Back in Stock - Mo-Fi - 2LP Set 45RPM - Love Over Gold - Dire Straits

Oooo, what album is that one? Have not seen that before! Me want!!!!

Tom

Thanks, I will order it today!

Well, I did get in the SHM-SACD today and sat down to listen to it in its entirety. Forgive the random thoughts, I just jotted down some while listening. First off, I played it louder than the redbook version. Not for any other reason but that it allowed me too with no overponderance of any frequencies or annoying reverb, cymbal crashes, etc.

This is the first time I got goosebumps using the temporary Cary pre and i actually had whole body goosebumps twice while listening. That was a surprise to me and a testament to the recording/mastering itself because the Cary is nowhere near where the Dodd was at. After listening, I can't freakin' wait to get that Canary back in play!

The piano was more prominent, defined and natural sounding and it was flying all over the place. It was more enveloping and spacious with a completely different perceived depth field with many instruments and well, with Mark too. The guitar in song 2 was outF'nstanding. It was like I was listening to "Friday Night in San Fransisco" but with Mark playing. On that same song, I heard an echo while Mark was talking. I had never noticed this before and I've heard this song probably a thousand times on many a system. Not once have I ever heard that before.

The instruments went WELL beyond the placement of the speakers. I would estimate that they went about 8 feet to the outside of each speaker.

One thing I didn't like. Well, two things. Mark's voice was a little farther back on some areas of the recording (first two tracks) than I would prefer and the first 3 tracks had a noticeably higher noise floor/recording hiss. The last two songs did not have any of this though. They just went from black to music.

On one of the songs (sorry, I forgot to write down which one) at about 5 minutes or so into it, there is a heavy passage that has a hard cymbal crash. The redbook was somewhat annoying, this recording was not and the cymbal crash sounded like it was crashing in my actual room, not from a recording being broadcast through a set of speakers.

I have fallen in LOVE with Industrial Disease with this remastering. Once again, it was outF'nstanding! Man, there were sounds just coming from everywhere with many new sounds that I had not heard or noticed before.

There was a noticeable difference in volume between the tracks but I never adjusted the volume to compensate. I just listened. The lower spectrum of frequencies were much more precise, authoritative but refined. In other words, more punch and definition but with less "boom", if you will. I would say that this is definitely an attribute of the recording and not a deficiency.

Once I got to "Love Over Gold", the recording hiss and noise floor essentially disappeared and it sounded like Mark was in the room, performing before me. It was almost like an entirely different presentation of the song itself. Liked it so much, hit "repeat" when the song was over and listened to it twice in a row, so I could soak in all of the new sounds and instruments that I hadn't really noticed before. It was so much more natural, musical and "live" sounding. The xylophone was much more pronounced and a wonderful addition when on the redbook, it isn't so pronounced and with this recording/remastering, you could point a laser to each individual note as it was being played on the sound stage. Every single one of them. Pinpoint imaging.

As for the last song, well....it isn't exactly my favorite and usually, I get up out of the sweet spot at that point and just listen as I am tinkering or looking for the next album to put in the rig. Well, I stayed seated for this one this time. While it still isn't my favorite or anywhere close, I was surprised after about 5 or so minutes into the song. I have not had one ounce of "adult drinks" today and the sound started "warping" in a way to where I actually felt drunk, or on drugs, or something to that effect. I may have noticed that before but it was a rather cool effect to experience. It did this off and on until the end of the song.

Sorry for the long winded post. These are my observations of this one though (SHM SACD). Looking forward to hearing what the Mo-Fi sounds like. I will not know until next week (I believe that it is scheduled to be delivered on Friday?) what that sounds like but I am definitely looking forward to it.

I sure do miss the good ol' goosebumps!

Tom

dromunds wrote: »

Like I said before, the 1st Dire Straits album is my favorite. There’s also a couple other albums Mark’s done that are great but not that widely known. Check out The Notting Hillbillies. Mark’s first solo album Golden Heart is also great. Heck, everything he’s done is really good.

Got it and got them. Along with some bootleg recordings from around the globe that are...shall I say "illegally recorded...One of my favorite performances was him in Bergen with the top performers in their respective fields. For a bootleg recording, it actually doesn't sound that bad. The performance? This is my favorite from him.

My favorite recording? Now that would be hard to choose. He has many extremely well recorded albums.

Tom