During the years of the rock revolution, my wife and I resided in remote parts of Asia. In those days, there was no inter-continental electronic culture available; no satellites, no cell phones, and no English TV. We were entertained with whatever tapes we had brought with us. As a result, our music culture development was halted on the day we left America. Then, the music all began to change. The guitars got whinier, the keyboards became acrobats, and the drums got angrier and more insistent. When we returned to the US, we heard what we'd been missing. We didn't like it because it came at us too fast and we didn't understand it. However, over the decades, some of the tunes became more familiar. Finally, "Forest Gump" introduced us to "Love Her Madly" where we see Jenny "walking out the door". In March 2010, a cable channel ran "Gump" every night for a week. I made sure I was watching each night as Jenny walked through the door so I could hear Jim Morrison ask if I love her madly. I bought my copy of "Best of the Doors", two discs of 19 tracks, and found there were other tracks I knew and liked. especially "Light My Fire" and "Riders on the Storm". "Spanish Caravan" makes me wonder how Morrison could have imagined a caravan in Spain. I've seen caravans in desert areas of North Africa and India, but Spain? You'd have to be hallucinating. Anyway, I like the guitar intro. There are songs in this collection I will probably never appreciate, but the current price makes the purchase reasonable. I'm glad to be re-living the late 60s of American rock although I missed it the first time around.
Harvey Follender

I preordered the Best of The Doors SACD a few weeks back and anxiously awaited its arrival yesterday. Finally got around to listening to it today, spinning it again right now. I have only listened to the Quad 4.0 mix on the SACD layer and it is the best I have ever heard these quad mixes sound. I used to own the Quad version on vinyl, but I don't think I ever got to enjoy the mix with my equipment, now 40 years later, I finally can, and it is very enjoyable.

The 4.0 mix is beautifully separated, every instrument is crystal clear, and these tracks sound better than the Perception 5.1 mixes which made very little use of the rear channels.

Riders on the Storm is a revelation, I never heard the bongo drums so clearly or even if I ever really heard them as they were buried in the mix previously. The rain sound effects no longer sound like bacon sizzling.

The tracks from the debut are only slightly less polished, but that is due to the how they were recorded. Still, the 4.0 mix lets these older tracks breathe and again much better than the previous 5.1 mixes.

Highly recommended.

While I can't claim to be a huge Doors fan, their music helped shape a genre that still endures more than 50 years since it was recorded (and our parents said it wouldn't last!) Sex, drugs, and rock and roll were the order of the day. Jim Morrison and The Doors helped sculpt the soundtrack of the era, and this is a disc that features some of their best recordings. Not perfect, though; I think I would have preferred the studio version of "Who Do You Love" over the live version, and I would have liked to have seen "Wishful Sinful" included as well. But you can't have everything, and for what this collection is, it ain't bad.

I had this album on the original CD-4 "Quadradisc" LP back in the day, but this SACD far and away sounds much better. The CD-4 system never really could sound great; too many limitations on the system, coupled with its dependence on a very high quality vinyl formulation that was unobtainable in the US, made it essentially a sonic disaster. Removing those limitations, the SACD delivers what the LP couldn't. And since no regular stereo version of this album was released until much later, anyone who bought the LP only to play it in stereo, got less than stellar sound there, too. I haven't listened to the stereo tracks on the SACD, but the 4.0 layer is faithful to what the quad LP wanted to do. So while I'd give it 5 stars on sound quality, the omission of "Wishful Sinful", which also didn't appear on the original and should have, and the live track, downgrade it to 4 stars. This is not the fault of Audio Fidelity, though. I applaud their efforts in their entire SACD endeavor. They did try this before and abandoned it, but I'm glad to see they not only resurrected their efforts, they nailed it! The DSD processing improves both stereo and multichannel sound considerably, and the hybrid nature of this disc makes it playable in stereo on conventional CD players as well. Hesitate not, my friends, to purchase any of the Audio Fidelity releases. You won't regret it.

Audio Fidelity has done an excellent job on its release of this SACD that was originally released in Quad 4.0 vinyl back in the day. It's definitely one of the better Quad's that I had back in the day and this SACD captures it all minus the pops ' n ticks that plague my vinyl copy after all these years. Riders on the Storm - in multichannel - is a real treat to the ears. On this particular SACD - there is a nice separation for the 4 channels. The vocals are font and center while the instruments share rear and front. And all are in good balance. Definitely adds depth to the music - revealing things that I hadn't heard on the vinyl for sure. A great release!

Very open sound on the 4 channel quad reissue. I had this Quadra-Disc CD-4 back in the day, but the vinyl problems with CD-4 were pretty insurmountable. This is a heck of a replacement with very good clean sound. I like the newer issues using 5:1 with the added center and subwoofers. This is from the Quad days, and although it is exciting and well defined, still sounds like it is recorded in a small studio...it does, nothing as spacious as the new stuff, but hey, this is 40 years old. Well worth having and reliving the great sound without the signal fouls that was always there with CD-4 vinyl. This should be part of your collection, fall back into the small studio in surround.
I have not yet listened to the Steve Hoffman SACD Stereo remix, but I expect it to be amazing - I bought it for the surround mix. I vote yes but it IS DATED somewhat, of course.