Dire Straits Dire Straits – Review Update
Dire Straits Dire Straits
Vinyl surface noise: 5
Dynamic Range: 4+/5
Stereo Imaging: 5-
Image depth/perspective: 4
Overall frequency response: 5
Update 2/28/2020
This is just a brief update to the albums full review that can be found here.
With no urging from myself Elusive Disc sent me a replacement album and pre-paid RMA label when they discovered that my original copy was in less than stellar condition, being contaminated with dust and having a very minor scratch on its fourth side.
The replacement album, limited edition number 005958, was 74 pressings younger than my original copy (006032). So was there an audible significant difference? Yes there was to my complete surprise.
- To my amazement there was slightly more HF level. I did an 006032/005958 comparison and it was clearly audible.
- The vinyl surface noise was very slightly lower on album 1 compared to my original album 1. However the album 2 vinyl surface noise seemed to be identical to my earlier pressing.
Other expected improvements included:
- It was pristine and free of all debris so did not require an initial cleaning with my Nitty Gritty.
- Its residual static level was very low
- There was no scratch between S4T1 and S4T2.
The most noticeable difference between the two pressings, that resulted from the increased HF level, was that Mark Knoplers’ vocals had a little more ‘bite’ and the overall recording was slightly brighter and more detailed. Either way both pressings sounded outstanding.
Note: I bumped up the Overall frequency response rating to 5.0.
All other aspects of the pressings that I described in my original review were exactly the same and so they should be for an album of this mastering and pressing quality.
So moving on some FORTY ONE years, todays modern mastering and pressing technologies and techniques of record production continue to extract everything they can from those old 1/4″ 15 IPS analog master tapes and into the grooves. Mo-Fi and RTI have done, and continue to do, an outstanding job.
I cannot imagine a better sounding vinyl version of this album ever being created. If you are into vinyl, rock and Dire Straits, this has to be the definitive vinyl version of Dire Straits; buy it before they are all gone.
Available on vinyl, SACD and CD from Mo-Fi, Elusive Disc, Acoustic Sounds, Music Direct and Discogs. (As of February 28th, 2020, Elusive Disc has this vinyl album and several others in this Mo-Fi series in stock.)
