Santana - III Sony Japan Quad SACD (Release date: November 24th, 2021)

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I don't TRACK my packages but rest assured, my DHL parcel from CDJapan is resting comfortably in a hermetically sealed environment somewhere between the Land of the Rising Sun and the Empire State of New Amsterdam.....and Lady Liberty!🗽
 
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Mine is still safely in Japan.
I was unable to change the shipping method online so I have to wait until an airmail plane becomes available to ship it........
Hope I get the discs before Christmas.
 
Mine arrived today. Great package as usual, and quick shipping even though it was ridiculously expensive. Anyone based in Australia who is interested in the next releases (Caravanserai, Borboletta, etc.) count on me to save on shipping.

I have listened to the quad and the stereo remaster today, and have compared them to a tape rip converted to Flac, and the Sony 360, downloaded from Tidal and converted to Flac for the purpose of this comparison.

The stereo remaster sounds quite close to the MFSL SACD I own. Surprisingly, they are very close in tonality. The JP SACD has some minor peak limiting but I couldn't hear it.

The quad mix: I knew this quad mix before and I think it's great from the opening of Batuka. Compared to the tape rip, well, this is more discrete, has better fidelity. Surprisingly, it is very close to the Sony 360 from Tidal, even though the latter is lossy. I'm positive it is the some transfer and mastering, one pressed as a SACD and the other released online. I'm thinking that the 360 mixes of Borboletta and Welcome should give a good indication of how the future SACD releases will sound. Be careful with Welcome, because the channels are wrong. The front channels are actually RL and FR.

If you know this quad mix, expect the same with better separation and fidelity. Truly enjoyable. For me the surround highlights are: Batka, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Guajira, Jungle strut, but overall the entire album is pretty solid from beginning to end. Much better in quad than stereo.

If you plan to rip the SACD, be mindful of the usual pop/click at the beginning of the first track on the centre channel. Easy to remove with Music Media Helper (remix > refresh silent channels). This one rips as a 5.0 but it's a quad.

A must buy, in my opinion.
 
Mine is still safely in Japan.
I was unable to change the shipping method online so I have to wait until an airmail plane becomes available to ship it........
Hope I get the discs before Christmas.
If you placed your order thru cdjapan, you can email customer service - [email protected] - reference your order number and specific title and request a shipping modification to DHL. I did this last night, and mine is now on its way.
 
Mine arrived today. Great package as usual, and quick shipping even though it was ridiculously expensive. Anyone based in Australia who is interested in the next releases (Caravanserai, Borboletta, etc.) count on me to save on shipping.

I have listened to the quad and the stereo remaster today, and have compared them to a tape rip converted to Flac, and the Sony 360, downloaded from Tidal and converted to Flac for the purpose of this comparison.

The stereo remaster sounds quite close to the MFSL SACD I own. Surprisingly, they are very close in tonality. The JP SACD has some minor peak limiting but I couldn't hear it.

The quad mix: I knew this quad mix before and I think it's great from the opening of Batuka. Compared to the tape rip, well, this is more discrete, has better fidelity. Surprisingly, it is very close to the Sony 360 from Tidal, even though the latter is lossy. I'm positive it is the some transfer and mastering, one pressed as a SACD and the other released online. I'm thinking that the 360 mixes of Borboletta and Welcome should give a good indication of how the future SACD releases will sound. Be careful with Welcome, because the channels are wrong. The front channels are actually RL and FR.

If you know this quad mix, expect the same with better separation and fidelity. Truly enjoyable. For me the surround highlights are: Batka, Toussaint L'Ouverture, Guajira, Jungle strut, but overall the entire album is pretty solid from beginning to end. Much better in quad than stereo.

If you plan to rip the SACD, be mindful of the usual pop/click at the beginning of the first track on the centre channel. Easy to remove with Music Media Helper (remix > refresh silent channels). This one rips as a 5.0 but it's a quad.

A must buy, in my opinion.
Anyone ever figure out what that beginning pop is all about on these; and I forget, does MMH now handle dsf files (my preferred rip is to dsf?)
 
I first converted dsd to flac using sonore, and then remixed with MMH.
I don’t know why the pops are there.
I’m wanting to believe MMH does handle some dsf now (I’ll check into that.) But I also thought that the pop was on other non-silent channels for Live Evil or one of the others IINM, need to make sure it’s only the silent channel. I’m in the CRS Clubhouse like @boondocks but I’ve forgotten where I left my Clubhouse keys :)
 
Mine is still safely in Japan.
I was unable to change the shipping method online so I have to wait until an airmail plane becomes available to ship it........
Hope I get the discs before Christmas.



Im in the same situation. And awaiting a previous CDJapan order............of 3 REM MQA UHQ CDs...........hrumph !!
 
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