Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab has been cutting vinyl from digital since a long, long time ago...

Replying to my own post. It's on page 498 if anyone is interested.

 

Dont shoot the messenger

 

You beat me by seconds. Here's the link.

Mobile Fidelity has been cutting vinyl from digital since a long, long time ago...

 

Thriller is priced 100 dollars but i have the same feeling that they'll have an issue to sell these 40 000 copies...

 

This is, I think, where you’ve missed the paradigm shift.

They are digital in a high-end market full of AAA sourced records. They’ve deceived the market and artificially placed themselves alongside the likes of AP, Impex, and Speaker's Corner.

In this new reality, they are offering digitally sourced records for up to $125 whereas their true competitors, MoV, VMP, etc., are offering records at a fraction of that (albeit without the ridiculous box, to be fair). I think that end of the market has sufficient competition to survive without MoFi.

 

mpayan said: ↑
Did anyone ever state what practical difference it would make in using DSD 64 vs DSD 256 or vice versa? What differences would be heard if any?

This probably needs to be reposted a few times in case anyone missed it.

 

Of all the titles to be AAA… Kiko. Love it. Still holding out faint hope for Beck…

 

I think "MoFi being sued out of existence" is extremely improbable. I can't picture any one consumer having incurred enough damages (i.e. bought enough records from MoFi based on allegedly false representations) to make a lawsuit worth the cost. And I doubt it would be financially viable for an attorney to take on as a class action (those cases are very costly and high-risk so lawyers don't do them unless there is a chance for a massive payout). Plus, I don't think federal or state regulators in the United States care about the niche audiophile market, so I predict no government enforcement actions at all.

However, I could picture MoFi being financially damaged from lower sales and going into bankruptcy or out of business altogether as a result of that. I'm not sure how likely that is, but I think it's a real possibility.

 

Taking this a little too seriously are we?

 

Absolutely.
I think you're the first to address this issue.
In french it's called "distorsion de conccurence" and it's usually settled in court.
Now, all the market is messed up by MoFi's misconduct.
This is a serious matter.

 

I really hope they survive and can overcome this but the lower sales combined with opening a new pressing plant are likely a bad combination. A lawsuit would be worst case scenario. Those that ate discounting that need to consider there are plenty of extremely rich audiophile lawyers in existence.

 

They should just a release a strictly limited edition all analog one steps, whatever they can squeeze from one lacquer, price it super duper high, and then press unlimited digital one-steps of the same title at much lower price. that will be fun

 

I think the variance between DSD 256 and DSD 64 sources pulls the wig off the "bespoke transfers" claim. If they were always doing their own transfers from the master tape, they'd all be DSD 256 where tape is involved. They're probably using what they are given, just like MOV or any other label, nothing more.

 

Bottom of the page, in a quoted post.

 

Yep. I have no wish for them to crash and burn

 

Was round midnight digital sourced. Couldn’t find it on website?

 

@Steve Hoffman said you'd never hear the difference

Probably so as I trust his opinion there. But the price should reflect that they were using old transfers and weren't making their own

 

Don’t say that too loud: they’ll think you’re serious…

And, in all honesty, I wouldn’t put it past them

 

Yes. All Sony tapes done by MFSL are from DSD

 

Well yes, but there is only two companies doing one steps that I know of. As far as $100+ single title records I started to see that with Led Zep super deluxe box sets of each title, they where $130 and up. After that Rush, Pink Floyd, Beatles, Neil Young and some others started to do it at prices of $90-$135. By 2016 we were inundated with single title box sets adverging $90+ along with AP and MFSL that brings us to today.

Granted MFSL is probably the one on top that gives you the very least for a $100-$125 title. They were able to do it because of sound quality,exclusiveness, and people thinking they can't lose buying them because the secondary market would pay 3-4 times the price for them.

I started to grip about the one steps around the time they started to produce over 3000 3500 copies. For one thing you were losing the exclusiveness of very limited hand numbered copies. I also knew that the more they did they couldn't be just using the master tape. Yes even back then some of us knew they would need a working copy if they are cutting more than 2 or 3 lacquers. So as such are the records sounding different from copy to copy?

By the time Marvin's WGO came out I became very reserved as to the ones I would buy, because I wasn't liking the SQ compared to other same titles for less money. I also was pointing out the One Steps was starting to play the loudness wars but with records, as well as adding weird nuances that would make their records stand out, twinkel that didn't sound musical to me.

After that I had no FOMO, and I would get one or two here and there, mostly out of curiosity of how it would compare to other titles. In mostly all cases the One Step fell behind in what I thought sounded good, this is all documented in the one step thread and I was one of a few that were the odd man out.

 

I think the point was that some other countries have better consumer protections, not that nobody ever tries to pull some crap elsewhere.

 

Even Michael Fremer extolled the Rolling Stones in Mono box, knowing that it was DSD sourced. He said it was better than the original LPs.

This keeps having to be said, but the issue here is NOT that MoFi used DSD. The issue is that they made everyone think that they were using analog tape. If the Stones Mono box was marketed as being all-analog and was later discovered to be digital, we'd have the same complaints with ABKCO as we have with MoFi, but ABKCO was honest about what they sold, so nothing to complain about there.

 

Listening to Miles Sorcerer 45rpm right now. Sublime!!! No one is distinguishing this as being DSD or AAA. Amazing pressing.

 

Bet it's a DSD-mastered LP for which they used the SACD master...

 

I appreciate this is slightly tangential, but maybe some good might come of this debacle if it draws attention to some of the smaller outfits that don’t have the profile of MoFi or AP.

I have a particular soft spot for Sam Records. They have a limited catalogue, but the records sound great, the all round package (particularly for those of us in Europe) represents great value for money, and their marketing sets a standard for transparency. They’ll even add a hype sticker describing where there might be tape defects and the like.