First, I love the music.
Sound quality varies somewhat depending on where the song was recorded and the type of the music. The type shouldn't really matter, but unfortunately, it did to the person mastering it. Also, I'm pretty sure that many, if not all, of the recordings are done *without* using DSD recording. Only mastering is fully DSD. Some tracks don't even appear to be high-definition recordings, as they have noticeably narrow frequence response curve. It may also be due to the synthesizers that do not generate very high frequency signals.
I've only compared two tracks for CD/SACD difference and the mastering difference is minimal. For example, track 5 has practically no difference, and track 13 has less than 3dB difference in dynamic range. I kind of asked for this since I didn't see the point of putting an inferior version on the CD side, but if SACD side is to be dragged down instead of CD side being brought up, then I say let them be different.
Overall, the quality is barely acceptable, hence 6 stars. For some songs, it's gotten worse than from her first album (Yumeji - SACD). If this is as good as it'll get, I'm not so sure if I did the right thing by flying all the way to Japan, specifically to attend her concert. Then again, even as is, it's way better than the other stuff out there. So what, though? One should completely ignore the lowest common denominator if one wants to get anywhere worthwhile. It's still far from deserving "audiophile" quality stamp, nor is the SACD thing even necessary at the current quality level.
