Dire Straits – Dire Straits

Just received this. Copy acquired in Apr 2025 by Amazon.ca. My copy does NOT come with a SYEOR sticker. It is a good and relatively quiet pressing but not a great one. While the cut by Bernie Grudman is great, the pressing could be better. Minus one star for the cheap matte print quality, which on my copy is "Printed in Canada". Overall very good but not great, but it's also affordable so...

Beware — most copies now use a newer cut by BG which sounds much worse.

First listen was a bit disappointing, riddled with surface noise, especially in the quiet parts and between tracks. Horrible actually, I was considering send it back. After 2 runs through the ultrasonic cleaner, it has definitely improved to the point that I will keep it. If listening at normal (not cranked) levels, it is perfectly acceptable. Cranked, I still experience some surface noise (ticks, crackle, etc.) between tracks, but greatly minimized.

As far as the sound, it blows away the original US CD copy I have. The mastering is fantastic, this is without a doubt the best I have ever heard this album. Perfect mix and soundstage is really nice with every instrument in its right place. Grundman did a great job cutting the lacquer as well. For $20 or so, and for an all analog processing chain, its almost a no brainer.

My initial review is 2 yrs old and I’ve lived with this record ever since, so I need to update it. This is a Beautiful press. Over the last couple years, I’ve given this a good cleaning a few times and played it Several. VERY good press!!! Excellent! Everything in all the right places and every frequency superbly present. Audiophile stuff imo. Beats the Crap out of the OG, that’s For Sure! If you find this exact press, Buy it!

Overall it sounds really good. Quiet parts and between songs is very noisy though. It gets annoying.

Sounds so good. Probably one of the top 10 sounding records I own. It is a shame that this pressing was plagued with flaws & I too went through a couple copies before having a good one & even this one has a couple (inaudible) flaws. Sounds so good though

I purchased my copy at Barnes and Noble. There are no hype labels at all and no mention of Rhino. Not everything matches up, so I'm a little confused. My copy is perfectly flat with some dust. It sounds great.

My copy has Rhino hype stickers. 180 gram vinyl looks fantastic, dusty yes, due to the heavy stock inner sleeve. Cleaned with audio-technica brush, nothing special. Plays dead quiet, solid bass, and Knopfler Stratocaster tone is wonderful. Love it. BG etched in the dead wax.

Mine did not come with hype stickers, so I am not at all sure this is the album I have. Most everything seems to match up though, other than who it is mastered by. This says Bernie Grundman and I can not find reference to any Mastered by on my album. If any can shed a little light, that would be awesome.

I haven't listened to it yet. The album was in a cardboard sleeve and was pretty dirty when I pulled it out, with lots of static. I'm not to happy with the quality so far. It is not warped like others have said here. I will let you know how it sounds to me at a later date/time.

edit: After cleaning in my Spin Clean I checked out the surface and it has plenty of scuffs some really noticeable, some pretty light and only show if angled in the light., sound was pretty good, but as expected it was pretty noisy from the get go, as some of those light scuffs was on track one. Not happy with this pressing.

Mine is warped pretty bad, but still tracks on my table. Great mastering, crappy pressing quality with lots of scuffs and the warp