Their Satanic Majesties Request [Super Audio CD] by Rolling Stones (The) (CD, Nov-2002, Polygram Japan)

I'm not about to put myself in the place of criticising the music of the Rolling Stones. That has been done by better and more insightful writers than I can hope to be over the forty years since this was released. The review is going to look at the DSD SACD release from a sound quality point of view.

1- Unless you are invited over for a private listening session by the engineers you are not going to get any closer to hearing the music as it exists on the masters than this. I own this as an LP with the early pressing reticulated cover. This sound is better than the analog LP.

2- Because the sound quality is so faithful to the original some pretty amazing stuff can be heard in the mix. Stuff that is usually cleaned up, amp noise, and the like, comes through in a few places. Uneven levels are apparent in a few places.

3- Having said that, getting to hear She's A Rainbow, arguably the most commercial oriented cut on the disc, in this format breathes some real life into it.

If this is one of your favorite Stones records then getting it in this format is worth the expense. You will not be disappointed. The SACD is dual layer which means it will play on any CD player. To take advantage of the DSD layer you need a player capable of playing the SACD format. I've not listened to the CD layer, only the DSD layer so these comments do not apply to the CD version on the disc.