boyajian@akov68.DEC (Jerry Boyajian) (10/19/84)
> From: brl-tgr!mike (Mike Muuss) > SNOBISH? While browsing through the Jazz CDs at Tower, I noticed two sets > of discs for the Pat Metheny Group's album "OFFRAMP". Both were > manufactured for EMI in Japan, but one cost $13.99, and the other cost > $19.99. (The packaging was also different: cardboard box around the $13.99 > CD box, celophane only for the more expensive). When I asked the shopkeeper > what the difference was, he smuggly responded that the $19.99 was IMPORTED, > whereas the other one was DOMESTIC. I purchased the cheaper one, muttering > back "...as long as the bits are the same, I DON'T CARE". Snobbery is alive > and well, sigh. Well, snobbery it definitely is, but I can still understand why he thinks that way (even if it is silly for him to do so). The quality of European and Japanese pressings (especially Japanese, who use virgin vinyl --- I don't know if the Europeans do) are so superior to American disks, it's not funny. I don't own many imports, but the ones I do have are much, much better than the domestic disks I have. I don't know if the Japanese or European CD manufacturers have better quality control than American, but even if they don't, that shopkeeper probably has had it so ingrained that imports are so superior to domestics in the case of vinyl disks, that without thinking about it, he carried the same relationship over to compact disks. --- jayembee (Jerry Boyajian, DEC, Maynard, MA) UUCP: {decvax|ihnp4|allegra|ucbvax|...}!decwrl!dec-rhea!dec-akov68!boyajian ARPA: boyajian%akov68.DEC@DECWRL.ARPA