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

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by Mike M, Aug 6, 2022.

  1. Country Rocker

    Country Rocker Forum Resident

    This is the bit I don't get. Fremer was told on three occasions not to blab, so Mofi could make a statement. Every time Mofi failed to act on their promises. Fremer's response? Nothing. If he's such a great journalist, he would have blown this wide open. He didn't!! Mike from the In Groove did. Make from this what you will.
     
    mpayan, yasujiro, Mac B and 7 others like this.
  2. RichC

    RichC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Charlotte, NC
    One of my big revelations, years ago, was that the KG cut of Boston's debut for Friday (and I assume from digital) is slightly BETTER than the famous double Wally original.
    I have both. My Wally is practically mint. The KG is mint. Both cuts are almost identical, except Kevin was able to tame the (slight) top-end harshness of the OP.
    I was as surprised as anyone, honestly.

    Most digital-cut reissues I've heard don't compare to the best AAA original, but that's not always a hard and fast rule. Even for what's widely regarded as a really good original mastering, in the case of the Wally.
     
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  3. misteranderson

    misteranderson Forum Resident

    Location:
    englewood, nj
    The original question was whether Friday Music used mp3 or 16 bit/44.1 kHz files for sources. I don't know how much of that actually goes on. Maybe grey area labels like DOL and Waxtime do that kind of thing?

    None of the big Classic Rock acts had their catalogs reissued in AAA, exceptions being Beatles Mono and Classic Records for Zep and some others. Beatles (Stereo), Floyd, Bowie, Genesis, Zep, Stones, Who et al. all opted for digital. Any of those bands' albums done by Classic Records are so expensive, you might as well look for early pressings if that's your thing.

    All this might end up making good copies of old analog LPs by fairly well-known, established acts completely unobtainable. If that meant vinyl fans might be more likely to opt for new music, or at least music that was new to them, that would be cool, but I doubt it.
     
    fretlessrich likes this.
  4. kwadguy

    kwadguy Senior Member

    Location:
    Cambridge, MA
    On many releases where Kevin did the work, his name appears on the cover (along with Reagoso). But there are some where the runout indicates KG@CA, but Kevin's name isn't on the cover. Those are the "hidden" KG releases.
     
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  5. rangda

    rangda Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA
    I'll never get the sales numbers to prove it, but I'm willing to bet the majority of vinyl sold during the 90's was electronic dance music 12" singles. And 99.99999% of those were cut from DAT.
     
    Jimmy Disco D likes this.
  6. Tim Lookingbill

    Tim Lookingbill Alfalfa Male

    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    So to simplify what I read in the Washington Post article is the engineers said the digital conversion made the vinyl sound better...

    So they didn't completely divulge this. So what! I'm going to trust an audio engineer over hype from a named company that made millions from knowing what's quality audio.

    This thread is eating in to my Dateline murder shows. I have no time left for audio drama but at least no one gets wacked in this interesting story.
     
    uzn007 likes this.
  7. aseriesofsneaks

    aseriesofsneaks Forum Resident

    Location:
    St. Catharines, ON
    I'd say that 12" singles did make up a significant amount of vinyl sales during the '90s, but so did indie rock and punk. Labels like Matador, Sub Pop, Merge, Kill Rock Stars, Dischord and Lookout! put out vinyl for the majority of their releases throughout the decade and kept a lot of their bigger sellers (Pavement, Liz Phair, Fugazi, Green Day, etc.) in print for years. Also, 7" singles were still popular in the indie rock world and labels like Sub Pop even had singles clubs where you could purchase an annual subscription and get a 7" mailed to you each month. During the first part of the decade, a lot of that stuff was still recorded on tape , but by the mid-'90s, I imagine a lot of it was cut from DAT. I miss those days where a vinyl release was cheaper than its CD counterpart.
     
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  8. rangda

    rangda Forum Resident

    Location:
    MA
    DAT was the recording medium of choice for any small band or artist. It was what really ushered in the bedroom recording studio. Even DJ's were using them for mixes, you got a much cleaner dub doing DAT -> cassette than cassette -> cassette. And I think I payed $400 or so for my DAT in 1994 so not crazy expensive.
     
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  9. troggy

    troggy Papa-Oom-Mow-Mow

    Location:
    Benton, Illinois
    Yep, I bought vinyl on Estrus, SFTRI, Dionysus, Norton, Epitaph, In The Red, Crypt, Bag of Hammers, Telstar, 360 Twist and many others during the 90's.
     
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  10. paulmock

    paulmock Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hollywood, CA
  11. No Static

    No Static Gain Rider

    Location:
    Heart of Dixie
    Why can’t I really enjoy my MoFi vinyl collection AND be disappointed in a company who was purposely vague in its marketing plan? I’ll keep this logic lesson in mind with many other audiophile-related products. And I remember Peter Belt.

    Maybe we need an Intervention.
     
    Greenalishi likes this.
  12. Moonchild

    Moonchild Forum Resident

    Location:
    Coruña. Spain
    I was born in the early sixties and obviously raised on vinyl. Both lps and digital are ok with me, but I still picture vinyl as an analogue medium.
    At the end of the day, I often wonder why putting out digitally-sourced vinyl records, for a start? Selling digital recordings as such comes across
    all the more logical to me, being them SACD, DSD, etc. Let people make their choice. If it eventually turns out that digital sounds better, well, then,
    it's not the end of the world. Now that we've got 4k and even 8k tv and movies, who remembers the good ol' VHS or the DVDs? I would still play my vinyl records,though, but that's a different story.
     
    Last edited: Aug 9, 2022
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  13. Fruff76

    Fruff76 L100 Classic - Fan Club President

    He has a good video from Vinyl Day at Barnes and Noble about 5 years ago.
     
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  14. Tim Lookingbill

    Tim Lookingbill Alfalfa Male

    Location:
    New Braunfels, TX
    From what I gathered from that article it would seem to MoFi's advantage to mitigate perceived buyer's remorse if they explained or demonstrated how the DSD technology in the process chain improves the sound for vinyl without adding any coloration to the original analog tape signal.

    I'm guessing their DSD equipment is most likely top shelf and very expensive. They should explain why that's the case. I don't think digital sounds better or worse than analog. I think digital provides a more precise process chain starting out with the original analog signal. Digital is engineered to just take micro second pictures of amplitude variations in a analog wave form. There's no way for it to color the signal. It's just numbers.

    I wonder if an audio engineer ever attempted to pull out audio detail from an analog signal verses doing the same with a digitized version using digital tools and A/B the results.
     
  15. Hymie the Robot

    Hymie the Robot Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    That is so cute that John Wood was disappointed in himself for not being upfront about the DSD step.
     
    VQR likes this.
  16. DancingSea

    DancingSea Forum Resident

    Location:
    Maui, Hawaii
    Fremer is a total character. Yes, he does have a petty side for sure. And his Boston/ New York matter of factness can be off putting to some. It's also not easy being on the public stage where one's character flaws can be exposed for all the mosquitoes who smell a bit of sweat to pounce. How would many of us fare if our character flaws were put on the chopping block for public internet forum review? It's easy to sit back and spot the errors he has made during this MoFi debacle. But it should be put in context of an extensive career fighting the good fight for the sake of vinyl during the darkest of days. I take his at times quirky self centeredness as part of his charm and appreciate his candidness even though it periodically wanders across the line.
     
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  17. DancingSea

    DancingSea Forum Resident

    Location:
    Maui, Hawaii
    Proper journalism requires on the record sources. Neither Mike had that. One Mike didn't know any better, or didn't care, and went ahead anyway. The other followed journalistic principle and did not publish a story prematurely. The ways of YouTube videos is very different than those of proper journalism. Each Mike was playing by a different set of rules.
     
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  18. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    "Mastered from the original Epic Records tapes by Joe Reagoso and Kevin Gray at AcousTech/RTI."
     
  19. SanFranciscoNo!

    SanFranciscoNo! Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Erie, Pa.
    I learned a lot about analog sound from owing so many lo-fi punk rock and hardcore records in the old days....the audio distortions, the noise, narrow frequency response. Cheap gear, cheap beer.
    I learned a lot about analog sound from owing so many lo-fi punk rock and hardcore records in the old days....the audio distortions, the noise, narrow frequency response. Cheap gear, cheap beer.
     
    Greenalishi likes this.
  20. RichC

    RichC Forum Resident

    Location:
    Charlotte, NC
    Are you implying that KG actually cut this all-analog?
    Friday Music releasing AAA reissues (but not advertising it) at a time when MoFi was releasing digital reissues (but advertising them as all-analog) would be the twist no one saw coming!!!
     
  21. mick_sh

    mick_sh Hackney diamond

    Location:
    Madrid, Spain
    Are you sure that it's an analogy and not a digitalogy? :D
     
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  22. Strat-Mangler

    Strat-Mangler Personal Survival Daily Record-Breaker

    Location:
    Toronto
    Merely quoting what FM was publishing. We could ask KG but I'm unsure if he's at liberty to confirm.
     
  23. Hymie the Robot

    Hymie the Robot Forum Resident

    Location:
    USA
    Yup. The beer certainly makes it sound better.
     
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  24. Chee

    Chee Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denver
    Fremer danced.
     
  25. AnalogJ

    AnalogJ Hearing In Stereo Since 1959

    Location:
    Salem, MA
    Their similar, but one involves the finger m
     

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