Japan For US JVC manufacture. I have a S4E13 variant. Caroline has the code breakdown I believe @princesskiki This manufacture carries my favorite mastering
I don't know exactly when Victor Company of Japan (aka JVC) opened its CD manufacturing plant in Japan but my best guess would be sometime in the second quarter of 1984. When it first opened, it used a matrix font that was tiny and very "crude". The matrix was just the cat. no. plus a glass master/mother/stamper code that did not have a leading letter. By sometime in the second half of 1984, JVC changed its matrix code and started inserting a leading letter. The first of these leading letters used by JVC (starting sometime in the second half of 1984) was the letter "M". JVC used that leading "M" preceding the glass master/mother/stamper code until sometime in 1985, when they switched to "N" and then "S" and then "T" (all in 1985). "T" was still used in 1986, when JVC introduced "U". "U", "V" and "A" were used in 1987. Sometime in the second half of 1987, JVC switched to the "tetris block" style of matrix. To read your matrix of "T6E13" and "S4E13", the "S" gives us a time frame of 1985 most likely and the "T" gives us a time frame of late 1985 to early 1986. The number after the leading letter is most likely the glass master. Therefore, "S4" was the 4th glass master made by JVC and "T6" was the 6th glass master. The letter "E" (or in some cases the letter would be a "C" instead) may be the code for the equipment used or, in the alternative, could be the father code. The number after the "E" (or "C") is most likely the mother/stamper code. Therefore, "S4E13" means 4th glass master, first mother, 3rd stamper. "T6E13" would be the 6th glass master, first mother, 3rd stamper. That's probably more information than you wanted.
Hi George. IIRC, the letter "M" in the matrix of JVC Japan for US MCA Aja had either a glass mastering code of 1st or 2nd (i.e., "M1" or "M2"), and my best guess would be that those were made in the second half of 1984 or early 1985. They were the CD's that were sold in the U.S. right after the CSR Japan for US MCA (the latter of which was a very small run). Although I play the CSR Japan for US MCA every now and then, I mostly play my JVC Japan for US. On those special occasions when I am in a mood to listen to Aja seriously, I break out my "M1E11" (or whatever the earliest matrix I have).
I started reading through this the other day as I am in search of the best available CD of Aja. I am wondering how to search for these copies on discogs? Discogs seems to lump a lot of these together and it can be challenging to id what you are getting. Open to suggestions
(This is not foolproof or perfect, but it works pretty well in many cases.) Go into Discogs, do a search that includes part of the matrix of the variant you want. Let's say that you want to find c-eling's favorite version, as referenced above. You can see what I put into the search area, and what I got as a result when I clicked on the little magnifying glass icon: Click on those, scroll down the pages, see what's in the matrix info, and odds are good that these are three known pressings that were made from the same glass master.
I have been reading a lot of threads on the SH Aja CD today. I always thought I had it. It is a US made MCAD-37214-DIDX-55. EAC shows peak levels: 90.8 --- 91.7 --- 90.6 --- 88.7 --- 96.3 --- 86.2 --- 97.6 but reading here I see that this is not the SH master and that the UK Nimbus CD is? And both have the same EAC peak levels? If I understood correctly than the US disc I have now is the Roger Nichols one?
We use the EAC peak values to determine provenance. From here: Steely Dan CDs Different Masterings: The Summary Thread Your mastering is Mastering 3: Mastering 3: 90.8/91.7/90.6/88.7/96.3/86.2/97.6 This is the earliest of the three discs using the same base mastering: Mastering 6: 90.7/91.7/90.8/88.9/96.3/86.2/97.5 and Mastering 7: 90.7/91.7/90.8/88.9/96.3/86.1/97.5 All three of these masterings "sample align" - if you zoom to limits the 44.1 kHz sample resolution - you can match them up in perfect sync. However - they do not null each other out - there is a slight difference when you invert one and sum them together. This was found to be due to a low-level DC offset bias voltage on Mastering 3 that appears to have been corrected on Masterings 6 and 7. Discovered and posted by @strippies There are no discernable EQ differences between the discs. Again - thanks to @strippies - here's a look at I Got The News - Mastering 3 & Mastering 7: The original threads are here: Steely Dan CDs Different Masterings: The Summary Thread Steely Dan CDs Different Masterings: The Summary Thread Steely Dan CDs Different Masterings: Aja Steely Dan CDs Different Masterings: Aja That being said - when presented with what should be identical sounding discs - except for the DC offset bias - our host identified Mastering 7 as his disc and Mastering 3 as.. er... not his. That's all we can tell you at this time. Cheers, Paul
thanks! Specifically the audiophilestyle forum blog is a must read as it literally summarises everything. I ordered this evening the UK CD which is supposedly the clone of of the SH master. Let’s see what I get.
Again - Mastering 3, 6 and 7 are all clones of each other - probably using Mastering 3 as the base mastering. The main thing you're getting with the Nimbus Mastering 7 is the DC offset correction, since it was made later. It will probably play better on your system than Mastering 3 - but don't expect too much in the way of sonic differences. It remains unclear who made Mastering 3 in the first place. It might be our host - it might be Roger Nichols. We have been unable to find any earlier mastering by digital analysis except for one early Japanese disc that "sounds muted" - Mastering 8 Cheers, Paul
Basically - our host did a mastering - then turned over the tapes to Roger Nichols. It's unclear whether Roger used our host's mastering, or re-did it - possibly in conjunction with Robert Ludwig. We've seen evidence for both scenarios. Based on the interview our host did with Steve Westman on YouTube - it's most likely that whoever did the digital transfer used the safety copy our host created from the "30 splice" deteriorating master. See here: https://www.youtube.com/live/7394mUUA9fY?si=byoVbFwmTxjliPDg&t=1306 As I mentioned in the post above: Cheers, Paul
I finally got my SH copy of Aja from the UK. I compared it to the other early copy I had and listened several times. I also used the wife’s ears to validate what I felt was the difference. Sure enough (imho), SH copy is a bit more vocal centric with vocals up front while the other mastering has them set back deeper in the soundstage. I preferred the SH copy by a small margin. I intend to buy the SACD hybrid of Aja whenever they decide to release it, I did like the UHQR sound a lot. I am collecting Audio Fidelity CD’s now that I am back into CD’s (no more vinyl for me), it’s interesting to hear his mastering style and start to hear a common characteristic sound he seems to favor.
