Released in 2024, “Sweet For K” is the latest album by the Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio. This contemporary jazz album includes tracks like “Night Wind,” “Paris Bounce,” and the title track “Sweet For K.” The album is a tribute to Erroll Garner, a pianist whom Tsuyoshi Yamamoto deeply admires. With Hiroshi Kagawa on bass and Toshio Osumi on drums, the trio offers a collection of ballads and jazz standards, marking a return to their roots while exploring new musical challenges.

“The appearance of the recording is the same as that of the great poem, with analog multi-tape spinning. However, instead of recording directly to tape, the method is to record into Pro Tools via analog tape. You can almost experience the feeling of analog recording. However, the tape stops after about 20 minutes, so you have to rewind it.”

So it’s a digital recording, but with a 24-track studer multitrack before digitization. This preserves the characteristics of tape recording.

The illustration below shows the location of the instruments during recording, with the positioning of the microphones.

For this review, you will find 3 versions tested: Japanese Vinyl and SACD, Amazon UltraHD

Below you will find the description of the different editions, as well as the measurements of each edition in the following chapters.

The album is composed of 11 tracks:

1. Night Wind
2. Paris Bounce
3. When Paris Cries
4. Dreamy
5. Mood Island
6. Solitaire
7. Daahoud
8. Polka Dots and Moonbeams
9. Sweet for K
10. Laura
11. Garner Talk

Summary, scoring and Samples

Ed 1: Vinyl – 2024

Presentation

Tis is the vinyl record on one LP in 33.33 RPM (ref: SCLP-1071).

Waveform and Spectrum: DR14

The waveform of the vinyl record shows a high dynamic range confirmed with DR14.

The graph of the spectrogram of the vinyl recod show that the frequencies of the audio signal rise above 20 kHz (yellow arrow). The signal above 20 kHz (white arrow) is due to the signal present above 20 kHz and to the distortion caused by the vinyl playback principle.

The graph below compares the spectrum of the Vinyl – 2024 (white curve) with the spectrum of the SACD – 2024 (blue curve).The 2 curves are similar, with a treble boost (1 or 2 dB) above 4 kHz and an attenuation above 15 kHz (8 dB at 20 kHz) for the vinyl record (yellow zone). In the bass range, the difference in level is very significant, with up to 10 dB less for the vinyl record below 120 Hz (green zone). With this difference, the vinyl record will have a different tonal balance, particularly with a lack of bass compared to the digital version.

Synthesis and listening

This is a very fine pressing, but it would have been preferable to offer a double LP or witout all the track than to mat the vinyl record with a strong bass attenuation. This is very audible on the double bass compared to the digital version. The original sound of the recording is lost. It’s a shame, because the pressing quality is good!

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4.5)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Surface noise: ●●●●o (4)
• Restitution: ●●ooo (2.5)

Sample : Garner Talk” 24 bits 96 kHz:

Ed 2: SACD – 2024

Presentation

This is the SACD without a CD layer (SCOL – 1073).

Waveform and Spectrum: DR13

The waveform of the SACD shows a high dynamic range confirmed with DR13.

The SACD spectrogram shows that the signal rises well above 20 kHz (yellow arrow), with signal above 30 kHz (white arrow). The black arrow indicates the rise in noise above 30 kHz specific to DSD64 encoding.

Synthesis and listening

Very fine rendering of the SACD, with lots of finesse and dynamics. Perfect balance compared with the vinyl version, which attenuates the double bass. The use of an analog tape gives a soft but precise rendering.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4.5)

Sample : Garner Talk” 24 bits 88 kHz:

Ed 3: Amazon UltraHD – 2024

Presentation

This is the Amazon UltraHD presented in 24 bits 96 kHz.

Waveform and Spectrum: DR13

The waveform of the Amazon Music shows a high dynamic range confirmed with DR13.

The Amazon Music spectrogram shows that the signal rises well above 20 kHz (yellow arrow) and up to 48 kHz, due to the 96 kHz sampling frequency used. No signal beyond 48 kHz (white arrow).

Synthesis and listening

The Amazon version is similar to the SACD version, but there may be a difference in the listening experience depending on the DAC used and the processing performed on the PCM signal compared to the DSD signal.

Rating:

• Dynamic: ●●●●o (4)
• Bandwidth: ●●●●● (5)
• Restitution: ●●●●o (4.5)

Sample : Garner Talk” 24 bits 96 kHz:

Very nice SACD edition of this Tsuyoshi Yamamoto Trio album. The streaming on Amazon Music is also similar to the SACD. But the disappointment comes from the vinyl record, which with an equalization carried out for the mastering of the vinyl record with 10 dB less in the bass, loses all the sound balance as the extract on the track “Garner Talk” shows.

Dynamic Range measurements and spectra are shown below.

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Measurements

Dynamic Range comparaisons

Dynamic represents the ability to reproduce a wide range of sounds from the softest to the loudest. The target is to compare the dynamics of the music and not of the media (CD, digital files or vinyl).

For our 3 editions reviewed have obtained the following Dynamic Range (DR) :

	Vinyl – 2024	SACD – 2024	Amazon UltraHD – 2024
Global	DR14	DR13	DR13
Min	DR13	DR11	DR11
Max	DR16	DR15	DR15
Night Wind	DR14	DR13	DR13
Paris Bounce	DR15	DR11	DR11
When Paris Cries	DR13	DR13	DR13
Dreamy	DR14	DR13	DR13
Mood Island	DR14	DR14	DR14
Solitaire	DR15	DR14	DR14
Daahoud	DR16	DR14	DR14
Polka Dots and Moonbeams	DR15	DR15	DR15
Sweet for K	DR14	DR14	DR14
Laura	DR14	DR14	DR14
Garner Talk	DR14	DR12	DR12

As a reminder, the scale goes from 0 to more 20, but the dynamics are considered good from 12, quite good between 10 and 11, and deteriorate below 10.

Spectrum comparisons

The graph below compares the spectrum of the Vinyl – 2024 (white curve) with the spectrum of the SACD – 2024 (blue curve).The 2 curves are similar, with a treble boost (1 or 2 dB) above 4 kHz and an attenuation above 15 kHz (8 dB at 20 kHz) for the vinyl record (yellow zone). In the bass range, the difference in level is very significant, with up to 10 dB less for the vinyl record below 120 Hz (green zone). With this difference, the vinyl record will have a different tonal balance, particularly with a lack of bass compared to the digital version.

The graph below compares the spectrum of the SACD – 2024 (white curve) with the spectrum of the Amazon UltraHD – 2024 (blue curve).The 2 curves overlap perfectly up to 26 kHz. The maximum frequency of the Amazon version is 48 kHz (yellow arrow), due to the sampling frequency of 96 kHz. The SACD version shows an increase in noise above 30 kHz (white arrow) due to the use of DSD64 for SACD.

Detail of the ratings :

• Dynamic :
  1. Significant dynamic compression, DR less than 7
  2. Compression of the present dynamics, DR between 7 and 9.
  3. Correct piece DR >=10
  4. No dynamic compression (DR >12), dynamic rendering
  5. No dynamic compression, high DR and very dynamic sound rendering
• Spectrum :
  1. Spectrum cut and less than 15 khz
  2. Spectrum cut at 15 khz
  3. Spectrum not conforming to the original and cut (not HD) or original but limited bandwidth (but less than 20 kHz)
  4. Spectrum conforming to the original (but not HD)
  5. Spectrum conforming to the original with HD resolution (higher than 24kHz)
• Surface noise (only for vinyl):
  1. Continuous audible noise
  2. Audible surface noise except on passages with a high level of noise
  3. Reduced surface noise, barely audible on low level crossings
  4. Low surface noise, very good quality
  5. Very low surface noise, no defects, almost inaudible on the quiet passages (exceptional disc)
• Spatialization :
  • Between 0 and 5 for 5.1 or 7.1 channels configuration
  • Between 0 and 10 for Atmos configuration (7.1.4)
  • For more information on spatialization, you can read the article describing this parameter here.
• Restitution :
  1. Low quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments.
  2. Average quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments.
  3. Quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Good record.
  4. High quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Very high level disc.
  5. Maximum quality of the restitution mixing dynamics, clarity, separation of voices and instruments. Exceptional disc.

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