As a teen, I bought my first Beatles vinyl as a US version. Wondering if there was a difference between US and the more-expensive UK albums, I bought a UK version. I found the UK vinyl to be superior to the US ones. The sound was so much more transparent that I only bought the UK ones after that. Later, I bought Japanese versions on CD and vinyl, and again they beat the US versions. Am I just a victim of effective marketing? Who knows?