In mid 1985 I went to demo a new hifi system, to include a CD player, the go to album to demo how good CD was, was Brothers In Arms, and how impressive that was, which sealed a sale on a new complete separates system, upgrading from an all in one record player/cassette deck/radio system.
Here we are 40 years later and BIA is on Hi-Res Blu-ray disc and on my current system ( see profile) blows me away, like it did in 1985.
Anybody else got a similar experience with HiFi Equipment and special Albums from years ago to the present?
An impressive album and no mistake. I wrote a review of a CD/vinyl showdown that year in which, on balance, a valhalla LP12 with Basik Plus narrowly beat a (Philips?) CD player. We concluded that certain albums suited each medium. However, the closest run was with BIA, which split the listening group. Still a great album giving spine-tingling performance to this day!
I recently had this with the recently cut at half speed by Miles Showell vinyl version of Amarok by Mike Oldfield. My name here in the forum already hints at what I think of the album and the sound of that new version is really awesome. Originally recorded in 1990 as a one hour piece of music to suit the CD format, also released as a vinyl before with two sides of half an hour each, the new version is a double album split in 4 pieces of roughly 15 minutes. Although it hurts the original thought (one piece of one hour) the listening experience makes up for a lot!
I remember using Judas Priest’s Painkiller to demo systems in the 90s.
Comparing a Marantz CD63 KI Signature to the Micromega (which I bought) I remember it was because the Micromega gave the music more weight.
In 1997, when amp shopping, Moby’s Everything is Wrong (DJ Remixes) soon showed up amps which produced slack bass.
Still love both those albums. When we upgraded from 250DR to 300DR it was the Moby album and Pantera’s Cowboys from Hell which showed up the change in control. I’d never loved that Pantera album until we arrived at current system.
That was the earlier release in the nineties. The latest release from November last year is 15 minutes aside. And yes, there’s a big difference between the two although I have to admit that the original was not really bad either. But that may be related to the quite decent original recording (technically) as well.
@MoonDrifter I had a very similar experience back in 1985 or 1986. I already had the LP12 with a NAD amp (forgotten the speakers at that time). Went into town and heard Brother In Arms cd playing on a Yamaha. Bought the Yamaha and a few CDs, including BIA, brought them home and set up. In those days, the BIA vinyl was noticeably musically better. However the ease of playing CDs when friends were around overcame the musical gap.
Only problem was my mate also had the same Yamaha cd player. He came round one night and unknown to me was operating my cd player. It was a very anxious hour of seemingly random things happening every 10 minutes or so, until he fessed up.
As students we lived a couple of streets away from the nearest hi-fi store and all bought budget systems. I honestly can’t remember what I used to demo, probably some Kate Bush or electronic material.
We’re all different and appreciate different music types. Had BIA on cassette and enjoyed it up to a point.
A couple of friends always used DSOTM which I found very odd, I didn’t know it then and barely know it now.
So long as you enjoy the music it probably doesn’t matter as you have to use something reasonably familiar which is why I find dealer led demos sometimes a bit uninspiring if they play technically great music which has no appeal to me. Same for hi-fi shows.
Hah! amazing timing on this post. I was just cranking this record last night, along with “On Every Street” which is another fantastic Dire Straights recording.
I put together my first legit stereo system auditioning Brother In Arms in the late 80’s as well. “So Far Away” sounded amazing with my Yamaha separates, Denon CD player, and Kef 104.2s.
Now, sounds even better with my 222/250 combo and Kanta 2’s.
I think that anyone that was into HiFi in the 80’s will have had BIA. It was one of the first full digital CDs - DDD instead of ADD or AAD, if you remember those markings on CDs. I had a Marantz CD84, Cyrus 2 and Mission 70, all of it was chosen in part listening to BIA. Another favourite from that period was Bryan Adams - Reckless.
Both these still get played on pretty much every system I have had, I just know what they are meant to sound like. Constants in an ever changing world of equipment.
Indeed DDD seems so wrong now. I was watching something on TV from the 1990’s this week and it was 4:3 in 1080p - got me thinking that it would have been recorded on video tape and probably upscaled to 1080. Films from the 1940’s were on film and actually look better than most stuff from the 1990’s. Analogue audio and video has the ultimate quality it would seem.
A friend picked up the half speed master of BIA and it’s amazing - the source material instantly transports you back to 1985 but the SQ reproduction is so good that it’s emotionally engaging on another level
