Hoffman Forums in Wash. Post: "How a Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire."

It's not simply a matter of demographics. I'm a boomer, and not a purist. I also think standard CD is a fine format. Naturally, it depends on the recording. AAA doesn't automatically guarantee spectacular sound.

Kevin Gray has done some work for Friday Music. I don't think he was mastering from mp3 or redbook.

 

You're missing my point, which is that folks couldn't hear the difference between the recordings whose virtues they have extolled repeatedly or historically as being all analog versus the digital reality to which they were listening.

The people to who I'm referring are not neophytes and it's not as if MoFi is or has been their only source or reference for analog sound. I'm talking about seasoned audiophiles who have heard lots of analog over the years and, based on that experience, insist that they can hear even the slightest digital "artifice."

Today's equipment does a tremendous job of converting analog at such a high resolution that the digital result is virtually indistinguishable from the analog. So, I was merely pointing out that those folks who thought the 1 Step was all analog (notwithstanding having been misled into thinking so), and who have been proponents of the position that analog is superior to digital, couldn't in fact hear the difference between the two. If any difference was heard at all, it likely was in the mastering itself.

 

Colored vinyl, flipping, and people listening to LPs on cheap equipment are entirely separate from MoFi's marketing and obfuscation.
It's about paying $125 for an album one might already have 2, or 3, or 10 copies of, and expecting it to be the ultimate version.
I like the MoFis I have, and finding out some of them have digital in the chain somewhere won't change my opinion of them at all. However, I didn't go for any OneSteps, never mind all of them, or most of them.

 

I wish there's a list of Kevin Gray- mastered Friday Music titles.

 

I've always liked digital done well, started before CDs with the Just Can't Stop It LP by The (English) Beat knocking me out back around 1980-81! There's gold and there's crap in every medium/format.

 

Hoffman Forums in Wash. Post: "How a Phoenix record store owner set the audiophile world on fire."

 

Discogs probably has a list of everything KG's done, but I don't think it would list source material or mastering chain.

 

searched "friday" on the list of Kevin Gray credits. Kevin Gray

 

I'm not sure why people keep saying that MoFi have not issued an apology. They have:

A Statement from Mobile Fidelity Regarding Our Mastering Process

 

Oh come on. I’ve read countless remarks here and elsewhere from so called analog only audiophiles who had praised MoFis sound (when they thought they were all analog) and now have reversed their opinions. That last paragraph was ver true and needed to close out the article.

 

Thanks, Mazzy!

 

Kevin recently told us on camera how the War Greatest Hits is the only project to be done on his tube system. Sound gorgeous of course.

 

That was probably more true in the 90s and 00s than it's been during the revival. Even during the 90s and 00s, the majority of vinyl that sold was probably digitally sourced.

 

Kevin's name and credit on the cover isn't comprehensive. Friday Music's Boston Don't Look Back (KG master) being one example.

 

Most of it digitally.

 

Thanks!

 

At least those analog advocates served as part of the catalyst that promoted the revival not only of the LP's (vinyl records) but also the re-emergence of turntables, cartridges, phono stages specially in the public consciousness.

 

I can't argue with that.

 

My Friday Music James Taylor Never Die Young has KG@CA in the dead wax. It might be the only Friday Music thing I have. Not sure.

 

I wonder whether those "secret" KG@CA masters are because Kevin doesn't want his name on the cover, or because the covers were designed before Kevin was brought in.

 

What is the outcome people are looking for here. Clearly they manipulated the facts, and misrepresented the product. Having said that, people seem to be quite satisfied with the sound and overall quality. I am a CDer and I am quite happy with most of the Mofi SACDs I own.

Seems like some kind of credit for anyone who purchased an lp that was represented as "all analog" would be a reasonable offer? We certainly do not want to see them go under or people to lose jobs, do we?

 

Gray's name is on the back cover, after Joe Reagoso's.

Maybe Kevin did the work, but Reagoso's name is on every FM release regardless.

 

Yup! 45rpm youtube guy questions Geoff about that, and I felt he did a great job explaining that ending the article that way simply ties in one of the bigger conversational pieces and debates that underly this topic.

 

His first four albums reissued in 2009 seem more 'careful' than what followed. I honestly dont think the subsequent albums reissued followed the same process. Correct me if I'm wrong. Yes, the 2009 Goldrush sounds amazing. Beautifully packaged too. Very sturdy album sleeve.

 

He got a reply from Mofi, though. The reply was "SHUT UP". Fremer admitted that very fact. He now lies in the bed he's made for himself.