Updating the latest (and probably last) AudioWave Blue Note XRCD's:

After a VERY long wait, the Audio Wave Blue Note XRCD series continued with a few killer titles. You want to know about the sound up front, I get that. So here it it. All three are magnificent, the very best sound there will ever have on CD - and way ahead. The TONE is the most important attribute - the tone of real instruments, so rarely got right on CD and here it is absolutely as it was on the master tape. Piano tone is real, full, harmonically percussive. No turning down the treble - none of the 60 cycle cut that is so typical of the very inferior Analogue Productions SACD series. Horns are what any horn player knows them to be - the spit, the slurs, the split tones, the harmonics in the tone, the bite - all here. On Undercurrent, Mobley sounds magnificent, not at all the tonal lightweight he has often been thought to be. On Spur Of The Moment, Turrentine's tenor blows hard, with edge, massive metallic sound, the warmth and the bell like metallic sound of an Otto Link metal mouthpiece in the 60's. Bass is tight, walks all over, woody, sublime. Cymbals are smoothly metallic and shimmer. Jackie McLean's tone is perfectly represented - hard swing, tart, moves in and out of the changes.

On Undercurrent, often considered "Under-rated", Kenny Drew's lithe touch and sublime swing is the star, and Hubbard has the big sound and sense of lip on mouthpiece in every note that is entirely captivating. Sam Jones' big woody bass is captured beautifully, tightly, just as it was on tape.

These are the pinnacle of Blue Note on digital. HD Tracks, who have a very dubious and mixed reputation in the hi-res download market, have contracted to bring Blue Note to HD Tracks in 'hi-res'. But the mastering is what it's all about, and I doubt that even a HD Tracks download could ever come close to these XRCD's.

By guess is that this is the end of the Audio Wave XRCD series. I can't see them as having sold well, part of that is the much too long delays between titles, part must be CD sales in general dying out.

If that is the case, no better reason to grab what has come out while that is still possible, and enjoy the best sounding tribute to the classic Blue Note sound that will ever be available on CD.