Saturday Night in San Francisco

Publisher: Horch House, HH04.00.215

Playing time: 51 min

Specifications: half track ¼", stereo, RTM LPR90, CCIR, 320 nWb/m, 38 cm/s

Reel(s):               1 standard metal reel, with sticker

Packaging:        1 standard cardboard box

Inserts:               2 insert sheets and 2 photo prints

Homepage: https://www.horchhouse.com/

Translation of the German review:

The premiere of this tape edition took place at AUDIO VIDEO SHOW 2022, which was held in Warsaw, Poland, from October 28 to 30, 2022. The room with the number 518 was rented from the tape manufacturer Horch House. This hotel room of about 18 square meters accommodated a stereo system and ten chairs. The playback unit was minimalist, but very exclusive: a Studer B62 sent the sound signals to the Dan D'Agostino Progression Integrated amplifier. This had the Wilson Audio Sabrina X speakers completely under control, so I'd like to talk about a "lucky punch". The wiring information can be found in the credits of this article. The monitoring equipment (except for the Studer B62) was provided by the Polish distributor Audiofast. The performance was awarded "Best Sound - Audio Video Show 2022 by High Fidelity Magazine": "It is very difficult to do it, but we try every time to point the best sounding systems. It is tricky, but we found some of them that was astounding. One of them is system with tapes: Horch House."

No matter how many people were in the room: The setup always played with such aplomb that the thumbs of the visitors were always up. In an atmosphere of invariably friendly visitors, often they were families with children, mostly listening intently, there were repeated requests to play "Saturday Night in San Francisco ".

Having listened to this music at the fair almost "to the point of falling over", I was very curious to see what would happen when I sat in front of my stereo at home two days later and played the tape. Fortunately, it was less problematic than I thought, because the magic of this concert is of a tremendous scale. At my home in Berlin, as expected, as in Warsaw, everything is right in the playback.

The track "Splendido Sundance" opens the album in a similarly spectacular way as "Mediterranean Sundance/Rio Ancho" on "Friday Night“, but does not follow the quite so hard speed competition of the string acrobats. In fact, I'm quite taken with the following three solo pieces, "One Word" (John McLaughlin), "Trilogy Suite" (Al Di Meola) and "Monasterio de Sal" (Paco de Lucía). For me, these are the magical moments of the Saturday concert, where the virtuoso "race" of the three guitarists pauses completely. Then the two long pieces "El Pañuelo" and "Meeting of the Spirits" are again typical of the concert series. Together with the last piece of the album "Orpheo Negro" I like the Saturday concert as much as the one of the previous evening. The alternative that opens with "Saturday Night in San Francisco" compared to "Friday Night in San Francisco" is a very nice story and once again shows the diversity of talents on guitars in a sound documentary that stands in a uniqueness worldwide: Three musicians at the zenith of their creativity, in mutual stimulation, with fun and enthusiasm in the process and always to the point, despite frantic speed. A guitar trio at the very highest level, where I can't imagine that such a story can exist again. Art in highest perfection!

The original tapes from Al Di Meola's basement have been expertly digitized and brought into sonic balance in this way. Recording and reproducing guitar music appropriately is not a trivial matter. The guitars must sound "real" and they do from this tape. The production is very low noise and follows the sonic characteristics expected from a tape.

For a recording comparison, I procured the LP edition from IMPEX, which has nothing to hide from the magnetic tape. See also the review by Dr. Thomas Senft ("analog" 2/2022, from page 70). On my turntable, the record sounds a bit more direct or analytical compared to the tape, and thus a bit more agitated. It was mixed by IMPEX from the original 16 track tapes, as opposed to the digital master file for the tape, which was pulled from the original two track tape at the time.

Given the choice, I clearly prefer the tape to the record. It's not about technical parameters like noise or dynamics. It's about being drawn in, about the effect, how the event speaks to me and takes me along, how it grips me. This is where the tape shows its full spectrum of precision, detail and playback quality and the associated captivating impressiveness: the listening experience is simply breathtaking!

Playback system in room no. 518 at AUDIO VIDEO SHOW 2022 in Warsaw:

• Loudspeaker: Wilson Audio Sabrina X

• Loudspeaker cables: Synergistic Research Galileo SX

• Amplifier: Dan D'Agostino Progression Integrated

• Power cable: Stealth Audio Dream 20-20

• NF cable: Synergistic Research Galileo SX XLR

• Tape machine: Studer B62

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)