HiRez Poll Santana - CARAVANSERAI [SACD]

QuadraphonicQuad

Help Support QuadraphonicQuad:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Rate the SACD of Santana - Caravanserai

  • 7:

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 6:

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 5:

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4:

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3:

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2:

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1: Poor Content, Surround Mix, and Fidelity

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    53

sjcorne

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Joined
Jan 1, 2010
Messages
6,333
Location
Washington, D.C.
Please post your thoughts and comments on this 2022 reissue of Santana's classic 1972 album entitled "Caravanserai".
This reissue from Sony Japan contains the original 1970s Quadraphonic mix, remastered and released on Multichannel SACD for the first time in nearly 50 years!

(y) :) (n)

SICP-10142.jpeg

SICP-10142_ADD.jpeg

Pre-release thread for all shipping/ordering queries and non-poll related posts:
https://www.quadraphonicquad.com/fo...ltichannel-sacd-in-7-mini-lp-packaging.33126/
 
Disclaimer: have been a huge fan of this man & his bands for 53 years. I have only caught Chicago Symphony live more than Santana.

Please bear in mind, this is a 50 yo album. Recording technology has advanced a smidge since then. Weighing my opinion of fidelity here: pretty damn good for '72. Have been listening to this since the day of 2ch release and in Quad since early '73 (Quad release.) Q8 is my most listened to copy. A future project is to compare my US SQ & Q8 to Quad layer, and 2ch Japan SACD to 2 ch SACD layer. Another time...

10. Music, fidelity (for 50 yo) and performance are all spectacular. Yet, I've said here that I like several Santana albums better!?! Before you think I'm slamming this album, don't. It is one of my most played albums, even though I had over 200 others when I bought this. Just because I prefer III, I, Welcome and Swing of Delight, doesn't detract from how truly great this record is. Put it in my 100 favorite albums. Music is radically different from III and w/Buddy Miles Live, which preceded it. More instrumentally oriented, and a huge step toward fusion. Some killer guitar licks and band in a state of flux. If you enjoyed the active mixes on all the previous Quads, you won't be disappointed here.
 
While ALL the rage is currently devoted to ATMOS one forgets how simply amazing these early 70's QUAD masters were! Only 4 channels but what splendid sonics emerge!

Santana's CARAVANSERAI has been a fav forever! But until I popped Sony Japan's current QUAD remaster DSD out into my system, I have NEVER experienced Carlos' full throttle assault on the senses quite like this!

As always, SONY's special 7" packaging is gorgeous with that almost metallic cover art and what lies within ...... that lovely gold hybrid SACD with classy raised lettering and the SQ QUADRAPHONIC logo ........ make that 50 year wait almost a moot point.

I will most certainly file my MoFi Stereo SACD away ...... making room for this glorious, almost tactile QUAD remaster!

If only ALL albums sounded this sensational during the early 70's, ALL music would've benefitted from SURROUND!

But it's HERE....NOW.....and the wait was most definitely worth it.

A 10
 
I voted 8.

Audio fidelity on my Oppo 95 is faultless, irrespective of it being a 50 year old album. If all albums had this fidelity we'd think we'd died and gone to heaven, no loudness wars here but equally no master tape hiss or saturation or sounds of tape wear/damage etc. The quad mix is very active and very well done, a classic of how to go about it.

I'm knocking a point off for it not being the best of Santana for me, I prefer the harder Latin rock albums. There are some excellent tracks on here but only about half qualify for me.

I'm knocking another point off for the 7" album packaging. Sure it looks nice when new, but being paper on the outside it will wear with age. Getting the disc out is almost as difficult as digipaks. And for me this is a completely non standard size, I don't have any 7" singles and this packaging does not fit any of my existing music storage. I'd much prefer this in a jewel or super jewel case, or standard DVD or BluRay box. Then all the artwork would be protected, the box would be replaceable if it broke or got scratched, and it would fit in my existing storage racks.
 
I'm knocking another point off for the 7" album packaging. Sure it looks nice when new, but being paper on the outside it will wear with age. Getting the disc out is almost as difficult as digipaks. And for me this is a completely non standard size, I don't have any 7" singles and this packaging does not fit any of my existing music storage. I'd much prefer this in a jewel or super jewel case, or standard DVD or BluRay box. Then all the artwork would be protected, the box would be replaceable if it broke or got scratched, and it would fit in my existing storage racks.
If I REALLY want the music, and the packaging is a deal-breaker, I would probably buy the package and do some repackaging myself. I’ve done a handful of packages where I scanned the artwork from the original, edited it to fit, then printed a CD or DVD label. It’s a small project for me, but I’m geeky that way.

I do have limited space for non-standard packaging, but it will always be awkward, and I tend to avoid “unique” packages. I don’t understand the marketing.
 
I'm knocking another point off for the 7" album packaging. Sure it looks nice when new, but being paper on the outside it will wear with age. Getting the disc out is almost as difficult as digipaks. And for me this is a completely non standard size, I don't have any 7" singles and this packaging does not fit any of my existing music storage. I'd much prefer this in a jewel or super jewel case, or standard DVD or BluRay box. Then all the artwork would be protected, the box would be replaceable if it broke or got scratched, and it would fit in my existing storage racks.
I only take them out once to rip them. After that, they sit on the DVD/Bluray shelf just fine and they take up less space.
 
Always loved this album and this is the best it's ever sounded to me. Great stuff! And I've said it about each of these releases, I think the packaging is awesome. It feels more like the old record cover experience than any of the typical jewel box or digipaks. And to not have to buy a box set with a bunch of stuff I probably will never listen to more than once if even that or ,even worse, vinyl that I definitely will never play,is how I prefer my music purchases. If they keep going with the rest of the Santana quads I'll keep sending them money. And to get it from Japan before the release date was pretty awesome.

K
 
I never got beyond ripping CDs. Even if I did rip multi channel releases I have no means of playing them back multi channel.
Ripping SACDs is the most difficult, but I learned how to do it from this forum. Your player probably has a USB port that you could use to play the files from. I also use a network server.
 
I’m relatively new as a member, but was a lurker for a long time. I always thought that if I ever moved out of lurking, one area I’d never participate in was a poll. So yeah... I stink at predicting the future. While I think my hearing is still good, I don’t have the skillset to analyze things as deeply as others here do. With that out of the way...

I gave this an 8. Given the option, I might have gone 8.5. (Don’t know... are we supposed to revert to our early school math days and round up?)

As I mentioned elsewhere, this is my first time with this album in any format other than hearing Song of the Wind in the past. It’s nice for my first, focused experience with albums to be quad/5.1/Atmos. And I do love the quad mix of this album. While I love Atmos these days, I get just as much excitement and joy from a good quad mix.

I’ve seen the comments in the album thread about some harshness. I don’t doubt it and if I were to sit down with one of you, you could likely point out things I miss. But nothing stood out to me (with my musical analytical inexperience) as I listened. And I do try to take into account the age of the recording.

I’m not as much into the vocal songs, but they’re not terrible by any stretch. For me, it just messes with the flow of the other songs a bit. I know early Santana is a mix of vocal and instrumental. But when an album is mostly instrumental, the vocal songs stick out more to me.

Generally, I love the packaging of these 7" releases. As someone who used to collect comic books as a kid and took good care of them in mylar sleeves, I’m used to needing to be careful. Once I get these 7" packages and look through everything, I put the CD in a DiscSox. I never again open the full package. While impressed with the work that goes into the paper bits, I’ve never felt the need to look at it more than once.

One reason for that... on this one, even with a careful first opening, the fold-over flap tore about halfway. That’s a risk with this sort of packaging and it also caused me to drop the score a bit. There’s a line between needing to be careful to keep the packaging in mint condition and being terrified to touch it because you could tear something. I lean more on the terrified side with these 7" releases.

Overall, I love this series. My first Santana album was Shango, but I was generally familiar with the band before that... just didn’t pay much attention to the music beyond the singles on the radio. Hearing these albums in full for the first time in quad has been a lot of fun and I’ll be pre-ordering each upcoming release.
 
This can't be anything but 10. Just got done listening for the first time. I know I shouldn't really vote after only one listen, but I can't find anything to fault here. Just lovely immersive, slightly aggressive but not too-much-so mix, fantastic fidelity, all-time classic material and stunning packaging. We have been waiting a long time for these, but the way they are working out I wouldn't have anyone else but Sony Japan do this and do it right.

1972-74 Santana is some of my all-time favorite music, so in that I am biased, but this easily met my expectations and then some. If I am going to be super critical I would point out that the vocals on "All The Love of the Universe" sounded a little wonky, but that EQ is probably on the master tapes, and I didn't come for the vocals anyway.
 
I absolutely adore Sony Japan's Quad SACD series! Conflict of interest: I have never really liked Caravanserai - I have a CD release, as well as the MOFI SACD. After the first three brilliant albums, I never really fell for Santana's foray into jazz fusion and have consequently never sat down and listened to this album nearly as much as I have done the previous three.

However, after the epiphany of Bitches Brew in Quad, which is, basically, an entirely different album, I was really looking forward to a new listening experience. I played the SACD on the car stereo, after picking it up and had exactly the same reaction, as I did listening to MOFI's SACD the last time: WAY too much noodling! Where ARE the tunes? Why doesn't the rhythm section get their act together until the album is nearly finished? How much drugs were they DOING?

But on the multichannel set-up: a revelatory audio immersion and detail-revealing experience: from the crickets to the final gallop fading out. Excellent fidelity, wonderful discrete mix. I gave the first three albums 10/10 and still rate them higher than Caravanserai, so this will have to be an eight - otherwise, I'm just a hysterical guy who gives 10 to everything!

Quick postscript: Used CD Japan for the first time, as Amazon Japan STILL haven't got this in stock! Amazingly pleasant experience: immediate shipping, better packaged than Amazon do and in my hands a mere four days after ordering! They have my business in the future!
 
Last edited:
Back
Top