Franzetti, Carlos: The Jazz Kamerata.

Franzetti, Carlos: The Jazz Kamerata (plays the music of Miles Davis, Pat Metheny, Keith Jarrett, and others). Recorded in 2005; location not listed. Engineers: Barry Wolifson and Nicholas Prout. 60+ minutes. Chesky SACD 287.

I first tried this smooth ensemble, "late night jazz" disc on a regular PCM player in my middle system (actually, a Pioneer CD/LD player) and the two-channel sound was excellent. The soundstage was tight, the focus was precise, and the detail was first rate. It also sounded good when given some DSP ambiance enhancements, courtesy of the DSP-A1's processing circuitry.

I then switched to the Yamaha player and the surround SACD tracks and got similar results up front. As with the PCM version, there was no discrete center channel (expected with standard stereo, but still a recording engineer option with SACD surround), but the soundstage remained as it was with the PCM tracks. The subtle amount of surround ambiance with the SACD version showed that conservative restraint pays off. Many of the other surround recordings I have reviewed had overblown surround levels, and the Chesky offerings I have auditioned have been notably superior in that respect. For the most part, the company has eschewed surround-channel gimmicks with their SACD releases.

Nevertheless, I felt that in terms of nightclub style realism the two-channel PCM tracks, working with one of the Yamaha jazz/club DSP enhancement modes to fabricate a surround effect, sounded a bit better than the SACD tracks. Either technology delivered the goods, however.