I just had a quick listen through the studio versions of Sultans of Swing on Qobuz (44.1/48kHz streams)
The original on the album “Dire Straits” sounds great
The version on “Sultans Of Swing - The Very Best Of Dire Straits” sounds the same
The version on “The Very Best Of Dire Straits & Mark Knopfler - Private Investigations” sounds louder with more bass
The version on this latest remaster “Money For Nothing (Remasttered 2022)” has even more bass and has lost a lot of top end making it sound muffled by comparison.
Very easy to hear if you queue them all up and just skip from one to the next listening to the intro
Martin
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AceRimmer
(Smoke me a kipper, I'll be back for breakfast!)
42
I guess by now we all know that this release sounds the same across all streaming services and there is probably nothing you can do. The vinyl reissue does sound very good though
From an old timer who’s listened to DACs and digital recordings for 35 years along with analog vinyl: the higher the bit rate, the more recent the release, the worse the sound. This does not surprise me.
Example: if you want to hear The Beatles or Bob Dylan or Johnny Cash or Frank Sinatra or Duke Ellington or John Coltrane, or virtually any of the greatest artists from the golden age of classical, folk, popular and rock music from the 1930s-1970s, then stick to vinyl, and in many cases, mono. Or CD on a very good transport/DAC or CD player. Streaming is sonically the worst in my long experience.
I have some of the world’s best and most expensive DACs ever made, the tubed Lampizator Pacific and the solid state Chord M-Scaler and Dave. I enjoy both of them. But I don’t expect them to sound as good as my vinyl setup. If I want to hear The Beatles at their finest, I use my Garrard 301 turntable with the SME 12” 312S arm and a true mono Miyajima Infinity Zero cartridge. Every Beatles album sounds hugely better in mono as they were supposed to be heard by the Fab Four who personally supervised the mono mastering, not the kludgy stereo version that some flunky produced. Same goes for Bob Dylan who detested the kludgy stereo reissues that Columbia did. Or the even worse SACDs of Dylan. Ditto for Duke Ellington and everyone else during this time period. Later remastering of The Beatles, Dylan etc. got progressively worse and each higher bit rate release sounds worse than the last remastering.
Streaming in digital is great for stuff you cannot get any other way. It’s like cassette tapes. It’s convenient, it’s simple but sonically it sucks. I’ve spent a fortune trying to get streaming to sound as good as my turntable does. It’s a lost cause. Now I don’t sweat it. I like it for what it is. Recent classical music releases of music I don’t have on CD are great to enjoy through streaming. When I want to hear the best classical or jazz or folk or rock music recordings, it’s either vinyl or redbook CD, which still sounds way better than any streaming source I have heard. Money for Nothing? Hear the original redbook version. Skip the 24/bit/192khz crap. It’s a marketing gimmick.
Unfortunately, you’ve been comparing apples with oranges. The version of Sultans on the vinyl is the original album version; the version on hi res digital is an early version of the single, recorded at a different time and different place. They inevitably sound completely different, and no useful comparison can be made. There are also some oddities in the version of Telegraph Road used, although these are at least the same on digital and vinyl. This is of interest to DS fanatics, but not to the majority of listeners!
Question: have you tried to listen to high resolution files but hosted in a server/player/renderer directly attached or linked to your DAC (USB or HDMI)?
My experience is quite positive and with much better sound than CD’s or streamed from some remote server
Well, my original vinyl from the 80s sounds better. Even the copy I ripped to MP3 @ 192 a decade ago sounds better, and that’s not so great. And I’m not a vinyl fan, don’t have the patience I had in my youth to turn the record over.
It may not make sense - I agree - but it is nevertheless the case. There’s plenty of corroborating evidence on the DS forum ‘A Mark in Time’. There’s no doubt that that the vinyl includes the album version; the streaming has an otherwise unused version of the single. Go figure.
Thank you for sharing your experience. My vinyl setup or older CD player sound much better than different streaming setups I’ve tried, and I was wondering if I should throw a lot more cash at it, trying to get it right. I won’t now and just enjoy the comfort of streaming, without expecting the best.
The first thing I noticed is that “Sultans” is an alternate version. The second is that this is the best sounding digital version of the rest that I’ve heard!
Been making some analysis and listened to the album
This is just plain horrible. Absolutely butchered it.
Also some high frequency artefacts that are not supposed to be there. Some files are just bad upsampled.
Terrible
Can’t agree more. Stumbled upon this myself yesterday. 20 seconds into Sultans of Swing I had switched to my CD rip of the album. Have no idea who remastered, mixed it. The MFSL remasters of the classic albums are amazing though as are the Bob Ludwig remasters from the Universal Box Set.
EDIT: On further read, I now need to listen to the other tracks if Sultans is indeed an alternate version.
just listened back-to-back to all my copies of this included the latest Qobuz download. The remaster definately has a different mastering approach with a different balance between bass and treble areas , and a different focus on the instruments themselves. On my system I prefer the Sultans of Swing remaster, the slightly overblown bass from the CD rip has gone, voices are clearer and more lifelike, cymbal high notes are easier to hear and overall energy and drive is much greater.
I guess it just depends what you like
