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Brothers In Arms - 20th Anniversary Edition

Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms - 20th Anniversary Edition Audio CD

A fair review of the Dire Straits "Brothers In Arms - 20th Anniversary Edition" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Dire Straits reviews here, or go back to the Dire Straits tabs.

Band: Dire Straits
Title: Brothers In Arms - 20th Anniversary Edition
Rating:

Release Date: 2005-08-16
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: So Far Away 2: Money For Nothing 3: Walk of Life 4: Your Latest Trick 5: Why Worry 6: Ride Across the River 7: Man's Too Strong 8: One World 9: Brothers in Arms

One of the best albums ever released
This edition kicks it up another notch. Brothers in Arms is one of the greatest albums of all time. Over the years, since 1985, I have listened to this album on tape, LP, CD, MP3 and now in this super edition.

If this album does not give you the goose bumps with Money for Nothing, Ride Across the River, Man's too Strong and Brothers in Arms, I don't know what will.

To fully appreciate Dire Straits mastery, check out guitar playing book by Mark Knopfler and, of course other albums by Dire Straits. They are all amazing in their own right. You can also check out interviews with Mark Knopfler on YouTube. That will give you the goose bumps too, when you hear how he lets his guitar sing "because his voice goes only so far. ".

A Must Have For Critical Audiophiles and Collectors!
The following are the features and specs on this release:
Dual Disc with side1: CD Audio newly remastered in 24Bit and encoded with HDCD (Great choice for HDCD CDs lovers)
Side2: DVD-Audio (Fully Copy Protected) meaning you must utilize your DVD players 5. Although the studio never specifically labeled this dual disc. 1 analog output and you have your choice of audio selections:
01. 5. 1 Surround MLP 96K/24Bit (Packed PCM)
02. 2. 0 Stereo 48K/24Bit PCM (Linear PCM)
03. 5. 1 Surround AC-3 Encoded/448Kbps
After all of the above digital audio formats occupied on a single layer DVD disc, there was no more space left for 5. 1 surround DTS encoded. What a tragedy for DTS lovers including myself! :o(
Overall, sound quality is excellent. Highly recommended!.

Perhaps the best DVD-A available
Since "Brothers in Arms" can be purchased in SACD or DualDisc (DVD-A), I thought I would offer a comparason between the two formats. Others have commented on the band, the music, and even the surround sound. Don't buy into "fanboys" who insist that SACD is the superior format. I am convinced that any significant differences between SACD and DVD-A are player-based. Some SACD players may sound better than a particular DVD-A player, and the reverse may also be true. In the case of "Brothers in Arms",The SACD was "resampled" from the same source as the DVD-A. In fact, the DVD-A MLP Lossless was basically a "direct transfer" at 96/24.

Here is what the people who actually mixed the surround versions had to say (as quoted in High Fidelity Review):

Thoughts on DVD-Audio and SACD Formats. . .

And now to the very end product: As touched-upon earlier, Bob Ludwig performed all the EQ in the digital domain from the PCM 96kHz 24-bit 5. 1 Nuendo tracks at his extensive facility in Portland, Maine. This was basically just a digital transfer through his EQ and compression at 96/24 for the DVD-Audio version, but then he had to resample it for SACD.

"I think both the SACD and DVD-Audio products sound great," enthuses [Chuck]Ainlay (credited for mixing the 20th Aniversary Edition). "However, from the purist point of view, I do prefer the 24-bit Meridian Lossless Packing (MLP) DVD-Audio (on the DualDisc) over the DSD hybrid-SACD version. On a previous Mark Knopfler album, `Shangri-La', we mixed to lots of different formats: We had a Nuendo session running 96/24; We also mixed to a DSD Sonoma system. Interestingly, as much as we had heard about how great DSD recording technology was, we nevertheless felt that it altered the sound to some degree, whereas the 96/24 LPCM was more representative of the original mix straight out of the console. In addition, we also mixed it to half-inch analogue tape at 30 IPS, as well as to 15 IPS, one-inch tape in two-track. And everyone in the room had the same opinion that the 96kHz 24-bit PCM was the closest representation of the console bus, and coming second was the 15 IPS one-inch analogue tape. Thereafter, it was a toss-up of which came in third and fourth - i. e. was it the Sonoma DSD, or the half inch 30 IPS tape? So going forward now, we have basically determined that we prefer 96kHz 24-bit PCM for recording over the Sonoma DSD. I was really surprised at that. I thought that I would like the Sonoma DSD recording the best, but after speaking with other people and Bob Ludwig himself - who is highly knowledgeable of DSD - we feel there is nevertheless is an inescapable `softening' effect which DSD imparts. To me this seems to emulate analogue to some degree, but is not necessarily the closest representation of the console output. "

So there you go. Since these discs are becoming increasingly rare (and expensive), you might want to just buy whatever is cheaper, assuming your player has the capability to play both SACD and DVD-A (which frankly seems to be the SACD, since this DualDisc is out of print). But if you want the closest representation of what the engineers heard in the studio, this is the version to get. .

Great album but...
I have to say that while it's nice to own this great work of art on a medium that won't get worn easily, don't buy it for the 5. I've owned this on cassette (lost), then vinyl (worn useless) and now CD. 1 mix. I was so dissapointed to hear all this remixing and remastering in 24-bit 96KHz audio was wasted on the dolby digital format, the absolute worst surround sound format ever invented. The gurgly watery sound of dolby digital ruins all potential this mix had. Not only that but I find the mix to be painfully compressed. Everytime there's a drum hit, the volume of everything drops then slowly creeps back to the original volume. All the pumping and breathing of the heavy compression is the kind of mistake a first year audio engineer would make and ruins what little potential that was left by the horrible dolby digital encoding. I was only able to listen to part of 3 songs before I decided I'll never listen to the surround mix again. I'd rather hear good stereo than bad surround.
On the positive side, the 24-bit 48KHz PCM version has all the life and beauty of the original mix. Dynamic and vibrant. It's just a pity they couldn't recreate that mix using modern technology as digital conversion is a lot better than it was 20 years ago. There's still remnants of the cold brittle sound of old digital technology that plagued the album originally but I'd say the new 24-bit master is slightly better than the original 16-bit.

Overall, it's still a fantactic album that stands on its own today and it's worth owning, just don't waste your time with the surround portion.

Doesn't quite hit the mark
I was happy to see this album release in surround sound but was disappointed by the lack of content and very disappointed with the fact that I still can't figure out how to fast-forward through songs on the 5. I've purchased the original PCM encoded CD more than once because I enjoy this album so much. 1 side of the disc. Why would you disable that option? I guess the people who made the disc had a lot of extra time on their hands from not having to add extra content to the CD. The recording label obviously wants the quick income of reselling this album without having to put any effort into remixing it or adding content.

You can see a complete list of all Dire Straits discography, or go back to the Dire Straits tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.