MFSL inner sleeves leaving marks on my vinyl...ever encounter this problem?

have you ever had "film" or grease like problems with them? I assume not?

 

Nope. No problems at all. They are thicker than the MOFI's, but being able to see both label sides without having to remove the LP is cool.

 

I've now been researching a suitable short-term replacement for the MoFi Sleeves. I have samples of the Diskeeper Audiophile, Diskeeper Ultimate and QRP. The Ultimate has 2 sheets of paper each sandwiched between poly liners, the Audiophile is similar to MoFi, but with a tad thicker poly, the QRP is also very similar to MoFi, but with maybe a tad thinner paper and poly.

I tested for staining , ease of insertion and potential for record scuffing.

1. Residue/Staining: None of them did anything I could see, except the MoFi.
2. Insertion: The Ultimate was the easiest, followed by Audiophile, then MoFi, then QRP.
3. Scuffing (I pulled the record out of the sleeve while applying pressure to the sleeve with two fingers): The Ultimate caused the fewest hairlines, but they were a bit deeper than with the other sleeves. The others were about equal - caused very shallow 'sleeve burn'.

Notes:
The insertion test was a bit unfair to the QRP as it was a used sleeve that came with a 200g record and therefore was a bit stretched. The rest of the samples were new.
The scuff test was very subjective as it was not repeated enough times and the pressure applied was likely not exactly the same for each test.

I have decided that I liked the Diskeeper Audiophile the best. It is the style I am used to, but a bit easier to insert than MoFi. The MoFi would be fine provided it did not foul up the records. The others were OK too, only the QRP come in smallest packs of 250, and the Ultimate felt a bit too thick.

So for what it's worth...

 

the above will most likely be my resolve too but what about all the wasted sleeves purchased from Mofi and the cleaner we had to use and the reuse to get rid o their residue? Any word from them? I would nto mind my $100 back!

 

They e-mailed me Wednesday that they are investigating the issue.

 

Good question. I was around 50 deep before I noticed. I went back to play an album I had recently "sleeved" and saw the residue. I then, by memory, tried to go back to my most recent pick-ups and, sure enough, they had it too. Cleaned most (not that easy either), and replaced with the Sleeve City sleeves.

Sorry MOFI, you lost my biz on your sleeves. Free market and other options.

Oh, this was probably about 6-months ago. At the time I figured MOFI may have changed manufacturers or that I got a bad batch. Apparently I was not alone.

 

I"ve gone back and looked at some lps I've bought this year and so far I haven't seen any MoFi sleeved lps with this residue but I'm going to do some more looking around and with brighter light. I just bought 50 of the MoFi sleeves a few months ago and I have used almost half of them at this point. It won't be too hard for me to locate these lps. I'll be interested in hearing what MoFi says about this after their investigation. Hopefully they will be straight with you and not try and point fingers elsewhere to prevent a stampede.

 

You won't need that bright of a light to see it. It's pretty obvious. FWIW, all my older MOFI sleeves left no residue at all.

 

The sleeve city diskeeper sleeves are excellent. But I have a pack of the mo-fi's that I bought a while ago, I will check them. and see if they have the same issue...

 

Uggghhhhh!!!!! Add me to the list. I've been going through the records I've recently cleaned and bagged and ALL of them have some sort of light film like described. I have a VPI and I use...yeah you guessed it Mofi solution, so even if it is my cleaning fluid it's still the fault of Mobile Fidelity. I doubt this film is doing anything to the vinyl in the near term but I remember seeing old CBS records that were left in those plastic bags and best case it had a nasty look, worst case you could hear it.

Damn this sucks, because over the past few years I've cleaned and put hundreds of records away in mofi sleeves, now I'll have to start going through and replacing them as I don't want to take any chances. I'm sending an email to Mofi next to thank them for letting so much of an inferior product hit the shelves. I guess companies are too busy cashing in on the vinyl craze to do and quality control!!!

 

So I took a brand new sleeve and took the blackest lint free sock I could find and put it over my hand and rubbed the inside. You can clearly see the white residue on the photo, and trust me it's even more obvious in person. Next is a recent record I cleaned, the Black Friday Velvet Underground Scepter Sessions which was f'in spotless when I bagged it, now you can clearly see the residue on it.

I don't want to go back and re-clean all my vinyl that has this (but I am going to re-bag even the ones that don't have it) but I think just doing a quick VPI with distilled water on each side ought to do the trick. I'm not sure if I want to continue using the Mofi solution now that I know the company has no standards. It's never failed me that I know of and seems to do the trick but there are records I clean, digitize and file away and might not play the vinyl for years. Are they slowly being damaged?

 

This is an unfortunate situation. Those 'dirty' sleeves are causing a waste of time, money and energy for record collectors.

Many thanks to all those who have reported this 'residue' issue. Even if the film was proven to be not audible, it's not cool. Many people like to do a quick visual assessment of vinyl. Usually, the visual will help predict how well a record plays. A record with some weird film or residue on it will scare off some buyers, therefore lowering its value. I feel lucky to be using Sleeve City's product, although I had been considering the Mofi sleeves. Now there's no way I would go near the Mofi sleeves.



By the way, has anyone noticed the residue on brand new Mofi records? (Which are packaged in the same sleeves.)

 

http://forums.stevehoffman.tv/threa...sicdirect-catalog.301753/page-11#post-8288849

 

Yikes!

...and up to this point I was giving MFSL the highest praise for best new vinyl quality control. Wow, let's hope they deal with the issue immediately. They must be aware of it. Scummy looking expensive records can't be good for their business.

 

It's not the solution, it's the sleeves. I don't use MOFI solution, and haven't changed my cleaning method since I got back into vinyl. ONLY the LP's bagged with a batch of MOFI sleeves had the residue.

 

It could not be the MoFi solution. I don't use MoFi fluids either and still get it. Besides, your own scientific black sock test proves it beyond any doubt.

 

I checked all the MFSL albums I've bought this year and none show any signs of this problem. I also bought a new 50 pack of sleeves last month and they look okay too. They must have had a bad batch of sleeves made somewhere. I hope they address this issue to everyone's satisfaction.

 

Same here, I had an unopened phone screen protector micro-fiber and swabbed a couple sleeves I just received a couple days ago and no issues

 

So, I had a pack of the mo-fi sleeves I purchased a few months ago when the diskeepers were out of stock. They seem fine. I checked a couple LPs in them and no whitish marks.residue. SO hopefully it was just a very small batch of these or something. They have always been fine sleeves IMO, just usually go with the others as they are (slightly) cheaper...

 

If I understand correctly what I am suppose to look for from the picture posted previously, I think that I can see the same thing in my records that were cleaned on a VPI 16.5 with MOFI Super Deep Cleaner and then put into MOFI Inner Sleeves. These sleeves were purchased from my local record store a few months ago.
It's kind of hard to see it unless you look at the record under daylight and at the right angle. If I am correct in what I am trying to identify here, it looks like a fingerprint although clearly it is not. I would never have noticed if it wasn't for this thread.
Since I have played these records recently, I can say with certainty that it does not affect the sound at all.
Still, not a nice thing to have on your records.

 

Yep, that's is. The visibility of it depends on how much the sleeve rubbed and pressed against the record. I suspect the problem is more widespread, people just don't notice.

I have found an older, unaffected MoFi sleeve and compared it to the affected sleeves bought this year. It is more transparent and harder, more crisp. The recently purchased fouling sleeves are more pliable and have milky sheen. They feel slightly different.

 

I ordered the Disckeeper Audiophile and I am going to replace my MOFI sleeves as soon as I get my order. I have approximately 25 records that have been affected in a lesser or greater degree but I don't have the time to clean them again so I will just replace the sleeves.
Since I have been using the MOFI sleeves for a few years now I went and checked through my collection but I did not notice anything problematic in the older sleeves, which I agree with oregonalex they feel different.
I think also that MOFI needs to know of the problem, so I am going to shoot them an e-mail and hope that they will take care of the issue.

 

Email sent.

 

I take back my earlier comment on this. Under a brighter light I can see the residue. It seems almost like a residue from an oil or something. definitely caused by contacting the sleeve under a bit of pressure. Most likely not audible, but nonetheless it's irritating. Let us know if anyone hears anything back from mo-fi/music direct...

 

I did a new test tonight. Opened a new pack of Mofi sleeves ( my last one) cleaned a bunch of records
Dried thoroughly, then slipped them into the sleeves. Then, as part if my test, I
applied pressure with my fingers and palm and sure enough, a perfect powdery residue print of
my fingers!!! It's definitely real and I'm glad I'm not going crazy. As someone mentioned, the Mofis sleeves
That don't have the issues are clearer. There is clearly a bad batch. I'm really pissed as I've cleaned and sleeved
750 plus records w Mofi sleeves. Good news is its probably just my last 100 that are affected.
Off to Sleeve City...... Cheers