ティアーズ・フォー・フィアーズ* – Songs From The Big Chair = シャウト

Being that this is one of my favorite albums of all time (like #1 for desert island disc), I originally bought this particular Japanese pressing in an era where I thought that Japanese pressings were superior to every pressing out there in the world, including UK, German, and U.S. pressings. However, over the years and upon listening to other pressings on vinyl and CD (including the latter of the ‘98 MFSL gold disc), I’ve come to realize that this is actually not an end all pressing and personally not my favorite choice to listen to this classic.

As what FrankHardenbol mentioned in their review, Japanese pressings tend to have “bright EQ” where it tends to have a “reverse smiley”, the mids and highs tends to get boosted. This album has a bit of a bottom end especially on the bass/synth bass that you hear on songs like “Everybody” that, on this particular pressing, sounds very “soft”. This gives it a bit more of a “digital” sound to the experience whereas on other vinyl pressings I’ve heard (for context, I’ve heard the U.S., UK, and South African pressings), you have this bit of warmness on the lower end of things that just clicks.

Also to mention, yes there is sibilance present on this album as it was recorded, however Japanese pressings tend to bring this out a bit more compared to others.

Would I say it’s a trash pressing? Heck no, and in fact there are certain albums in my collection that I just so happen to have their Japanese pressings of that I much prefer to their U.S. pressing or elsewhere internationally. But for an album that I can listen to front to back and pinpoint every instrument in the mix and note how much emphasis is there, the Japanese brightness that we come to know doesn’t vibe well with this album.

On a positive note, like all the Japanese pressings, the discs themselves are dead silent from using pure virgin vinyl materials, so that will always be a plus on these pressings.

(Testing was done on a Pioneer PL-630 turntable fitted with a Nagaoka MP-200 cartridge, through a McIntosh C28 preamp with Beyerdynamic Amrion Home wired headphones)

Apart from some sibilance great sounding pressing. Sibilance is more due to the recording (microphone use on vocals) but as with most japanese 80s pressings its even more audible on this pressing. BUT... they switched left/right channels which is kinda..uhh clumsy. Overall better than all digital versions i heard (imo japan dsd 2014 wins the digital test)

This beats my previous copy cutted by The Curve Pusher and pressed by Dublin Vinyl, which sounds like MP3.

And what I have learned from this experience, is to find old copies even if it is the 1st press or some reissues in 70-80s.

Edit: I just realized that JVC is famous for doing Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab stuff. No wonder why this is a really good pressing.