At what cost though?
New Dire Straits 45RPM reissues from Mobile Fidelity
Sorry this took me awhile! I have finally had the opportunity to listen and compare these (4) new titles from MOFI.
Communique
Dire Straits
Love Over Gold
Making Movies
These are the JUST RELEASED titles on 45RPM from MOFI.
I was able to compare, (so far), Dire Straits and Love Over Gold with my various copies. I have the US, UK and German first pressings and Japanese pressings of both.
I have always thought that the German pressings were the best followed closely by the UK pressings.
These new MOFI's are ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!!! Super duper quiet and completely flat. The music just explodes from the black background. And the BASS...wow! Wide, open soundstage with exquisite layering and texture. These are simply the BEST pressings that I have ever heard from the Dire Straits catalog...period.
I have listened to the other two, (Communique & Making Movies), but haven't had the chance to compare them to my other copies. I have several different versions of each, but time has caught up with me. From just the listening sessions, I am pretty confident that they will too be better than any of the others.
They are already sold out at many places, but they are going to repress them.
All of my copies were between 100-200 as far as serial numbers go, so I do have some very early copies.
If you can find them, buy them. It's a no brainer.
ONE OF MY HIGHEST RECOMMENDATIONS!!!
Communique
Dire Straits
Love Over Gold
Making Movies
These are the JUST RELEASED titles on 45RPM from MOFI.
I was able to compare, (so far), Dire Straits and Love Over Gold with my various copies. I have the US, UK and German first pressings and Japanese pressings of both.
I have always thought that the German pressings were the best followed closely by the UK pressings.
These new MOFI's are ABSOLUTELY STUNNING!!! Super duper quiet and completely flat. The music just explodes from the black background. And the BASS...wow! Wide, open soundstage with exquisite layering and texture. These are simply the BEST pressings that I have ever heard from the Dire Straits catalog...period.
I have listened to the other two, (Communique & Making Movies), but haven't had the chance to compare them to my other copies. I have several different versions of each, but time has caught up with me. From just the listening sessions, I am pretty confident that they will too be better than any of the others.
They are already sold out at many places, but they are going to repress them.
All of my copies were between 100-200 as far as serial numbers go, so I do have some very early copies.
If you can find them, buy them. It's a no brainer.
ONE OF MY HIGHEST RECOMMENDATIONS!!!
20 responses Add your response
I got the MoFi 45 Brothers in Arms late last year. The sound quality was everything you say, simply stunning (one of the few that can stand up to a White Hot Stamper) but sad to say it was also the worst, and I mean absolute worst, pressings ever. Skips, pops, crackles, every track, every side. Acoustic Sounds told me it was the most-returned defective record they ever had. The next one I got was much better, but still by no means anywhere near what it should be. Way down at the bottom of all MoFi records I ever bought. Ever. To the best of my knowledge this one now is just another pressing run of the same record. Which if so is both the good news and the bad news. The good news being, sonically impressive to the point where you can pretty much put it down as the very definition of demo disc. The bad news though, more of a question really, did they do it right this time? Or did you just get lucky??? |
@millercarbon...please get your facts straight. You made this same comment on another post that has no merit. https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/mofi-dire-straits-45rpm-2lp-albums-finally-shipping That’s why I started a new thread because of your blabbering diatribe that has nothing to do with these. Geez, get a clue. To the best of my knowledge this one now is just another pressing run of the same record. Brother’s In Arms is NOT part of these! These took almost 3 years to release and MOFI made sure, (along with major input from Mark Knopfler) that they were done right. BTW, my copy of BIA is perfect and sounds great. These are even better. How about actually listening to these before you make stupid statements... |
How about actually listening to these before you make stupid statements... When I call Acoustic Sounds and they tell me yes BIA45 is the worst they ever had, and there will be another pressing run of BIA45 but they don't know when it will be, and then less than a year later sure enough there's another run of BIA45, how in the world is it stupid to wonder if its the same crap quality or better? Splain it to me. Seriously. You're the one throwing the insults. So explain to me please how its stupid to want to know? |
@millercarbon... My post(s) have NOTHING to do with Brother's In Arms, why don't you understand that? Either you can't read or comprehend or both. If you read and understood my posts, you would NOT have posted what you did. If you wanted to rip on BIA, start a new thread, but stay off of mine unless you have something USEFUL to contribute. These NEW reissues are COMPLETELY different from the BIA which was released almost FIVE years ago. |
I agree with the OP entirely. Great review mofimadness, thanks. I have the MFSL Dire Straits and Love Over Gold 45rpm disc and to my ears they sound about as good as they are ever going to get. To top it all the packaging is superb and the disc are very flat and quiet. But, then again, how about an Ultradisc One Step (UD1S) pressing?. Probably going to get some flak for suggesting this! Marcus |
@mofimadness I recently purchased the full set and cannot say it any better than your initial post here. I am blown away! My copy of Love Over Gold had 2 flaws and I would love to know your thoughts 1) Track 1 has the first 32 seconds with a loud whooshing static, then a loud pop and it goes silent as expected. I have cleaned the record, stylus and played many other albums. Every time I go back to this track I get the exact same 32 seconds. 2) The dynamics of track 5 seem muted. With every other song across all 5 albums the MoFi Gain 2 track is as you described above in comparison to the original US pressing. This song though sounds notably worse compared to the original. It is really odd. Music Direct is replacing the copy once the next batch is done. Track 1 seems like a physical flaw of my copy. Track 5 worries me that it could have been a widespread issue from the transfer. |
I already boxed it up and am awaiting the return label, but I believe it was around 5000. I don't think that is a concern as here are my other numbers and BIA is just as impressive as the others at its high pressing number. Communique - 6143 Brothers In Arms - 16777 Self Titled - 5001 Making Movies - 5872 |
@mofimadness Did you ever get a chance to go back and listen to Love Over Gold. I got my replacement copy and it has the exact same two issues. @thecommunity Does anyone else have this MoFi Gain 2 45rpm release of Love Over Gold that can check their copy for comparison to the two issues I noted above? From my perspective of my two copies, it appears to be a physical defect in the pressing in track 1 and possibly a remastering defect in track 5. MusicDirect said they would listen to my return and give feedback but did not. They now said they will not and cannot provide any further support. MoFi gave a weak and generic response and referred me to MusicDirect for support. Now I have emailed Rick at RTI asking for his input. He is listed on their website for tech support. That has only been a couple days so maybe he will reply. It would be great to get some feedback of the other 8000 or so owners of this record out there. |
@dhite71 Just to let you know that I got Love Over Gold yesterday (no. 1556) and had the same issue with Telegraph Road - except it lasted a lot longer than 32 seconds and will still evident throughout the whole track. Private Investigations had a similar issue. Evidently a very bad pressing - I noticed that the tonearm on my turntable was jiggling left to right at all times. The second LP was perfect though. Extremely disappointed though - this was my first MoFi purchase and at AUD $95 it wasn't exactly cheap. |
I'm late to this thread, but I have been waiting for a year for Mofi to repress more copies of the self titled album. Well, they finally did and I finally got my hands on a copy from Acoustic Sounds. It does sound fantastic, but not without flaws. I did notice on certain vocal passages and hits on the hi-hat lots of sibilance. It's disappointing to say the least. I've been hunting around on the internet to see if other people have had this problem. |