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

They're just trying extra hard to be forthcoming and honest.

 

They’re MOBILE!

 

Yeah this is the one I hated and got rid of.

 

No one is winning in this whole debacle. MOFI have literally just stated that they are going to continue their "One Step" releases using DSD sources with absolutely zero mentions of them adjusting their prices. They are continuing to break their 100% transparency policy by changing their stories every day and still not being entirely honest and transparent with how they are obtaining their sources to produce their products. There is still A LOT more for them to do to actually prove that they will change their ways and earn some trust back with customers that have been supporting them for years. I personally see the overall vinyl landscape getting worse for customers, I expect vinyl costs going UP because I do not see MOFI budging on this platform. The whole situation is a giant mess for all parties.

 

Howarth has a product to sell (a digital processing/software service) so he's hardly any kind of unbiased third party in the whole thing. It may be a great product that people like, but it's still a product he needs to sell. He stops short of saying we should just dispense with the vinyl altogether and go to a "real" digital format because he probably knows he benefits from the current vinyl trend. There are many vinyl reissues, often through major labels, that have utilized his product.

The crux of the issue is not the second part. It's the lying. MOFI wanted to obscure the fact they used digital sources because it would result in lower sales. They also wanted to pitch their product as unique because it costs more than the common $20-30 digitally sourced reissues you can find at a big box or any record store.

 

This thread is moving a such a frenzied pace that there's no way to look at every page!
I truly thought by now this thread would be about source updates or any new breaking news.
Instead a lot of horse beating.
I underestimated how greatly this news has affected people's lives.
Perhaps I shouldn't have been as many have spent a big chunk of their disposable income with this company.

 

What is a MOFI?

 

" I began my exorcism with a heavy heart, with a sullen anger in it, too." ..Joseph Conrad

 

Monetized Obfuscatory Fidelity Issues.

Mo' Fibs.

 

Yep this is a stunning press for a lot less this MOV.
Got some older one's but this one beats it.
Grt Peter

 

Given that they are likely to sell far less OneSteps, the only reasonable thing is to double their prices. That way, devotees to the MoFi brand get to pay true and proper homage and MoFi protect that fat juicy bottom right hand corner.

Everyone’s a winner.

 

Smart. Agree. Charging more would help offset the carbon footprint those wacky boxes crush.

 

By the end of my hour long interview, this will not be an issue.

 

Maybe all the other labels should add “Original Master Recording” to their covers lol

 

I have actually heard that, yes... Even read it on here, although I'm too lazy to find you actual quotes.

The same people who spend more on speaker cables than I do on speakers probably

 

So true.

 

I may be wrong, but isn't this pointing out that this was derived from the 2ch master (which was a remix, by definition), rather than the 3ch (which, again, the Classic/AP Grundman UHQR is a "remix")?

Hell, the SACD 5.0 is likely the closest to the original 3.0 if you want to get complicated.

 

Well, Speakers corner blitzes their covers with ALL ANALOGUE, but are they sourcing from masters? From European copy tapes? From dupe copies of copies, but still analogue?

Methinks nuance may be overlooked by many

 

I understand that there are no disinterested parties here but it doesn't mean Howarth is wrong. And I feel the second part directly relates to the first: MoFi seems to be banking on audiophiles' fixation on analog sourcing and their willingness to pay a premium for it. The irony is that they appear to have gotten a superior product even though they've been deceived in the process!

 

I think the consumer has won. If the consumer does not care about the mastering source, they can purchase as usual. If the consumer cares, they got the answer and can move on to buying products from other outlets. Sure, the people who got screwed previously are the actual losers in all of this. However, I mean moving forward. Everyone knows NOW what MOFI is and if people still sniff around their products, they have no reason to complain going forward. Prices are what they are....and what they always will be. There is NOTHING that says all records need to be affordable. There are affordable versions of virtually every title on vinyl. If something is important enough to you you will find a way to buy it. At the end of the day, we are just talking about records here.........not a major item in the grand scheme of things.

 

Some SC records are impossible to even identify a mastering engineer on. They’re def a label that’s even less forthcoming than MoFi, and nothing would surprise me at this point.

 

Superior to what? To the OG? To the hypothetical all analogue equivalent which they did not cut? To other digitally sourced reissues? To AAA reissues? To the ecstatic choir of heavenly angels?

And ‘superior’ on every occasion and on every system? MoFi have never produced a dud? And would said dud have been improved had they been able to cut directly from the tape?

I’m not disputing MoFi have, and will continue, to produce great sounding records. On occasion, they may prove to be definitive from an SQ perspective. But ‘superior’ is a slippy, slippy term.

 

Each and every article you see in the Washington Post, NYT, USA Today...or where ever has the people who say it was a "hit Job" or they felt misrepresented. EVERY ONE. So when you read an article that you find excellent, just remember that writing has gotten plenty of pushback from the participants from all sides (especially if political).

It is what it is

 

‘Yuuuugely unfair.’

 

Have you actually heard the Classic Rough Mix? I think Fremers review was pretty accurate. How did him loaning his cover to scan influence this review? If it sounded crap you might have a point. Also when did Fremer defend Mo-Fi other than saying he didn't write anything based on rumours alone. He has nostalgia for the label based on past work like a lot of people. The last of their records he did review, he wasn't actually positive about.