I just tried the MQA version on TIDAL and “Sultans” sounds awful to my ears.
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I have to agree with you Leigh. It does sound bad. I will have to stay with ripped CD version I purchased years ago.
So the last three to post have commented on what they call the Sultans remaster even though I explained earlier that this has never been released before, and that they have no basis of comparison. Oh well.
Sultans is horrible compared to the SACD version or the older CD for that matter. Both Tidal and Qobuz sound the same by the way.
Maybe some versions should be left unreleased.
Really weird for a remaster of an album 
. I find it unlikely that it would be anything other than a conscious decision, but perhaps it wasn’t… 
Very curious decision. As is the intro and outro to Telegraph Road, the latter in particular very weak.
Yep, I agree it sounds terrible. I have the original German pressing of the CD when these albums first came out that are all ripped to my my SonicTransporter. They sound better than the “remaster”.
Fair point, Paul. In my case, I did realize it was a different version than the one I am accustomed to. My point should have been that it was a terribly engineered/mastered track. Abysmal, in fact. It’s such a shame as it’s an iconic song by Dire Straits.
Oh yeah, Sultans is just a train wreck. I noticed it straight away. Something is way wrong.
It is plain horrible. MQA files are not a sign of quality. You know it.
Ludwig just does not know how to deal with such projects.
It’s not sounding great on Apple Music in Dolby Atmos. 
The Tidal version sounds good to me, however the volume is a quite bit louder than my CD rip.
–MD
I stop reading at “newly-remastered edition”…
I like the original cd’s or the newer mofi sacd’s from 2019 are good. The remasters just seem louder with less dynamic range.
Brothers in Arms is a mess…the 2013 mofi SACD is good. The SHM SACD has an edited version of Your Latest Trick (4:43 as opposed to the full 6:33 in the mofi SACD and the original CD). There also a 20th Anniversary SACD which I didn’t care for.
The Dire Straits MQA files are crap… 44.1khz 16bit
A good comparison of the sound degradation remastering causes can be found on Natalie Merchants, Tigerlily. Original 44.1k vs Studio Master Edition 96k.
IMHO, the 44.1k version sounds considerably better.
The 44.1k version brings far better Bass texture, definition and detail to the recording.
A good comparison track is Carnival.
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Well, the 44.1 version on Tidal is louder… to my mind the 96 version sounds better if the average levels are matched. And yes, I know we’re not listening to the same files.
The Qobuz 96k Flac version has none of the bass texture and definition of the Qobuz 44.1k Flac version.
Very different. Soundstage/presentation is also different.
I haven’t heard the Tidal versions, as I moved away from Tidal to Qobuz sometime ago.
It all depends on what the label and artist decides.
I often buy some remasters on Qobuz, and buy the original non-remastered cd as well.
80s cd’s are more dynamic, but sometimes they can also sound very thin and digital.
For Dire Straits I prefer the original 80s cd-rips, but the Japanese shm-sacd’s and mofi sacd’s are also pretty good.
I also own the mqa-cd’s (bought 10 mqa-cd’s out of curiosity in the early days) but never really compared them, always listening to the cd-rips of the early German / French cd’s.
Since I bought my Hegel / Kef system ‘loudness wars’ are less of an issue. Heavy compressed albums are still listenable…
My Marantz-amp (pm8004) was very laidback sounding, which is ok with ‘audiophile music’, but albums with modern production and mastering were sometimes barely listenable…
IMO you’ll have to choose an amp that doesn’t sound laidback or wooly if you listen frequently to modern stuff.
Same for vintage gear… were made for ‘laidback sound’: vinyl playback and early digital, while current music is more ‘agressive’ sounding.
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