FF: There is nothing to argue re: your statement that some groups (and their instrumentation, production, recording engineering, ad. inf.) sound better to you on a good system (also hard to simplify the variables here) than other above above referenced qualities. Mark Knopfler knows how to hit you in the right places.
Strictly as a background note which may please you, Douglas Adams (alas, gone too soon at forty-nine) loved Dire Straits and mentions the fact in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series (also, HIGHLY recommended). His other big favorite was Gary Brooker and Keith Reid as Procol Harum--my personal high IQ rock legends. Try "Salty Dog" from 1968, Best Fishes, HC, English Lit and Physics Lab teacher, retired.