Japanese vs Domestic CD s

japanese cd pressings are a lot like japanese lp's. most are better than their american cousins, tho some are on the unlistenably bright side. hard to know whether the price premium is deserved until you take a listen. FWIW, i have hundreds of obi-wrapped lp's but many fewer japanese cd's, tending to buy the latter mostly in "japanese only" versions.

I have a few Japanese CDs and quite a lot of German CDs. I find the imports to be generally better quality, but as Cornfedboy points out--that's not always the case--some actually go the other way--which is very disappointing when you pay such a premium. On other occasions I have had imports clearly best Mobile Fidelity and DCC gold discs. The one company that consistently puts out quality discs is JVC XRCD. I have never bought one of these discs and found a competitive manufacturer to sound better.

My only experience is with the Prestige and Riverside re-issues done with K2 processing. These are excellent and contain tons of warmth and atmosphere. The Tower(downtown) here in NYC stocks quite of few of these and whenever I'm feeling flush, I pick up a few. As a jazz freak, they are a godsend. Recently i picked up "Everybody Digs Bill Evans" and while my vinyl is now in a different locale, I don't think this gives up too much musically. (see my post under Solo piano recordings)

If its not clear from the above post, I'm refering to the Japanese Imports. Some of the K2 mastered stuff is appearing on US releases, but so far, different titles so I haven't been able to compare apples etc....