UK Pressings More Meat on the bone ?

[RobbieGong]

Am I the only one who finds the UK pressings tend to have bit more weight to them, a bit more meat on the bones ? :hmm:

I find this with much of my '70s, 80's albums in particular. Soul, reggae etc .....

[Pigmy Pony]

How do you mean, Robert? If you're talking about modern pressings being more 'fuller' sounding, Is that perhaps because they tend to be heavyweight vinyl?

[guy]

I think that I have had a similar experience with Roxy music first album - I have a Canadian pressing which has a lightweight/sibilant sound so I found an "original" double gatefold UK pressing which is far better - more "weight" bugger all sibilance, like you say "more meat on the bones" (nice way to put it :)).

Similar with David Bowie "Ziggy Stardust..." I have two copies, the non "main man" orange label first pressing sounds better than my other "main man" later pressing.

I'm not sure that it is down to country of pressing though - I have some excellent US pressings.

[RobbieGong]

I think that I have had a similar experience with Roxy music first album - I have a Canadian pressing which has a lightweight/sibilant sound so I found an "original" double gatefold UK pressing which is far better - more "weight" bugger all sibilance, like you say "more meat on the bones" (nice way to put it :)).

Similar with David Bowie "Ziggy Stardust..." I have two copies, the non "main man" orange label first pressing sounds better than my other "main man" later pressing.

I'm not sure that it is down to country of pressing though - I have some excellent US pressings.

Yep, that's what i'm trying to say :)

Generally and on a good number of occasions, I've found the US pressing to be sonically 'light' sounding and sometimes quite poor and then found the UK pressing to have more weight to the sound and a better overall sound.

[Pete The Cat]

In a very generalised way, I agree. In the same very generalised way that I find Japanese CDs better than UK ones. In other words for every 5 examples there might be a couple of exceptions, so it's more of an "on balance" thing to me.

At the same time I find a real difference between '70s and '80s albums due to the shift in music production techniques, with the advent of digital recording and that shock-and-awe bright sound a la Trevor Horn. I find many '80s albums very unsatisfying to listen to, lacking in weight and meat on the bones as the OP put it. Bass seemed to go missing.

Pete

[Macca]

With vinyl especially I think there are so many variables you can't put it down to the country of origin.

First, if there is more than one mastering, which mastering was used?

Second what generation of the master was used to make the pressing?

Third, in any particular batch of pressings, was it early on in the life of the stamper, or pressed later when the stamper was worn?

Fourth - Was the same batch of vinyl raw material used for all the pressings, or did they swap from a poor batch to a good batch midway through the pressings? Or vice-versa?

Fifth - what RTR machine was used to make the stamper? Were the replay heads a little worn or in good condition? Had it been calibrated recently or not for ages?

Sixth - who oversaw the pressing process? Someone very experienced or someone not so experienced?

1 and 2 would also make a difference to the CD/digital version (if an analogue recording). As would 5 in terms of transcribing an analogue recording to digital. In that case you are hearing both the 'character' of the particular RTR machine used and also its condition re the replay heads and calibration of the machine at the time the transfer was made. I'd guess at least 90% of the time they'd be fine but you can't be certain of that.

It's all a bit of a crapshoot really.

I don't think any of those things depend specifically on country of origin.