DVD/DTS Poll Santana - Abraxas [DTS CD]

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Rate the DTS-CD of Santana - ABRAXAS


  • Total voters
    50
One of my favorite QUAD mixes, Same mix as the origonal Q8. Great music, and superb mix, one of the best. 10. :banana:
 
Due to the sonic quality, this disc is unlistenable for me. I like things bright, but this is ridiculous. Something went majorly wrong here. I'm almost afraid I'll blow out my tweeters playing this on my system.
 
I rated it 6.
Music is 10, no question.
But the dts-mix is bad. Sounds like bad encoded mp3. Much artefacts in the highs.
My SQ LP is more comfortable to listen to (but not that discrete)
 
Great music and mix but terrible production. Sounds more like a home-brew title than professional product. Not total crap though... I gave it a 4.
 
I always blamed DTS for the bad sound as this was my first DTS Quad disc. It's nice to know it's just bad mastering
 
No, it's not the DTS mastering--far as I can tell--but the bright nature of the Quad mix(and this isn't the only Santana Quad that will seem overly bright to many listeners). But that said, I always loved the playful nature of the mix, the way stuff flies all over the place at times...not to mention some things mixed up here that are mixed down and almost out of the original stereo.

It would appear this is the sort of title that is an acquired sonic taste...which I acquired long ago, so I can comfortably rate this one an '8' while acknowledging that there are some inherent drawbacks.....

ED
 
Ugh. A one.

Sonics are atrocious - edgy and harsh. And the mix... well, when I first put it on I flashed back to the Seventies quad LP, which my brain had mercifully consigned to the dead-letter bin of my memory. Whose idea was it to have the conga player run in circles around the room? Or to bury the guitar so low in the mix that it's almost MIA? Youlda figgered that, in 30 years, someone would have thought better of it, but noooo...
 
so many conflicting reports, though the haters are more vocal about it, that I've passed on the DTS cd too many times when it was cheap and now refuse to pay through the nose for something I'm potentially going to hate (and just leave to gather dust). if by chance I can find it cheap again, I'll get it and give it a try.
 
Never seen this at anything other than over priced a great album would love to hear the Quad mix but just not that much. must be a deluxe edition waiting to happen here.
 
The Q4 transfer compared to the DTS CD is like night and day.
Of course it's the same mix, but the Q4 is I'm sure it was supposed to be listened to...also has the right EQ (it has BASS!!!)...
I'm sure something went HORRIBLY wrong during the (DAT, ADAT, Hi8???) to DTS-CD chain...or the person on CBS's side was a moron...(which wouldn't surprise me in the least)
 
The Q4 transfer compared to the DTS CD is like night and day.
Of course it's the same mix, but the Q4 is I'm sure it was supposed to be listened to...also has the right EQ (it has BASS!!!)...
I'm sure something went HORRIBLY wrong during the (DAT, ADAT, Hi8???) to DTS-CD chain...or the person on CBS's side was a moron...(which wouldn't surprise me in the least)

another record company screw up!? surely not! :D

maybe Razor & Tie can take on Santana too and get us a decent Abraxas legit surround release at last!?
Maybe even, in my wildest dreams, a new SW 5.1 from the multitracks..!! Ha!
 
This was one of the first batch of Columbia's SQ/Q8 releases. I've had both of them and the DTS CD, US CD, Japan CD, Mofi Gold CD, Remastered CD, German 2ch LP and 1/2 speed CBS Mastersound LP. I've owned at least 9 copies of this. All the CD's until the remastered were either hissy beyond belief, or filtered with no high end. Most pressings of this are a mess in one or more ways. As far as the Quad mix, the engineers had a new toy, so let's see what we can do to astound people. The mix is nutty. A 10 for the music, a 3 (I'm being generous) for the mix and fidelity. Still, the music is so good and I would rather listen to a lousy discrete Quad mix, than a great estereo mix. It is one of my more played Quad and DTS discs.
 
A 5 from me.
And it was because of the fact that it was released!!!
And of course , the music is great...not my favorite Santana LP, but it's up there....
 
I really like the mix. I have the first MFSL remaster and I think the DTS disc is better, not by leaps and bounds but better enough. I would like to hear Carlos' opinion of it because something tells me that for the most part this desk is closest to what he envisioned way back when this album was being conceived.
 
The mix is straight off the Q8. It is one of those very early Columbia style mixes where there is no logic. The drums are split all over and get lost in the mix. Kicker back right, snare front left, cymbals back left, overhead front right. Spreading the drums thin like that doesn't work and they get lost in all the commotion.
It's cool if you like "all around the world" Quad, but it lacks any type of logic or focus.

Having said that, yes, the DTS disc is overly harsh in the high ends and suffers from some pretty serious noise artifacts. It's like listening through a glass of water or a very lowly encoded mp3. I've heard home-brew DTS discs that will blow the doors off this disc in terms of sonic quality. Tab's DTS discs are flawless. This one, should've been re-done like the Paul McCartney DTS.
 
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