“Brothers in Arms” is the fifth studio album by Dire Straits and remains the band’s greatest commercial success, with over 30 million copies sold worldwide, including around 2 million in France.
Released in May 1985, the album received a Grammy Award in 1986 for Best Engineered Album, Non-Classical, recognizing its outstanding sound quality.
Pioneering for its time, Brothers in Arms was one of the very first albums to be recorded using the Sony 24-track digital tape recorder. It quickly became a reference album for promoting CD players, making full use of the format’s wide dynamic range. Its fully digital production—indicated by the DDD label, meaning digital recording, mixing, and mastering—marked a turning point in audio engineering.
To celebrate the 40th anniversary of this iconic album, we’re updating our comparison with the addition of new anniversary editions released in spatial audio, available on CD, vinyl, and a limited SDE Blu-ray edition with Dolby Atmos mix. This is also the perfect opportunity to include two SACD versions (20th anniversary and SHM) in the test.
👉 Discover the full review here ([link]), featuring 18 versions analyzed and compared.
🎧 Enjoy rediscovering this legendary album!
Find reviews of other Dire Straits albums:
