Instances where the * (MoFi) MFSL CD * -version is the best version of any digital format

How is it better than the original RCA or EMI/Fame CD?

 

Yes it's expensive. I paid a lot a few years back For a good disc.

 

Stevie Wonder- Innervisions
John Coltrane- Blue Train
Miles Davis- Kind of Blue

 

If memory serves, many years ago, in another thread, I believe Steve said the MFSL version of Year of the Cat was a flat transfer of the master tape. I own the MFSL, and several other versions of Year of the Cat, and I find it sounds rather lifeless compared to other versions I own.

 

I dig the EMI/FAME mastering.

 

I have both the EMI and the MFSL - The EMI cost me more BTW, as I found the MFSL in a shop bins for 8.99 years back. While I prefer the MFSL, due to it's "smoother" mid's and low's, I would not give up either disc, they are both excellent.

 

In actually, i prefer 2014 remaster of GBYBR to MFSL or MCA 1st CD. MCA 1st CD is lack of clarity and sounds trebly. MFSL is good but sounds little 'OLD' to me. 2014 Remaster has good tonality and clarity although a little compressed

 

GBYBR give me the SHM-SACD/Pt CD any day.

 

I'm surprised if there's a redbook version of HIGHWAY 61 REVISITED better than the DCC gold disc. Is it so, and are the other MFSL hybrids equally good?

 

I think MFSL did a great job with R.E.M.'s Murmur and Reckoning, although I haven't compared much beyond the original CD's of both and the later 2008 double of Murmur, so I'm not qualified to give a definitive statement on best all around, but they're better than the other versions I've heard.

 

Bob Dylan Bringing It All Back Home. Best I have ever heard it.

The Velvet Underground White Light/White Heat has been the best version of this on CD for a long time. I still prefer it today.

Yes I agree. It sounds like they rebuilt this album, and only for the better.

Also I suspect that the MFSL of Miles Davis On The Corner is hard to beat.

 

IMO, there isn't.

 

Agreed.

 

Agreed.

 

I don’t understand this viewpoint. In many respects, the WL/WH MFSL sounds better from a vocals standpoint, but there is serious clipping going on. How does that then make it the best version on cd?

 

There is no clipping on the title track
There are two instances of clipping on The Gift – at 3:06 and 7:18
There are four instances of clipping in Lady Godiva's Operation.
There is no clipping in Here She Comes Now
There are two instances of clipping at around 1:31 on I Heard her Call my Name
There is one instance of clipping in Sister Ray at 11:43

All these instances of clipping last for a length of about 3 samples.

I don't really think these are enough to concern human listeners or interfere with their perception of the music being reproduced. Or can be counted as 'serious' clipping. Do you?

 

I’m not trying to be facetious, but isn’t clipping (any incident of) a result of audio being mastered too loudly?

I can’t recall any example of a cd that sounded natural, relaxed, warm, and analogue that just happened to also have any clipping.

I realize that WL/WH is a poorly recorded, aggressive, needle-to-the-max cacaphony, but that doesn’t mean I have to turn it DOWN when I play it. I noticed immediately how much louder the MFSL is from all the other digital versions, though I did prefer it to the 1996 remaster. But the 1986 cd has more of that “vinyl” quality that I dig.

Just my two cents....

 

Do you mean distortion? The distortion seems to have been ‘baked-in’ to the mix at analogue stage. The distortion does not apparently come from the mfsl mastering. There is a lot of head-room in that mastering, which is why I looked at the digital clipping, which is what I thought you meant. Yes, the mfsl is compressed. Maybe that is what you mean. It’s possibly the most compressed version there is on CD. And yet for many years it was VU fans favourite version of the album on CD, which is why I said what I said about it – based on people's views on the vu forum over the years.

I agree that the 1986 CD is probably the most natural-sounding version there is. What is interesting about that remaster is that Bill Levenson, the producer, said of it that when they mastered it for CD, words to the effect – ‘that they could not leave the distortion as it was’. How they might have lessened it I don't know, unless they went back to the master tapes. The distortion is obviously there on other CD remasters, except the recent mono remaster.

 

Yes, heavily compressed. Agreed.

 

You mean the Target CD, right?

 

My favorite MFSL CDs are:

Eat a Peach
Bridge of Sighs
Mad Man Across the Water
Backless
Stand Up
Second Winter
Don't Cry Now
Marc Cohn
All Time Greatest Hits - Roy Orbison
Moving Pictures - Perhaps the best version ever.
Bookends
Back in the Highlife
Full Moon Fever

 

They both get slammed for the amount of bass, compared with the original CDs, but I really enjoy that phat bottom end.

 

"Miles Davis - Kind of Blue":
The MFSL is one of the best digital issues.
Album list - Dynamic Range Database
You can argue ratings/numbers ain't music; however, in this specific case of attempting to definitely define the superior release, DRD Ratings can figure into the equation.

Enjoy.

 

I am impressed with the shm-sacd of gbybr also

 

I found Bridge of Sighs, Second Winter and Full Moon Fever to be too bright on the MFSL Gold CDs.