Telarc SACD Sampler: The Absolute Sound

Good for what it is, however narrow.

The Absolute Sound has been a premiere audiophile rag for decades. If you are one, you already know them. If not, then there is only a small chance their magazine will be useful to you. They have another publication for home theatre, "Perfect Vision" which has far broader appeal these days. SACD is the format for this disk. Many of them are pressed in "hybrid" for use on conventional CD players. SACD is a significant improvement on the CD, which initially promised "perfect sound forever".

Telarc is a particularly high quality label that supports SACD. They have a fine list of recordings that extends far beyond these chestnuts.

To appreciate this improvement you need to have a SACD player. So the best use of this disk is to bring it with you to different audio stores to audition their equipment. Over time it functions as a reference disk, or benchmark, as you compare different sound systems.

Because it has only bleeding hunks of well known classical music, it has little other value unless you are interested in classical music but have little experience of it. In that case it may serve as a sampler to lead you to buy complete recordings of these selections. But again you need the SACD player, which you may already have if you are a jazz or rock audiophile. Otherwise, pass it by. November 8, 2006

More reviews at Amazon.com ...