AAA 100% Analogue This LP was Remastered using Pure Analogue Components Only from the Master Tapes through to the Cutting Head
Speakers Corner / Columbia - KC 31610 - 180 Gram Virgin Vinyl - AAA 100% Analogue
Limited Edition - Mastered by Maarten De Boer at Emil Berliner
Pressed at Pallas Germany
Speakers Corner 30 Years Pure Analogue This LP is an Entirely Analogue Production
TAS Rated 5/5 Music, 4/5 Sonics in the October 2011 Issue of The Absolute Sound!
Highly Recommended - HIFI World
Sound 5/5 HI Fidelity
"Speakers Corner's remastered Caravanserai sounds cleaner and sharper than the original. The incidental percussion on "Eternal Caravan of Reincarnation" is more audible and well-defined, and Michael Shrieve's cymbals much more crips on "Song of the Wind."" - Jeff Wilson, The Absolute Sound,
Speakers Corner has done a masterful job in re-mastering Caravanserai to 180-gram vinyl. The stereo separation is flawless, and the overall mix is balanced. The instrument layers are integrated evenly.4.5/5 Audiophileaudition
Drawing on rock, salsa, and jazz, Santana recorded one imaginative, unpredictable gem after another during the 1970s. But Caravanserai is daring even by Santana's high standards. Carlos Santana was obviously very hip to jazz fusion -- something the innovative guitarist provides a generous dose of on the largely instrumental Caravanserai. Whether its approach is jazz-rock or simply rock, this album is consistently inspired and quite adventurous. Full of heartfelt, introspective guitar solos, it lacks the immediacy of Santana or Abraxas. Like the type of jazz that influenced it, this pearl (which marked the beginning of keyboardist/composer Tom Coster's highly beneficial membership in the band) requires a number of listenings in order to be absorbed and fully appreciated. But make no mistake: this is one of Santana's finest accomplishments.
To attempt to categorize Carlos Santana’s music is, for the prophets of rock music, rather like dancing on the edge of a volcano. While the New York Times acclaimed the band as a "reincarnation of Dizzy Gillespie’s Cuban-jazz big band from the end of the Forties," Rolling Stone spoke of a "methadrine trip without visions." Organ-player Gregg Rolie offered a very simple explanation of the origins of the highly differentiated sound colouring and the throb and chirp of the Afro-Cuban polyrhythms: he succinctly remarked that, "each member of the multi-cultural band just played the music which he had grown up with."
It's already evident from the first number on Caravanserai, with its sounds of nature, twisted rhythms, and little snatches of melody, which as in several other titles remains spellbinding even without the fascinating drive of Santana’s lead-sound. Of course there is plenty of solo material on the guitar which manifests itself in exuberant improvisations with a fusion of rock, salsa and jazz elements. When listening to this well-oiled rhythm machine, one gets the impression that this unique band has stretched itself to its limits, and it is not by mere coincidence that they split up shortly afterwards. What has remained is one of the most powerful Santana records ever made.
Acoustic Bass – Tom Rutley
Bass – Douglas Rauch
Bongos – Armando Peraza
Drums – Mike Shrieve
Electric Piano – Tom Coster
Guitar – Douglas Rauch
Lead Guitar – Carlos Santana
Vocals – Carlos Santana , James Mingo Lewis & Rico Reyes
Santana Caravanserai Track Listing
1. Eternal Caravan Of Reincarnation
2. Waves Within
3. Look Up (To See What's Coming Down)
4. Just In Time To See The Sun
5. Song Of The Wind
6. All The Love Of The Universe
7. Future Primitive
8. Stone Flower
9. La Fuente Del Ritmo
10. Every Step Of The Way
This Speakers Corner LP was remastered using pure analogue components only, from the master tapes through to the cutting head
Are your records completely analogue?
Yes! This we guarantee!
As a matter of principle, only analogue masters are used, and the necessary cutting delay is also analogue. All our cutting engineers use only Neumann cutting consoles, and these too are analogue. The only exception is where a recording has been made – either partly or entirely – using digital technology, but we do not have such items in our catalogue at the present time
Are your records cut from the original masters?
In our re-releases it is our aim to faithfully reproduce the original intentions of the musicians and recording engineers which, however, could not be realised at the time due to technical limitations. Faithfulness to the original is our top priority, not the interpretation of the original: there is no such thing as a “Speakers Corner Sound”. Naturally, the best results are obtained when the original master is used. Therefore we always try to locate these and use them for cutting. Should this not be possible, – because the original tape is defective or has disappeared, for example – we do accept a first-generation copy. But this remains an absolute exception for us.
Who cuts the records?
In order to obtain the most faithful reproduction of the original, we have the lacquers cut on the spot, by engineers who, on the whole, have been dealing with such tapes for many years. Some are even cut by the very same engineer who cut the original lacquers of the first release. Over the years the following engineers have been and still are working for us: Tony Hawkins, Willem Makkee, Kevin Gray, Maarten de Boer, Scott Hull, and Ray Staff, to name but a few.
At the beginning of the ‘90s, in the early days of audiophile vinyl re-releases, the reissue policy was fairly straightforward. Companies such as DCC Compact Classics, Mobile Fidelity, Classic Records and others, including of course Speakers Corner, all maintained a mutual, unwritten code of ethics: we would manufacture records sourced only from analogue tapes.
Vinyl’s newfound popularity has led many other companies to jump on the bandwagon in the hope of securing a corner of the market. Very often they are not so ethical and use every imaginable source from which to master: CDs, LPs, digital files and even MP3s.
Even some who do use an analogue tape source employ a digital delay line, a misguided ’80s and ‘90s digital technology that replaces the analogue preview head originally used to “tell” the cutter head in advance what was about to happen musically, so it could adjust the groove “pitch” (the distance between the grooves) to make room for wide dynamic swings and large low frequency excursions. Over time analogue preview heads became more rare and thus expensive.
So while the low bit rate (less resolution than a 16 bit CD) digital delay line is less expensive and easier to use than an analogue “preview head”, its use, ironically, results in lacquers cut from the low bit rate digital signal instead of from the analogue source!
Speakers Corner wishes to make clear that it produces lacquers using only original master tapes and an entirely analogue cutting system. New metal stampers used to press records are produced from that lacquer. The only exceptions are when existing metal parts are superior to new ones that might be cut, which includes our release of “Elvis is Back”, which was cut by Stan Ricker or several titles from our Philips Classics series, where were cut in the 1990s using original master tapes by Willem Makkee at the Emil Berliner Studios. In those cases we used only the original “mother” to produce new stampers.
In addition, we admit to having one digital recording in our catalogue: Alan Parsons’ “Eye in the Sky”, which was recorded digitally but mixed to analogue tape that we used to cut lacquers.
In closing, we want to insure our loyal customers that, with but a few exceptions as noted, our releases are “AAA”— analogue tape, an all analogue cutting system, and newly cut lacquers.
PALLAS
Audiophile Vinyl - Made in Germany For over 60 years the family business in the third generation of the special personal service and quality "Made by Pallas" is known worldwide. Our custom PVC formulation produces consistently high pressing quality with the lowest surface noise in the industry. Our PVC complies with 2015 European environmental standards and does not contain toxic materials such as Lead, Cadmium or Toluene. Our vinyl is both audiophile and eco-grade!
