Carpenters Album: “Singles 1969-1981 [A&M Chronicles/SACD]”

The music is well known to us, but the icing in the cake is the excellent job done on this remastering. The surround sound is balanced, crystal clear and sonically impressive. This body of work certainly led itself to this beautiful treatment. If you have multichannel SACD, you will NOT be dissapointed.

Karen Carpenter possessed one of the most beautiful voices in popular music, but playback technology being what it was when these songs were first committed to tape, we never got to hear the true magnificence of her pipes. Never, that is, until now. Thanks to the Super Audo CD, and the loving remix by Richard himself, we can finally hear and appreciate what a wonderful singer she was. This SACD includes all of my personal favorites by The Carpenters. "Top of the World" never sounded so good; in fact, I was on top of the world as I listened to it. I was thrilled that they reduced the reverb in her voice that was present on the stereo (and quadraphonic) recordings, and the clarity of the instrumental backup made it clear that listening only in two-channel doesn't allow all of what was recorded to be heard. I was also blown away by "Only Yesterday". Heck, my socks were knocked off by every track on this disc! And the sound... well, if you haven't experienced music in full 5.1 discrete surround sound, you're in for a treat. And if you don't own a player for SACD, word is this disc will be soon available on DVD-Audio. All I can say is run, don't walk, to your computer (Oh, you're aleady there!) and ORDER THIS DISC!!!

Now this is the way to make a SACD 5.1 surround sound album.

As a Carpenters fan once I realised this greatest hits was released in the 5.1 surround SACD format I couldn't get my hands on it fast enough.

And I'm pleased to say I'm delighted with the magnificent job that Richard Carpenter and Al Smitt have done on the surround mix.

All too often it seems that albums are hastily remastered in surround sound with no real concern for the integrity of the original mix, often sounding like a pumped up stereo mix with a couple of jarring accents thrown into the rears with no real purpose or pleasure for the listener.

As you'd expect from a Carpenters record the quality is magnificent and definitely worth purchasing even if like me you already own the remasterd stereo version of this cd.

I believe it is the guiding hand of Richard Carpenter that makes this release what it is, as you'd expect no one would ever hold the production of a Carpenters release so near to his heart as the creator himself.

The mix throughout the album is always kept to an excellent balance often enveloping the listener with a perfect use of all the surround speakers but never losing the sweet vocals of Karen in the mix.

This is one of those SACD's that audiophiles like myself will play to friends whilst showing off the need for everyone to get into the SACD, DVD-Audio surround sound sensation.

I have been a fan since their career began and I have bought the usual formats that have been released including LP and now CD and now SACD. I have owned a universal player for about a year now and own several dozen recordings in the new SACD and DVD-audio formats. This remastered recording of 21 Carpenter hits in SACD is phenonmenal. Karen's voice is right up front and the backing arrangements are discretely separated into the 5.1 channels so that it is as if you are hearing these recordings for the first time. There is an utterly quiet background and it is hard to imagine that these are 35+ year old recordings. If you have an SACD setup you need this release. Kudos to Richard Carpenter for the immaculate mixing of these wonderful songs. It should be noted that this release will play on any CD player as there are three different layers, CD stereo, SACD stereo and surround.

Richard Carpenter had a hand in the surround sound mix for this album and he naturally presents the songs in their best light; the quality belies the age of some of the recordings and they all sound as fresh as if newly made. The album sounds good in stereo but amazing in surround; if you have the equipment to do it justice, don't hesitate.