Columbia/Legacy has restored some of the best music in its catalogue, and this album gets a royal treatment. The three bonus tracks are from a live performance and give you a taste of the band's stage persona, but the sound quality is tweeked to perfection, if you have the old one, this is well worth the price. This album is essential to anyone concerned with an eclectic mix of rock. Blues influences are predominant, but the mix of jazz-fusion and Afro-latin rhythms make every track listenable and exciting. If your going to buy one Santana album, this is the one to start with, then go to his first and third albums. The rest will work out in time. A wonderful remastering to one of the greatest albums of all-time.

Wow what an album! Recorded in 1970, it proves that great musicianship is timeless and always delightful to hear. Carlos Santana is one of the greatest guitarists of the 20th century and he shows his technique here especially in "Black Magic Woman". Gregg Rollie (sp) blends his vocal talent perfectly to the style of music that Santana was playing. This is a great CD to any Rock-N-Roll fan especially on the end of the CD when you hear "Black Magic Woman" recorded live. A must have!

This is a review of the sound quality of the latest MoFi remastering of this album, NOT a review of the merit or stature of Abraxas (we already know it is classic).

Having had several iterations of this album over the years, most recently the last Sony remaster, this MoFi blows everything else away. Incredible clarity, great 3-dimensional imaging... it's hard to believe that after all these years, Sony hasn't been able to get so much musical information out of the mastertape for their previous releases of Abraxas and that MoFi just did. I should note that the earlier MoFi release of this paled in comparison. It was surpassed by the last remastering of Abraxas that Sony did, BUT it was state of the art at time of release, and that's been many, many years ago... FIVE STARS!!!

In my humble opinion, this is the finest album by Santana. The music is an absolutely fabulous fusion of latin/caribbean rythms and rock. And no one can get into the meaning of a note the way Carlos Santana can. I have owned this album on vinyl, CD, SACD, and now on DTS. The music is 5 star, and this is truly an essential album in any collection.

However, THE POWERS THAT BE in the music industry really blew it both when they converted the album to SACD and to DTS. To my ears, when THE POWERS produced the SACD, rather than go back to the original analog master tapes, they went back to a 24 bit/44.1k digital master used to make the CD. On my near audiophile system, I hear no discernable difference between the CD and the SACD. No matter how good the SACD format sounds, it cannot sound better than the source material. Garbage in, garbage out!

With the DTS version, THE POWERS THAT BE made a different mistake. On the positive side, some of what is on the DTS version is absolutely amazing. Notes and instruments and some vocals which were edited out of the original album show up, making a different experience and take on the music. However, it appears they forgot to mix in the bass. What is there sounds like blead over of the bass picked up on different microphones, or the engineer/producer or someone really didn't know the sound of the original album when they mixed this version. Santana's work is very dense, with tons of percussion and Santana's incredible guitar work. The bass anchored and gave the rest of the music a primal feel. Its absence on the DTS is really missed, and leaves the music feeling incomplete.

So, I give this version of Abraxas 3 stars for the mistakes.

This isn't a review of Abraxas, if you need to see one of those, there are plenty of those around. BTW, I think Abraxas on it's own is is four and one-half stars.

This is a review of the of Abraxas in DTS. Sound is something that has always intrigued me. In the early 1970's, stereo companies were experimenting with quadraphonic sound, with Columbia Records producing more than anyone else. While the quad records had some walkover of sounds from one speaker to the other, the quad tapes had their sounds wonderfully separated.

Abraxas, with the chimes, swirls of sounds, and organs resonating at full-force was one of the best of the quad records.

When I saw Abraxas on DTS with 5:1 sound, I jumped at the opportunity to own it. I have a 5:1 DTS Yamaha Stereo Receiver (5280) at home, but it is in my car (Acura TL with the ELS 5:1 DTS CD/DVD Player) that this CD really shines. Whereas the sounds were somewhat separate on the record, they are distinctly separate on the DTS system: so crisp and so clear that you can close your eyes and envision yourself sitting in the midst of Santana playing around you.

If you truly enjoy the sound of music taken to the "next level," get yourself a DTS system, and make Abraxas your first DTS CD. You will not be disappointed.