Concord Jazz Sampler, Vol 2 Hybrid

Sound quality is wonderful. Music selection is enjoyable and provides a great variety of artistic depth. My expectations were pretty low as i have zero experience with the artist or concord records. Not to mention historically most samplers/variety discs ive purchased are very token. yet, this one had me engaged and looking forward to the next track.

I have owed this CD for some time and totally enjoy it. Recently, I decided to use the songs on this CD to truly calibrate my system. With the exception of Track 7 where the delay for the rear speakers needs to be several milliseconds more to get the alignment perfect compared to the other tracks, this is one of the best CDs to test the calibration of your system. Track 3 is fantastic for a sense of a real instrument in the room. Also, because I am from Trinidad & Tobago, Track 1 is a favorite since it features the steelpan which is our local instrument. Although the track is named Reggae-Later and is a Jazz track, Trinidad, Tobago & the Steelpan are better known for Calypso & Soca, which are other genres of music other than Reggae heard in the Caribbean and throughout West Indian Communities and Carnivals across the globe. Nevertheless, this CD allows you to properly test the levels and delays of all of your multi channel speakers. It does not hurt to have a test CD to help set the volumes of all channels, but you will know you have it right when this CD plays accurately. You hear it across the various tracks. Enjoy the music and the technology. Great stuff!!

This SACD was being sold at a very reasonable price, so I grabbed it instantly. It's a sampler of 12 different jazz tracks recorded in 5.1 audio. My personal system supports surround as well as two channel audio. Running the music 'straight' with no enhancements or surround codecs automatically defaulted to DSD audio and immediately I could hear the rear channels engage. Whether or not you'll like the music offered is a matter of taste. But the quality of sound is amazing. Of the 12 tracks, I really enjoyed about half of them and felt indifferent toward the rest. Regardless, this disc will make a great reference for demonstrating my home audio system to guests and friends. 3 stars for song selection, and an extra star for sound quality. A few more tracks more in line with my personal tastes and it would have been an easy 5 stars. Expect great surround implementation, crisp, detailed layers and hauntingly realistic vocals if your system is up to the task. As a compilation, also expect that you won't like EVERY song, but as long as there's a few you do, it's worth it for the price.

I build my own audio equipment, and I bought this disc as a ready source of well-recorded tracks to help "voice" my speakers. My first reaction is wow! As other reviewers have commented, track 3, The Real Blues, by The Ray Brown Trio, is worth the price of the disc in itself. It begins with a bit of bass, and playing to the audience (this track was recorded live? Outstanding!). To really show off your system's bass fidelity (or lack thereof) this track shines. The buzzing of the bass strings on the fretboard, the attack of the plucked notes, and a few really deep notes that really dig down low - I was floored.A few other tracks are standouts as well. If you can't get to 3rd base with track 5 playing, it's not going to happen, brother. The sax just sounds - real - and I've heard a lot of live sax. The Maynard Ferguson track is great. Track 9 - Funk Pie, by Jack McDuff/Joey DeFrancesco, is fun. That being said, this is a disc you can put on to play without any dread. Some samplers have "that dreadful track" that sounds like %^$#!. Not to worry with this disc. Not every track will likely be exactly to your liking or normal tastes (that's what "sampler" means, really!), but they are all obviously good.The only negative reviews for this disc come from a few people who complained that they didn't like jazz music, or that expected all the tracks on a sampler disc to conform to their own narrow tastes. Uh, I'll leave it to you, faithful reader, to draw your own conclusions about the reliability of such reviewers. I should note that if your system is the basic discount store home-theater-in-a-box it's likely that you won't hear anything magical here. Oh, I would hope you'd appreciate the music, but you might not be floored by the fidelity. I have a system designed for music reproduction, and I am amazed. The recording quality, compared to your typical pop album, is night and day, seriously.About the best endorsement I can give (and I rarely review anything) is that I went straight to the Concord website to browse other titles. I'm listening to this disc right now, and it swings, man! Track 2 - Nature Boy by Nnenna Freelon, and not my normal cup of tea - is really growing on me. That's what a sampler disc is for, to remind us that there is great stuff being done outside of our pet interests... ya. This delivers.

I was looking for a CD to balance my 5.1 sound system. It served me well!

The music is really great but as far as clarity and dynamic range are concerned, I've heard far better SACDs. This one is just acceptable with no real "Wow" factor when I gave it a first listen. It's not the worst sounding but it's not the best sounding SACD from DSD I've heard.

Because of some of the bad reviews I almost did not buy this, Some people just like to complain, this sounds great and a good arrangement of music.

Have recently acquired a DVD player that is also a SACD player and so I am exploring and buying a few SACDs to see what they can sound like. Although I am not necessarily a big jazz head this is pretty good and the 3rd track "The Real Blues" by the Ray Brown Trio is worth the price of admission on its own - hits me where I live as I am a blues fan. The CONCORD Jazz SACD Sampler Volume 1 is also pretty good on the basis of the reviews I have seen but why is it so expensive?? C'mon CONCORD if it's that good make a few more copies of Volume 1 available.