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

You get it.

There was risk in Mike 'breaking' this story- since it's a possibility, or even likely he'd lose Mofi sales,
and may have damaged his relationship with the suppliers. Hopefully that doesn't happen.
Think the InGroove has moved up the priority list to get allocations of scare records? Hardly.

Anyone who can't see that Mike is motivated by his love of vinyl, and wanted to find the truth
is blind or willfully disregarding the obvious.

 

No one cares 'why'.
Only 'if'?
After that it is all noise.
Would it change anything if we knew who made the decision?
It was likely pitched by people making the lp's to the higher ups who ok'ed it.
It was a business decision and none of our business.

We got everything we are entitled to.
Digital step? Yes
How: tape>AD DSD > processed > DA > lathe

 

I’m a Washington Post subscriber and I just received a push notification on my phone about their article on this. I was quite surprised, actually.

 

Exactly. Hardly discussed in this thread. Who gives a fiddle (man Im really trying to cut back on swearing here) if its digital or analogue if the mastering sucks eggs.

I think its interesting that the few Mofi titles that are being revealed as AAA sound inferior IMO.

 

Im just happy to find out you are married lol

 

I’ve been looking at mofi.com and musicdirect.com.

They seem to have a handful of MoFi LPs that aren’t common to both sites… like I can only find their Breakfast In America LP on musicdirect.

 

I was just joking. As in: "if she thought *that* made everyone look stupid..."

If my wife ever looked at this board, she'd probably throw my computer away.

 

Looking at the last post, whether Fremer is actually saying that Esposito was lying is a straw man. Everyone can read that he did not use the word “liar”, which doesn’t make his actual comments any less inflammatory or more accurate.

I have been skeptical of Fremer ever since he reviewed the Classic Rough Mix years ago. He proudly pointed out that they had scanned his original copy for the jacket, identified by the LAST sticker he had affixed to it. He then proceeded to give it a glowing review. It’s hardly the only time he’s done things like that. Any “journalist” would have dinged the reissue for such sloppiness, but apparently he couldn’t resist letting readers know that he was an insider. Any real journalist would have let someone else handle the review because he was obviously too close to the company, and that title in particular.

I don’t think he’s always just a shill or that anyone who listens to him is a fool, but he is very much a part of the audiophile establishment. It’s pretty clear that was a big reason why he was so offended that MoFi chose to invite Esposito instead of his fellow “seasoned journalists”, who can’t see the parallel between what they do and what young people call being an influencer. I half suspect the Post columnist quoted him so much to make fun of his pretensions.

There may be no love lost between Fremer and MoFi, but he came riding in with both barrels to defend the granddaddy of all audiophile labels (at least in name), at some personal cost to his reputation. They owe him one, as far as I’m concerned. It must be unpleasant to be portrayed in one of our largest newspapers as offended by his apparent irrelevance, especially when his quotes on the actual subject make him look misinformed and out of the loop. It’s possible to cut him some slack without trashing anyone else in the process. The best thing for him is to let his ill-tempered comments fade away rather than keep them alive by defending them. After all, I don’t think many people remember that Rough Mix review, or even cared at the time. If someone follows his recommendations and enjoys them, I really am happy for them. It’s very helpful to have someone whose tastes aligns with your own. (NOTE: to be clear, I don’t think Fremer is irrelevant myself. He’s a very prominent vinyl and analog equipment reviewer. I’m just noting that Mike E didn’t withdraw his video and MoFi invited him- not Fremer- to California. Fremer most certainly did feel unjustly overlooked).

 

No.

 

There is a lot more money to be made selling physical product though. Especially for the big three.

 

I'm interested to know what success:failure ratio you use to come up with 'isn't good'.

And to say they produced some real dogs - wow. That's more harsh than just saying there's better pressing available, eh? I'm sure in some cases there are but to call their stuff 'dogs'?

 

It’s on top of the paper’s Most Read list and the online version already has 948 comments. Big time, Robbie!

 

Ok, first let's accept that Youtube has everything from horrific amateur home videos to professionally made videos from qualified experts in any trade/craft/industry/profession, etc etc. All things are not equal.

Here's a recent example of a video that exposed me to some amazing early 70s heavy rock albums/bands I never knew existed (this is a good thing!):

 

George, do you recall back in the early 2000's when folks, including myself, were complaining more and more about records sounding "etched and analytical"? Like it was revealing too much or something? That was an ongoing discussion in threads here at times. Peppering several threads.

I dont hear that talk so much now. And I wonder if it is because digital has improved so much and also how the mastering engineers that work with digital to vinyl have improved their eq and technique?

Would seem obvious to me. As you say, digital has caught up.

 

Considering the context of the rest of the albums, I was surprised to see the Gila album mentioned. It's kraut-psych; more like Ash Ra Tempel than '70s hard rock.

 

There are two sides to that explaination. Both are valid

 

The masterings were pretty much the only reason why I have bought MOFI stuff. I knew they would be great. I only got letdown a couple of times. And before I found this forum, I could care less about masterings. This place and you guys are to blame....just kidding.

 

I didn't say he did it for exposure in WaPo and didn't say there was no element of wanting his customers to know about the product he is selling. I'm sure first and foremost as I believe he said in the video he wanted to know. But to simply say he did this for his customers against his monetary interests as was noted, is frankly a bit naive. Don't think pointing that out is cynical at all. I'm not saying he had any bad motives. I just don't see this as some altruistic act, that's all. More power to him for changing the way a business behaves and pushing them to transparency. Great outcome in that respect. While they are arguably bad actors in how they were deceptive in their marketing materials, kudos to MoFi for actually doing something about it immediately instead of telling people to pound sand, like say Springsteen and his ticket sales ...

 

Meanwhile I’m here shaking my head that what you’ve decided to take a stand against in this thread is thread creation.

 

Needed to cheat and lie to the consumers through marketing and promotions. Then over charge for inferior products.

 

Dang! They got me on that one.

 

Please take a break from posting.

 

Hell yeah, justice for Bread

 

Well, we know that at least since 1998 digital has been being used to some degree.

I mean this would my thinking over that period of time:

"So guys in order to get more titles and pump these out we are going to have to do digital. Plus the big guys are now hamstringing us. Unless we want very very few rock titles, then we will have to play ball. Now the big question is "How close can we get these digital to vinyl to sound analogue?"

Hypothetical? Sure. But not any more implausible.

I dont see them one day going Eureka! I think its very reasonable though to say that they saw potential in dsd as digital progressed. And as digital progressed so did their methodology and ways of practice.

So maybe both are true. They cheated for the money and they did it for the good of the product to get the customer what they wanted...great sound.

 

Experts, who needs em? Except I’ve learned more from Fremer about vinyl collecting than just about anyone else over the years. No question that he’s a loudmouth and his big mistake here was was shooting his mouth off on Michael 45rpm’s channel immediately after watching Mike E’s interview.
I can’t see how he can be accused of offering to collude with Mofi in any deception as some posters on here have alleged though. It’s almost certain his email to Jim Davis was sent before the truth was out so what would he be trying to collude in exactly. His email reads to me like he’s trying to get a foot in the door and wouldn’t be hostile- as Mike E wasn’t.
Seems to me Fremer’s reaction to Mike E’s interview is based mainly on their past history. For Mike F it was personal and that clouded his judgement just like some posters on here are letting their own personal dislike for Fremer cloud theirs as to his role in all this. Let’s not forget whose really in the wrong here. It’s odd how Fremer’s email even made it into the Post article. Why is that the story? It’s almost as if someone at Mofi wanted to deflect some of the heat from himself.

Come to think of it everyone comes out of that article better than Fremer including the Mofi execs. Funny that.