not the LP, but was just thinking about trying the Qobuz 24x96 files
ok! i'd be really interested to see how you get on because i just briefly checked out Apple Music & Tidal's offerings for these albums that turned out to be the last two Santana Quads and it looks like there may be different versions of
"Amigos" and
"Festival" floating about on these services?
Tidal is calling the 'Master' of
"Amigos" what sounds to me like the old 80's/90's CD that the artwork resembles (replete with the CD logo in the bottom right hand corner!) it sounds nice, not loud or compressed, so i think that is probably a pretty accurate portrayal of the original Stereo.
Apple has the same version of
"Amigos" as Tidal and then a different sounding one on a Complete Santana albums set where it feels louder and just not as pleasant,. then on Apple Music from that same Complete Columbia set is
"Festival" where its all squashed up into the Centre channel when I run it through the Dolby Surround decoder of the Yammy. yuck!
just grazing through my SM decoded Dutch SQ LP of
"Amigos" right now for the first time in years, a rather unappetising experience! everything's reverb-y and phasey, some stuff feels like it may be coming from 'somewhere vaguely over there' but i still feel its a confection from idk what, i guess the Stereo? maybe with some added reverb as it all feels clangy and whispy and possibly some other tricks going on that for me don't quite work. a real shame, a great album, deserved much better Quad treatment. both albums did to be fair, such a mystery why they are so.. weird in Quad!
edit: i forgot to mention there's two versions of "Festival" on Tidal, one marked 'Master' and some other one, they didn't sound the same to me, i thought i preferred the one not marked 'Master' even though it seemed it may be a more modern remaster.. anyway all just cursory listens nothing techie, DR, waveforms and all that Jazz which you may get into if you really get sucked down the rabbit hole with this one and/or
"Amigos"!