Dire Straits (HYBRID SACD)

名盤中の名盤ダイアストレイツ 心地の良く良質なアナログレコードを聴いているような音質が印象的 ナンバーリングしてあるところもファンの購買意欲を高める一品

My copy was delivered to my office in Manila very late in the afternoon yesterday by EMS Int’l after the plane carrying it arrived from Tokyo in the morning. Very fast shipping from HMV Japan! The packaging is similar to other shm-sacd earlier issued. But this sure sounds different from the shm-cd version of the same album that I have. Much, much better! From the opening song Down To The Waterline, I was impressed with the very quiet background, crisp and smooth highs and big, deep bass. My very favorite Sultans Of Swing never sounded as good as this version’s (I also have this cut in the HDCD encoded The Very Best of Dire Straits). The details were near perfect： brilliant and sparkling guitar work without being bright. Mark Knofler’s voice is smoother yet fuller. The rest of the other cuts were just as impressive： they all sounded quite good. Maybe I can qualify this IMO as another demonstration quality sacd. This is quite an expensive disc compared to others just released and not yet out-of-print. Actually this is my 2nd shm-sacd (Aja being the 1st). I guess we have to shell out a lot for quality sacd these days. But in my opinion the expense for this disc is really worth it.