13/07 (4)

Why should he do that? - jusbe 09:11:48 04/14/07 (0)

Here is one... - LoWang 00:52:38 04/14/07 (2)

Thanks - amdan 17:23:04 04/14/07 (0)

Re: Variable Quality in the SAME CDs but different copies - bobwood 14:12:49 04/14/07 (0)

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