Beatles Japanese albums were issued with an "AP" prefix earlier and more recently with an "EAS" prefix. Are there any sound differences with either issue? Any particular titles I should look for in a particular prefix? I'd appreciate any suggestions/preferences anyone can offer.
I bought pretty well all of the Beatles LPs on Japanese import in the mid-70s. After a major purge of my collection about 20 years ago, I only kept Revolver, Rubber Soul and the White Album (stamped edn No A 320515). My copy of Rubber Soul is a AP edition. The other 2 are EAS. I never noticed any appreciable difference in the sound. About the only difference that I can see is that the OBI strip on the RS edition is mainly green with a large Apple Records logo at the top and the slogan "The Beatles Forever" at the bottom. The EAS LPs have a different banner and each OBI strip has a number of the edition in the series. The back of the strip has photos of all the LPs issued in the series. This series included editions of both the UK and US versions of the albums. There are 28 LPs featured in the series. BTW - The quality of the inserts (photos, poster) in the White Album are amazing quality. Chris
On the AP series the first pressings were pressed on red vinyl, until the routine practice came to a halt back in the early '70's. In fact on some of the early OP (the original pressings) prefix titles the red vinyl versions were the more common ones. Same goes for the 45's too. Those were OR and AR prefix numbers.
There is a significant difference in the quality of the pressings. Do not let anyone tell you any different. I have a complete AP and EAS set of all the UK LP's. The AP's are much better. Better tonality and depth overall. I could go on and on, but you need to hear these for yourself.
Not that japanese vinyl sounds noisy very often, but I have noticed that (on the red monos from the 80's as my example) the coloured vinyl is quieter than the black from the same period. Folks at the stores have speculated that there is a higher virgin vinyl content, mebbe all virgin vinyl in the red-transparent biscuits. Has anyone here has heard the same story?? I have noticed something else, recently I was playing uk and japanese vinyl Beatles' records and the japanese ones sounded less dynamic than the uk counterparts . . unless you decrease the tracking force just for them. I have been playing the japanese ones on 1.2 grams force and the british ones at 1.7. Highs were better too when I lessened the weight. Mind you, this was all on a std turntable with a Sumiko Blue Point, a diff. shaped needle may yield a diff. result.
Interesting comments Thom. I do agree that the red vinyl monos from the 80's are dead quiet. Amazing quailty pressings. Why EMI won't do these again is beyond me (and everyone else in this group). I can also say that there is a slight edge in warmth to the original y&b UK Parlophone LP's (whethere stereo or mono) as compared to the Japanese EAS black vinyl stereo LP's AND as compared to the 80's red vinyl monos. However, the degree of information conveyed by the 80's red vinyl monos is greater than the UK LP's, even y&b originals. The AP series LP's (all stereo) are closer to the UK's, IMO, but again, with a little less warmth, but greater degree of information.
Just finished comparing my Japanese AP of Hey Jude against the Canadian domestic release. The Canadian domestic had a more natural, open sound. The Japanese AP sounded slightly compressed and "pinched" sounding in comparison. Before the comparison my money would have been with the Japanese AP!
Tangent, as a Canadian living in the US, who fortunately kept a few (though) not all of his original Canadian pressings, I am not surprised at your findings here. Steve is a BIG fan of the Canadian LP's, though I wish he would be more specific as to which pressings he is talking about. What I would be interested to hear is a Canadian mono Pepper!