2022 Remaster of Dire Straits - Money for Nothing, sounds terrible

Just scrolling through Qobuz’s new releases and fired up said album. It sounds like 60kbps MP3 quality. What on earth is going on!?

5 Likes

I see @RBO posted a photo of the vinyl, so interesting to see what he thinks of that version.

1 Like

Hi Leigh,

Just what I thought yesterday morning when it was released. Albeit, it’s only Sultans which sounds funny to my ears and I thought that’s how they remastered this particular track - very bad :sweat_smile:

Then, my copy on vinyl was delivered and as soon as the needled dropped on Sultans I was WOW, this sounds fantastic!

1 Like

Not that you are at all biased to Vinyl of course :grin:

As I have all the albums ripped to FLAC from CDs I will stick to those

2 Likes

Definitely sounds like the digital version is money for nothing after all.

10 Likes

No bias today :slight_smile: I genuinely think there’s an issue with Sultans on the digital copy.

Curious what others have to say. Have you tried to compare?

That’s interesting. I didn’t get past this/the first track because I was so shocked I switched to my WAV rip just to check. 16/44.1 WAV ripped from original CD sounds great.

1 Like

I will try it later and let you know, though I trust your judgement TBH.

Mine listen will be on Tidal, though I imagine that they are working from the same file.

Give it a try and let me know what you think.

Leigh out of curiosity, why WAV and not FLAC/ALAC?

Is it to avoid the processor overhead of decompression?

I have heard Paul McGowan talk of this in the past, but assuming that it didn’t really hold true anymore.
For me the Metadata is more important, but always interested in another view.

Cheers Mike.

1 Like

I can confirm it does seem to be just Sultans that doesn’t sound right.

I ripped all my CD’s to WAV using EAC a very long time ago, before FLAC was really a thing. Since then I mostly stream Qobuz or Tidal. But if I had to do it again I would use FLAC for the metadata benefits.

5 Likes

Thanks for that explanation.
Ripped mine 3 times and finally to FLAC.
Was a huge effort multiple times :rofl:

1 Like

it probably just reveals how bad the original recording/master was. Compressed and boring to me. It is definitely not a bit better than any other version they ever released Money for Nothing. It’s indeed money for nothing.

I have a few versions of Sultans in my library and all sound wonderful.

Also, as I mentioned before, Sultans sounds fantastic on the vinyl copy I just received.

@David_Craff I know you won’t see this until you’re back in the office but it may be worth reporting to the label you received the file from that there something wrong with the first track - Sultans of swing.

As always, merci beaucoup :+1:t2:

Hello all,
same impression, this album remastered sounds like a “dead Dire Straits group”… no life, no good and no natural sound. Heard in several different conditions. Most of time I don’t like remastered albums, just made to give a new Marketing image ?
The most important thing IMHO is that the “original recording” is 100% carefully made. I own I think all audio and video possible albums from Dire Straits, vinyl too.
I just tried Qobuz album bud doesn’t know what exactly Tidal offers to their customers concerning audio quality for this album ?

I think I will stay with my ripped SACDs

1 Like

Right…

Gave the digital version 24/192 another listen and it’s not just Sultans which sounds off. There are other tracks as well so there is definitely something wrong with the file the streaming services have received.

The other remastered versions from Tidal and Qobuz have not synced with Roon yet. Let’s wait and see if those are ok.

I have the vinyl box set from a few years ago. Sounds great to me……as far as dinner party rock goes.