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

I agree with this.

I disagree. The phrase they use in the promotional material is the lacquer is “sourced directly” from the original master tape. If you can insert a digital transfer or a copy tape (or two) in the chain, the word “directly” would be rendered meaningless.

 

It could have been the DCC compilation tape for Elvis' 24 Karat Hits, but The Best of Sam Cooke double 45 is from DSD. I know it's not in the description...

Chad confirmed it a few years back on YouTube under one of his (acousticsoundsks) videos.

Quote: "The name of my label is Analogue Productions. We use analog master tapes 99% of the time. There's a few exceptions, a couple that I can think of - Nils Lofgren and Cowboy Junkies - these were digital recordings. The Wonderful Sounds series are made from our DSD masters, which are mastered off the original analog tape. It would be almost impossible to transfer all of these analog tapes to an analog tape copy and cut from this. Plus it would add another layer of analog tape hiss, so we do feel this is the best way to produce the best sounding stuff. Sam Cooke greatest hits was one that we knew the 3-track masters were transfered to DSD. We knew we would never be able to get those 3 track tapes from many different sessions, but felt that using the DSD directly from the 3-track would produce the best sounding result. I can't think of any other ones in the AP reissue archive that we use digital from. Maybe there's 1 or 2 that I can't think of right now, but please remember our name is Analogue Productions. We try very hard and are very transparent and are proud of the results we get. Hopefully when you listen to our stuff, you can tell the quality. As far as to get the other labels to list all the information, it would be nice, but it probably will not happen. Please refer to our sticker on the jackets that explains our AP guarantee."

You can find his post is in the comments session here:

 

not often you see this on the forum, I applaud you

 

I keep thinking about Krieg’s face and body language especially towards the beginning of the interview. It looked like he was really uncomfortable. Maybe I’m projecting but it feels to me like he understood the level of deception MoFi has perpetrated here. Shawn and Rob were much more in PR spin mode.

 

It's also a bizarre argument when Mike was the one who broke the story and got the interview, not them. If an "investigative journalist" like Fremer wants to be is great at what he does, that should be reflected in his work. Instead, the "investigative journalist" contributed nothing to this except for commenting on Mike's work.

 

Mofi uses digital intermediate steps they generated from the master tape

 

I'm guessing this man's wig was no longer on straight at about 2am this morning.
(That's when "mofi confession video" went live here in Oz)

 

None of them really seemed to give a stuff and unfortunately they weren't taken to task or pressed in any way to provide clarification. We're still in the dark about what exactly happens to what releases and it seems that's the way MOFI wants it. Given that they are double the price of AP in Australia, I won't be buying anything else from them any time soon.

 

Yeah, I was totes checkin Kreig's vibes.
I actually yelled an expletive at him at one point.

 

The one thing I'm having a hard time understanding is how this remained uncovered for all of this time. You would think that someone in the major record companies ( Sony, Warners, ect.) would know what was going on with MOFI making DSD transfers, and would have leaked this info long ago. Of course, maybe that's what finally happened, and Mike E. got wind of it.

 

But you actually listened with your ears, I assume, and then made your decision on future purchases.

 

I think the evidence of the lying is going to mount. I compiled some of it in this video. If you have more examples you've found, please leave a comment.

 

They allude to a new provenance system that they MIGHT put on the product or MAYBE online, but that was THEIR to be decision (I was taken aback when they said that).
If this system also was backdated to past releases so we could assess what the frequency of AAA vs DSD, and then view upcoming releases’ provenance during preorders, I’d be satisfied.

 

Fremer was denied an interview by Mofi. Probably because he is a journalist and would leave no stone unturned.

 

When did he request the interview? After Mike broke the story?

 

Ooh I didn’t consider the “useful idiot” angle in all this!
Gah, this is such a juicy happening.

 

Fremer would have wiped the floor with them given the chance.

 

That is what it says. The material that was mastered was sourced directly from the OMR. Not a copy. Not a digital file. It says nothing about what was then done to the material that was sourced. It’s not as if Mofi started from an intermediate source eg digital file sent to them.

 

LOL.

 

It’s all kind of shocking to me…clearly, those guys are talented mastering engineers, and they were also fully participating in their employer’s blend of PR, innuendo, and outright untruths. Call it naïveté if you want, but like many of us here, I accepted that the company was actually giving their customers a premium product cut from analog masters, when available, and distinguishing when they weren’t OMRs. I don’t have many MFSL records, nor do I always like their choices of titles to reissue, but this commercial misconduct (and it is that, even if it doesn’t reach to legal fraud) is truly sobering.

 

In my experience, people who really know their stuff - and are confident about that - do not throw ad hominems around and are not looking for confirmation in about every other sentence.

This is the first time I hear him talk but to me he comes across as a very, very insecure man.

 

I'm sure they all realize it one way or another... And of course, unlike some folks on the web, they probably understand that DSD sounding "great enough" is not the main point here, although it sure helped keep the "secret" for so long.

One can think that "AAA" is just an OCD-like obsession... or whatever. But this story isn't just about SQ and how you perceive it. It's about PR transparency and false advertising first of all.

 

All I can say is litigation.

 

I can't be the only one who imitated Chads voice in their head when reading his quote.

 

Their contention is that DSD captures far more than a tape transfer could.