Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Dire Straits Available Now
UPDATE 2026
In 2017 we reviewed a copy of Love Over Gold that really knocked us out. This was sound we had never heard on the album before, so as you can imagine, we had to tell the world -s or at least that small part of the world that accepts the reality of Hot Stamper Pressings — all about it.
Since then we have noted the value of testing albums with pianos and snare drums as those seem to be key part of some recordings that are hard to get right, which of course is makes them good tests.
Telegraph Road does something on this copy that you won’t hear on one out of twenty pressings: It ROCKS. It’s got ENERGY and DRIVE.
Listen to how hard Allan Clark bangs on the piano on side one — he’s pounding that piano with all his might. No other copy managed to get the piano to pop the way it does here, so clear and solid.
Wow, who knew? Maybe this is the reason HP put the record on the TAS Super Disc List. (I rather doubt he’s ever heard a copy this good, but who’s to say?)
Best test for side two?
The snare drum on Industrial Disease. Play five copies of the album and listen on each of them for how much snap there is to the snare. It will be obvious which ones get the transient attack right and which ones don’t. (If none of them do, try five more copies!)
One Way To Know
This modern album (1982) can sound surprisingly good on the right pressing. On most copies the highs are grainy and harsh, not exactly the kind of sound that inspires you to turn your system up good and loud and get really involved in the music. I’m happy to report that both sides here have no such problem – they rock and they sound great loud.
We pick up every clean copy we see of this album, domestic or import, because we know from experience just how good the best pressings can sound.
What do the best copies have? REAL dynamics for one. And with those dynamics you need rock solid bass. Otherwise the loud portions simply become irritating.
A lack of grain is always nice — many of the pressings we played were gritty or grainy.
Other copies that were quite good in most ways lacked immediacy and we took serious points off for that.
The best copies of Love Over Gold are far more natural than the average pressing you might come across, and that’s a recognizable quality we can listen for and weight in our grading accordingly. It’s essential to the sound of the better pressings, which means in our shootouts it’s worth a lot of points. Otherwise you might as well be playing the CD.
- More records that are good for testing the sound of the piano
- More records that are good for testing the sound of the snare drum
Want to find your own killer copy?
Consider taking our moderately helpful advice concerning the pressings that tend to win our shootouts.
As of 2024, shootouts for this album should be carried out:
How else can you expect to hear this record at its best?
Based on our experience, Spike sounds better:
Further Reading