Japanese CDs - reliably good?

You can do it on internet, straight from Japan, and the cost of shopping is substantially lower than buying through re-sellers on Ebay. For example I got from Japan a CD, for 15 dollars, which costs about 80 dollars on Ebay. I am thinking about starting a thread - Shopping from Japan plus shopping on used CD/LP market in Japan and give an advice to those who would be interested.

 

Reading the OBI? Yeah sure.

 

Regarding sonic issues, I would recommend making a thorough investigation before paying small fortunes for Japanese cd's. This forum is a reliable source of information for such matters.
In relation to the artwork, the Japanese releases are usually top-notch. You have to love those mini-LP editions!

 

It's all subject to specific titles. New formats such as Blu-Spec, SHM, etc. are just worthless hype. Earlier Japan releases in the 1980's and early 1990's however very often had better sounding releases, and almost always better packaging.

 

I have a mindless default setting: Japan best, Euro good, the U.S. . Those cost cutting demons at Fruit of the Loom took the tag off tighty whities and told us it was a "good thing." Got my own non-music axes to grind...

 

Well there are a bunch of items I need which never turn up on Ebay and rarely outside. They're the rarer items I need to complete collections so it's mostly obscurities, promos and merchandise. Yahoo Auctions Japan has a few bits now and again but I'm far too skint to get much that way. Don't worry - when I'm mega rich the world will be mine.

 

years are the same in any language. for example, you pick up a 2016 CD and see " リマスタ 2012" and you know it's not a new master.

 

I have nothing but gratitude and admiration for the Japanese CD market. I've bought quite a bit of items from over there, though not as many as I'd like as the shipping and general item price is, understandably, higher in some instances than on the European market. I do my research and often find that a lot of re-mastering campaigns go on over there that we never hear of, e.g. I've just ordered Gentle Giant - Three Friends which apparently is a 2009 DSD re-master. Already by reading that I can sense that it will blow the Repertoire re-master out of the water and maybe even the 1989 Columbia one too. It's like this with a lot of things. Also you can get Byrds, Cream etc. in proper mono/stereo deluxe editions that still haven't made it to the US/EU market.

In short: generally I don't know if each and every Japanese CD is better than it's US/EU counterpart, but in my experience, it has turned out to be true. OBI strips are also quite easy to determine, for example I could easily tell my Ned Doheny - Prone from 2015 was a limited edition judging by a year being marked by a letter and the expiring year being "16".

Furthermore customer service is lovely, they are very, very nice, usually they send a personal note in your CD packet. Once I even got a lovely piece of origami which adorns my desk to this day. And when I ordered the Japan-only 2CD deluxe of Elton John's The Diving Board it came in a smooth jewel case, a smooth jewel case in 2013! Thought these only came with 1982-1987 CD's.

 

Last time I ordered a new Japanese box set from amazon Japan, about a year ago, it arrived quicker than most domestic orders I have placed. Also, it was packaged extremely well and arrived without a single blemish.

 

I'm with you. Same with me:
This is my personal experience.

 

I have somewhere between 400-500 Japanese Mini Lp's ( Cardboard Sleeves ) in my CD collection. The sound, The quality and detail of the mini Lp is far superior than any domestic release I own. Apparently in Japan CD sales still out number vinyl sales! the fad on vinyl has not caught on in Japan! Cd's forever!

 

Some of it is hype, some of it isn't. One advantage I do find of buying new releases from Japan vs the US counterpart; if the US version comes as a digipak, the Japanese version will often come in a jewel case. Since I loathe digipaks, I go for the Japanese import.

 

It is NOT Yahoo auctions. You can buy from small CD stores all across Japan and their prices are lower than on the auction site.

 

When it is needed. The Japanese audio engineers are no mindless treble maniacs. That is how they saved, for me, a few albums of Linda Ronstadt. The US / Europe releases sound muffled, they lack clarity, that means they lack treble. The Japanese fixed, to a good degree, this problem. Another problem is that nowadays many people are switching to headphones as their primary music playing technology and most of headphones on the market sound bass heavy with insufficient treble. Couple this with the fact of so many badly mastered bassy/dark audio tracks and you get murky sounding music. Then you might see a blessing in the fact that the Japanese people in the music industry insist on good presentation of treble.

 

Yahoo auctions Japan is a price expensive market. There are cheaper alternatives, try the stores, hmv.co.jp or tower.jp or diskunion.net or other sellers. Google the catalog number of a Japanese release or EAN/JAN number. For purchases from Tower and Diskunion you will need an agent in Japan [the agent's fee for an item/CD is under 3 USD. Plus the shipping cost]

 

I've been to Japan many times and it is the best place in the world to buy CDs for selection IMO, both new and used and pricing is generally higher, but they also know the market value for used items. There are plenty of used CDs from the US and EU, so your odds of finding a hard to find CD that is not from the Japan market are pretty good, but it will also be market priced.

Recent issue Japanese domestic made regular issue CDs are generally quite a bit more expensive than US/EU/generic Asian region international artist issues, hence why both are stocked. Most of the time, they are the same master, but have Japanese translation and copyright info. Most major stores I went to, had both local and import versions. I did not see too many generic Asian region versions (which what was often sold in other Asian countries if there was no domestic issue), and usually the international version stocked was EU version, although US versions were not uncommon.

The other recent higher priced special release versions (MiniLP, Blu-spec, SHM, etc.) as discussed can be what ever they decide to use for masters, as they are unique to the market versions. Some clones, some level shifted, some unique, you never know. I do not believe the Blu-spec or SHM makes a difference vs. the base CD in Japan, but that's been debated to death here.

As mentioned, CDs from before the 90s can be very different than the US/EU versions and some times the same.

Japan CDs tended to have the best packaging with the best jewel cases in the world , and high print/paper quality on both inserts and non-jewel case formats, but some US/EU versions are quite good, so the differences can be small, and on other enormously improved.

Biggest reasons to get Japanese CDs are: different master (if applicable), bonus tracks (if applicable), packaging (alternate version - jewel case vs. digipak, MiniLP, special box, etc.), hard to find rerelease that is out of print in US/EU, you can read Japanese.

 

I like the sound of 80's masterings, and the great thing about Japanese releases from the 80's is that they have the release dates on the obi or the back of the CD, and catalogue numbers changed each time the pricing changed as well.There are also certain label styles that you know are from the early-mid 80's (CBS/Sony 1/2 Black face, the "black triangle" face). All these factors make it easier to figure out what pressing/mastering you are getting. But you have to know what you're doing.

For example, if I want Barry Diament's mastering of AC/DC's For Those About to Rock, I can buy a Japanese CD with prefix 32XD or 20P2 catalogue number. The obi contains the issue date 12/10/1988. If in the US, I have no idea how to identify it.

By the way, those dates are in code. (trivia - those letters were originally meant to represent the letters in "Nihon Record Kyokai" an industry group, but they couldn't use the same letter twice.)

Release Year / Code
1984 N
1985 I
1986 H
1987 O
1988 R
1989 E
1990 C
1991 D

The other thing about Japanese CD's - if the seller says it's in good condition, nine times out of ten, it's perfect. The Japanese take care of their stuff.

 

A bad idea unless you are wealthy. There are NO absolutes in audio regardless of the country of origin, issuing label, hardware manufacturer, or even mastering engineer. There are also no substitutes for your own compares when possible - only you know what you will like.

 

There is a point during the"mini-sleeve" repro trend where Japanese originated tiles became all about how they looked and not how they sounded. After being burned on titles with obvious (and poor) needle-drop sourced titles, on even major label releases, I was done and have never looked back.

 

Packaging doesn't usually make a difference to me, but there are exceptions. The Beatles Capitol Albums vol. 2 box, with the cover slicks just like the originals, and the gatefold Help, was so beautiful I had to pull the trigger.

 

Thank you for the reminder to stay humble. Recognizing that there are gradations in value and quality, in all things created, does not mean that one should behave in condescending fashion.

 

Anyone ever notice that all Japan cd's start with the exact same sequence on the barcode? 4988......

 

Funny, a few of mine do
A couple of my Cars 2012 SHM mini's start with 4943

 

You're correct, recently Japan have employed a 454 (and apparently 494) start to the barcodes of some cd's . But since 1982 I think all cd's started with 4988...until just recently.