Santana Lotus - Stereo SACD from Audio Fidelity (Dec 2016)

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Though I am in principle a big supporter of AF, I'm finding most of their releases in the last couple of years do not bowl me over.
Can't decide if that's due to mastering, album choice or my ears

The quads? They have been epic, nearly all of them. The RATM is very good, although the CD was also good. Has anyone run this through a processor of some sort yet, hardware or software?
 
Haven't had a chance to listen. There are no markings saying SQ or Quad. The original back cover painting is reproduced under the tray. It has no markings except a number.

My 3 LP set is from the EU and has no SQ markings, yet it is. I later came across Japanese LP's that were marked SQ. My other copy also has no other markings, and is also SQ.

I found out by accident in 1976 that my first copy was SQ. Evidently, I was listening to an SQ album before I powered down my Marantz. After a drought of over a year, I had a new Santana record to spin and couldn't wait to hear it. 3 LP's live from the fantastic band that recorded Welcome. DAMN, that doesn't sound like synthesized Quad! After looking at the settings, i realized it was set to SQ. Hopefully, these SACD's are the same.

Likely I won't have time today to spin them on a player that has a decoder hooked to it.

Linda, Happy New Year to you and Joe.

As my copy of LOTUS is currently en route, am curious......is there any mention in the liner notes that's it's from an SQ~encoded source?
 
Haven't had a chance to listen. There are no markings saying SQ or Quad. The original back cover painting is reproduced under the tray. It has no markings except a number.

The Stereo SACD edition of Santana Lotus from Audio Fidelity is definitely SQ encoded.
Decodes fine using either the SQ or Involve (QS) modes on the Surround Master here.

Bought my copy from Amazon. Arrived earlier this week.
They still have some copies In Stock last time I checked. The SACD is out of stock at some of the other web stores at the moment.
 
Has anyone else bought this to comment on the sound? I was listening to my old CD version the other day and Marpow's assessment is how I would rate it in general. I find that SACD's tend to take the ice picks out of overly shrill treble parts, which exist on this recording.....If I were to buy the SACD version I would want an improvement. :( Great live LP otherwise, have always loved Samba Pa Ti and you certainly get a very different version here.
 
Has anyone else bought this to comment on the sound? I was listening to my old CD version the other day and Marpow's assessment is how I would rate it in general. I find that SACD's tend to take the ice picks out of overly shrill treble parts, which exist on this recording.....If I were to buy the SACD version I would want an improvement. :( Great live LP otherwise, have always loved Samba Pa Ti and you certainly get a very different version here.

I have the SACD and the old version so i have compared them.
I cannot say that i heard any difference unfortunately so i am dissapointed because of that.
But i will have to listen more closely to be certain.
For sure i can say that there is no big improvement on this one, if any.

BUT as this is such an good album i am not regretting to having bought it.
And if this is the last updating of this album i want to have it of course.
Maybe i will discover some big improvement in the sound some day :)
It is quite cheap at WOWHD so it was not an big investment.
 
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