The Canadian disc should have "Made in Canada" on the rear insert, yours (at least the one pictured in your ebay link )is clearly the old european disc (could be a French, WG or German pressing) Furthermore, the Canadian version doesn't have the "big" Vertigo and Phonogram logos on the rear insert, but the PolyGram one instead.
Gotcha. Thanks for taking the time on this. So, it doesn't always say "printed in W. Germany," etc? Sounds like some of these are hard to identify country of origin, but still easy to identify correct older mastering.
You're very welcome. Visually, the only way to identify the "old mastering" discs, as already stated, is the absence of the Super Bit Mapping logo. There can be "made in WG", "made in Germany" and "made in France" CDs, all equally good.
I've received 3 of the 4 so far, and surprisingly...Love Over Gold has been the biggest improvement. That's the worst of the remasters, to my ears. EQ'd to the point where it sounds unnatural. Putting on the old Vertigo debut and Making Movies after listening to remasters reminds me of comparing CD's with vinyl counterparts that sound superior. No enhancements, just a flat transfer of the way it was meant to sound. If all CD's sounded the way these old Dire straits Vertigo discs did, vinyl would have a difficult time beating the format on sound quality, for me anyway. They show just how great a redbook disc can sound.
A huge Dire Straits fan here. After comparing a vast majority of the old Dire Straits CD's if it's about the sound quality get the made in Japan by Sanyo Warner Bros. CD's. Targets for S/T, Communique' and Love Over Gold. There is no Sanyo Japan Target for Making Movies so the Sanyo Japan for USA original is best. For Brothers In Arms get the Japan for USA Warner Bros./Phonogram original and for Alchemy the W. German Target rules around here. The list above is the best and here are the rest. First release Blue Swirl Vertigo CD's [Very good but do not sit and simmer as well as the best sounding resulting in being a bit undefined due to minor equalization applied] Second release Blue Swirl Vertigo CD's [Good but definitely a step down in sonics from the original Blue Swirls] Third release Red/Orange fan swirl [Starting to sound hard and a bit smeared like a lot of other later 80's CD releases at this point]
I'm a big fan, and perhaps I'll seek those out some day. For now, I'm very happy with the red/orange fan Vertigos. Nothing about them is driving me to seek out anything better, as I think they sound fantastic. Also, I had no idea the sound was different between blue swirl 1, blue swirl 2, and red/orange fan. Thanks for the tips!
OK, I just discovered the early fade on Sultans. It bugs the hell out of me! Lots of warnings about this, I know.
Dave - I really like my orange swirlys Do you need a really resolving system to hear the differences?
The earliest red swirl Dire Straits Love Over Gold has the matrix 800088 2 01, i.e., the same as the original blue swirls. It's also quite thin like other earlier Polygram discs. However, all CDs can have bad sectors, so they may play differently in different players. But, as Barry Diament said, if they ripped perfectly, then they should all sound the same when the files are played back.
Sorry guys, I don't understand the hype for the original CDs!!! Listen to the original LPs.... blow away all Swirls Also the original Alchemy sounds bad to the SHM-SACD !!!
I agree the original LPs are better-sounding, but the swirls were the cheaper/best digital alternative.
You can buy the wonderful sounding SHM-CD ...or just get the old Warner CD.. for one penny + shipping
Given the comments I have read when a mofi sacd comes out for an album that was also a 2013 shm-cd flat transfer, I have a hunch the mofi Dire Straits titles may sound close. This is good news for Making Movies and Communiqe which didn't get the 2013 shm-cd treatment, although I think the original CDs I have of those sound very good.
That is my understanding, only the s/t and Love Over Gold got the "which was flat transferred from UK original analogue master tapes in 2013" treatment on those shm-cds.
eh, the faster, the better. By the way, I still see the one penny and one euro options, so those who want a cheap Warner version can still get one. Anyway, 5 or 10 dollars is still a great price for that OOP disc. IMHO, of course.
@Gerry Todd perhaps you should wait for the new SACD releases (if you are patient enough!) Have a look here: Dire Straits MFSL - 45rpm + SACD
I have an Australian Brothers in Arms disc that I bought at some point, I was trying to work out which version it is. Unfortunately I only have an ALAC encode from what was probably an EAC rip, the CD is on the other side of the world. The DR profile doesn't seem to match any version that has been posted: foobar2000 1.3.14 / Dynamic Range Meter 1.1.1 log date: 2017-02-12 11:00:28 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Analyzed: Dire Straits / Brothers In Arms -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DR Peak RMS Duration Track -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DR20 0.00 dB -21.30 dB 5:14 01-So Far Away DR17 0.00 dB -19.95 dB 8:25 02-Money For Nothing DR13 -4.34 dB -20.04 dB 4:13 03-Walk Of Life DR14 -7.09 dB -24.46 dB 6:34 04-Your Latest Trick DR13 -12.28 dB -28.01 dB 8:31 05-Why Worry DR17 -1.46 dB -22.64 dB 6:59 06-Ride Across The River DR14 -4.09 dB -23.07 dB 4:40 07-The Man's Too Strong DR19 -0.28 dB -22.05 dB 3:41 08-One World DR14 -5.45 dB -24.58 dB 6:56 09-Brothers In Arms -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Number of tracks: 9 Official DR value: DR16 Samplerate: 44100 Hz Channels: 2 Bits per sample: 16 Bitrate: 623 kbps Codec: ALAC ================================================================================
These DR values are so high that it can only be the first release from the '80s. It's pretty close to the other releases: Album list - Dynamic Range Database Are you sure this is an Australian disc? If yes, it should be labelled as "made by Disctronics", which started in '86 and produced most of the Australian CDs between '86 (manufactured in Japan) and '87 (manufactured in Australia, you'll see a logo with a Kangaroo and a text: "Australian Recording").
thanks for the reply, when i'm back in australia (having moved to London 10 years ago) i'll take a look. i can say it is highly unlikely to be an '86, '87 disc as I was only 10 years old then and definitely did not have a CD player. I bought it brand new, for myself, so it would have to be at least the early 90s if not quite a bit later.
