Review of the Dire Straits album Money For Nothing with comparison between CD, Cd remastered in 1996, streaming and vinyl of the new 2022 remastering

[Newman]

I believe the album was originally recorded in digital as one of the first digitally recorded releases

It is very very far from "one of the first digitally recorded releases", but its timing coincided with the commercial launch of the Compact Disc and players, so Philips showcased the album and IIRC advertised CD heavily on the World Tour by DS at that time.

ADC's of the time were not bad enough to be responsible for audible artefacts.

 

[Mart68]

I have the first remaster (1990s I think) of 'Brothers In Arms' on CD plus the original vinyl release. It's still a showcase recording 37 years on, on both formats. I don't hear any artefacts on the CD version.

The LP version was the first record I played on my first ever separates system back in September 1988 so I have a soft spot for it even though the outer sleeve got ravaged by a neighbour's cat back in about '94.

 

[Sal1950]

The SACD version is much better in this regard, as it retains the DR of the original CD but clears up the artefacts.

I have the 20th Anniversaryn SACD in 5.1. It's an excellent surround mix and is actually my "go to" for listening to Brothers since I got it.

It is very very far from "one of the first digitally recorded releases", but its timing coincided with the commercial launch of the Compact Disc and players, so Philips showcased the album and IIRC advertised CD heavily on the World Tour by DS at that time.

For sure, that's why it had to be the very first CD I bought when I got my first CD player. I think a lot of us that were around back then have done the same.

 

[Ashimaru]

Is it possible if have the 1988 version but in Tidal/Qobuz, will it be the same as the original CD version? Or will there be compression from the platform itself?

 

[Blew]

ADC's of the time were not bad enough to be responsible for audible artefacts.

Could it be limitations in the digital technology used in the mastering process somewhere? To me there is a distinct difference between the original CD releases of Brothers in Arms and Love Over Gold. Although BiA has much less noise than LoG, the artefacts/distortion of BiA make it sound worse in my opinion. However, the original SACD release of BiA doesn't have that issue.

I have the 20th Anniversaryn SACD in 5.1. It's an excellent surround mix and is actually my "go to" for listening to Brothers since I got it.

That remaster sounds a little too harsh to me for some reason, although I downmix it to stereo. Have you heard the original SACD release?

 

[haen]

I don't have all the right software, so I tried with what I have.
I have the 2019 MOFI SACD version of Tunnel of Love, which I ripped and converted to DSF for analysis, (noise shaping visible above 30k):
View attachment 214573
Dynamic Range Meter says 12.


I converted to FLAC 44kHz to cut off the HF noise:
View attachment 214577



This is the "Money for Nothing" CD Version, Dynamic Range is 14:
View attachment 214575


Difficult to ABX compare audio as the sound level is quite different.
The SACD sounds much smoother on the e-Guitar and has a different spatial arrangement / wider soundstage, even though the soundstage isn't great on both.
Overall I don't like the SACD on my Genelec speakers, sound is too dense. This has nothing to do with the DR, I don't like the mastering.

What is that software? I think I saw it on ASR some time ago but can't find it now.

Did ABX (foobar, on headphones) - for vinyl vs the original CD got 12/16, for the original CD vs Qobuz got 16/16. There is some higher-frequency sound around 7s that made the second comparison rather easy and quick. I won't judge which version is better, I'm not really into Dire Straits (for whatever reason often initially got them mixed up with Chris Rea, sorry!). From these 30s clips they all seems pretty similar. Maybe if I would listening to something that I know well and/or on some fancy HiFi set...