Not sure that this is the correct section in which to ask this question, but anyway. I`m looking to buy The Tony Bennett Bill Evans Album. So, I go to Amazon, and they have new copies from £10.45 and used copies from £16.67 - strange, me thinks, so I go over to Play.com - the first choice starts at 66 quid!, the second choice (which has JVC written beside it in brackets) is £15.65, whilst the third choice starts at £29. Why the huge difference in price? Are the cheaper (normal priced!) CDs ones that have been produced under licence? Is the quality of the recording not so great? All the choices are CDs, not original vinyl or anything like that. It`s not a typo, either - the next price is 71 quid! Be gentle with me, if I`m being thick - I`m only little.
CD quality (?)
- Thread starter daveyjay
- Start date
Put simply daveyjay - they are just re-issues of the same album, I'm not familiar with this title so I don't know what versions there are available.
Generally if an album has been around for a few years it will be re-issued in different guises - usually they have been re-mastered, which can either be a blessing or a curse, as sound quality will vary a significant amount between versions.
A lot of early CD were just flat transfers from the master tape or sometimes later generation copies, that had very little in the way of EQ-ing, noise reduction and compression - so the sound was very close to a studio master - some of these are very sought after, e.g. - early Japanese Dark Side of the Moon, this may help to explain the difference in prices.
The JVC disc would be an XRCD - Extended Resolution CD - this is a specially developed mastering and manufacturing process which includes a way of carefully cutting the pits in the disc so that there is no degradation in sound, etc. I've own a handful of them and personally I find the sound a little too forward for my tastes.
If you haven't done so already, It may be worth registering over at Steve Hoffman's forum and do a search or ask the very knowledgeable people over there what the preferred masterings are and how newer versions stack up.
I usually buy older discs from Amazon Resellers as it has at least some kind of grading system and there is a reasonable amount of information about each issue provided.
e
Generally if an album has been around for a few years it will be re-issued in different guises - usually they have been re-mastered, which can either be a blessing or a curse, as sound quality will vary a significant amount between versions.
A lot of early CD were just flat transfers from the master tape or sometimes later generation copies, that had very little in the way of EQ-ing, noise reduction and compression - so the sound was very close to a studio master - some of these are very sought after, e.g. - early Japanese Dark Side of the Moon, this may help to explain the difference in prices.
The JVC disc would be an XRCD - Extended Resolution CD - this is a specially developed mastering and manufacturing process which includes a way of carefully cutting the pits in the disc so that there is no degradation in sound, etc. I've own a handful of them and personally I find the sound a little too forward for my tastes.
If you haven't done so already, It may be worth registering over at Steve Hoffman's forum and do a search or ask the very knowledgeable people over there what the preferred masterings are and how newer versions stack up.
I usually buy older discs from Amazon Resellers as it has at least some kind of grading system and there is a reasonable amount of information about each issue provided.
e
Adding to loney boy's comments: You'll find a number of resellers (on Amazon and others) are located around the world, based in countries where your particular album may be deleted, rare, or hard to find. In those countries, because of its' rarity, your album may command a premium price, whilst here in jolly old England, it may still be a regular issue. And vice versa... it's a global world. Check also amazon.com (US), amazon.de (Germany) and amazon.fr (France)... you'll find different resellers again with different prices based upon availability of that particular album in those countires. Your UK amazon account works fine even if purchasing from an overseas amazon site.
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