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Dire Straits Remasters

Wow.

Picked up the Warner Remaster of Brothers in Arms to see the difference. Not only are things cleaned up, tightened up, and tuned up, but the whole disk, well, flowed better.

Just amazing.

I do not know much about mastering and would like to learn more. I've listened to several of the Riverside 20bit remasters on Jazz and have been unimpressed -- they are grainy and bright. And while the Riverside master is clearly in a different in genre, the SBM remaster is much better. Much, much, much better. So clearly there are different approaches in eeking out the last bit of fidelity in the flawed Redbook format and some appear more successful than others.

I suppose this rolls up into two questions:

1) Any SBM recordings you recommend (I'm replacing my Dire Straights collection with the SBM remasters)?

2) Could you direct me to resources (web or book) which explains the details of different mastering approaches?

Thanks in advance,
mprime
ig40
64 posts
 
Try www.store.acousticsounds.com
tfkaudio
591 posts
 
Music Direct (www.amusicdirect.com) will have the XRCDs. I'm going to wait for SACD. I was happy to notice that Mark Knopfler's new album, "Shang-ri La", due to be out on September 28th (I think) is being released Day 1 on SACD.
rx8man's avatar
rx8man
1,475 posts
 
I'm a little lost here, can someone tell me *how many* reissues are being discussed here and in what order is the *quality* ??
I went to All Music Guide and got a ton of Anti-Spyware popups on their site. (Yes I have a firewall, but I HATE these kind of sites where you have to "sign-in" and deal with ads, they're very strong pop-ups too, so when ever you change pages, you get hit big-time, P.I.T.A.)
hifimaniac
507 posts
 
I have the JVC XRCD 2 remaster of Brothers in Arms and it is the best of the redbook CDs I have of this album. The Vertigo is the next best. I believe it is due to the better manufacturing process used by Vertigo than by Columbia. Believe it or not, not all pits are the same. This was true with vinyl LPS too, some companies used better vinyl and were more careful in the stamping process. I think this is becoming more common in CD land also. Companies that have higher production standards are producing CDs that will sound better on a high resolution system.
mprime OP
92 posts
 
Rx8man,

I'm learning as you are! So far there is the standard issue CD, a remastered version (with Japanese & UK offerings in addition to the US one), and an XRCD version. That's five. Yikes. Seems there's great depth to a simple question.

As a side note, this reinforces my hypothesis that my playback is source limited; the differences between the comercial and remastered versions of BIA is far more material than the recent equipment changes I've explored. Have a trip to Amoeba records tomorrow to pick up my XRCD of BIA and will report back.

This is fun.

Best,
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