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

And/or anyone else who abhors deceitful and unethical practices..

 

Bingo

Even back in the day they would say BS like today Transfer from the Original Master Recording. Hell, Miles at Abbey Road transfers the Original Master Recording to a hi rez file and masters in the digital domain.

Read some of these it's like your reading the phony marketing today, but yet no info from them telling you about the master tape to the point of the lacquer being cut.

 

the Pinhead is oK.

 

Mon, the 'burgh was way chill. I came up there. And went to NYC> it was great then. But, it was intense. You ever see the movie, Repo Man w/ Harry Dean Stanton? He was cool.

 

JUSt caught wind of this

 

I really don’t see MoFi going out of business over this.

their digital mastering process was eventually going to be defacto for any tape that blurred the line of sound quality vs. sustainability.
quad DSD is possibly the most optimal way to reach production levels of 5K copies and above from now on.

they just didn’t rip the band-aid off when they should have.

perhaps their marketing department got laid off at the beginning of the pandemic?
they are were bad at transparency.

a more robust, official apology aside… how does everyone feel about their digital disclosures, now that the info is trickling out?


in vinyl we trust ®,
TWW

 

For a while I have had little interest in paying for pretty packaging and a glitz box ( which I have said on these forums). Now, i am being asked by MoFi and MD to pay the same money, or more, for a digital file pressed on to vinyl. That has no further interest to me, because there are plenty of great LP's out there that are all AAA and a lot less money.
I don't think MoFi really could care less about the future of the 'One Step'; they probably have completed the releases that they intended from the beginning. Going forward, I would have to believe that since MoFI are only going to release DSD sourced vinyl, they will have to sell these wares at the same price as all of the other digital file based vinyl releases from other competitors.

 

Not true: New mastering system GZ Vinyl

 

All problems to be solved indeed - but misrepresenting the product guarantees the collapse. Plus, again, "whataboutism" as an argument. NO, "par for the course" DOES NOT justify it. Now, those people mentioned above might indeed suffer and it will ON THE COMPANY, NOT ON THEM, NOT ON THE PEOPLE BLOWING THE WHISTLE, AND DEFINITELY NOT ON THE CUSTOMER. People justifying it... well... lemme just say it is not OK to justify it.

v

 

I’m sorry, the correct response was “We will tear your soul apart!”

 

Please note that in no way am I justifying the behavior pattern here.

 

MFSL should clarify whether they used analog steps in the mastering chain of their SACD's

 

Your a trouble maker

 

Ok, I'll bite, why would anyone care about that??

 

Paraphrasing here but, “all I know is once I was blind and now I can see”.

In other words, I’m done buying DSD sourced One-Steps at $125.

My personal opinion - MoFI selling DSD sourced One-Steps at $125 as a viable business venture is over. I think they’ll wait and see what happens with Thriller but I can’t see how this will sell anywhere near 40,000 units. With everything that’s happened, I think they’ll be lucky to sell 10,000.

 

Exactly. What does your profession have to do with the basic fundamental problem of falsely advertising a product?

 

You don't think there are enough MJ collectors in the world who just buy anything from him? These collectors may not even know what "a MoFi" is.

 

I agree, i stated this earlier in the thread.

 

I think the problem apart from dishonesty is the pricing. Using DSD means issues are not limited for any technical reason and only artificially limited to create a degree of rarity. Also audiophiles have tended to pay a premium to get AAA vinyl editions. So A DSD sourced copy surely is not worth such a premium? The equipment at Mo-Fi is probably not unique and would think at least some of the labels have the same DSD256 machines for archiving their music now. So is it even necessary for them to be traveling to studios to copy tapes? Alternatively the labels have been known to make analogue copies for reissue companies in the past. I think this has been the case with some Speakers Corner reissues. The Stones DSD were not exactly premium priced. Even the Mono box though expensive worked out at about the normal retail price for each LP.

 

Definitely #4 and probably some of the others.

 

I don’t think there are enough Thriller fans that care about having to own the absolute best sounding copy to come anywhere close to absorbing 40,000 copies at $100 each. I didn’t even think prior to the scandal they would sell that many. My bet is they had to guarantee Sony that amount to get the license. And it’s been in print on vinyl for a long time. I could of course be wrong, but for many reasons I have a feeling MFSL is going to regret ever getting involved with this album. And I think we are going to see this title being significantly reduced in price within a year of its release. If they’re smart, especially now, they should print at most 5000 copies to start. I bet the cancellations have been tremendous. I’m still in only because Mike is raving about it after hearing a copy, and offers a plausible reason: it’s less compressed. I’m curious so I’m still buying.

 

No, not at $100. Just my opinion of course. We'll have a better idea later this year/early next year.

 

Just having some fun here with the list on the way I hear the mastering and opinions also expressed through the years..

Thanks to @Sex, Lies and Mastertapes for the AAA/Digital list.

Kind of you to provide a list we can all look at in one spot.

Looking over the list so far and picking out the AAA titles it is interesting how these compare to originals. Im sticking to just the AAA for this comparison for strictly a MASTERING comparison.

And this is not to knock AAA, my record collection is mainly made up of old AAA lps. This is more to observe how that in the end it is the mastering that plays the big role in whether a title sounds good or bad.

These are titles I have. Some I dont. Im not a Ry Cooder solo fan for instance.

Losers IMO:

Little Feet-I think most agree these were a fail. Not sure what Mofi did on these. But no way they match up against original pressings or even many older reissues

The Cars-S/T certainly isnt better than a first press and IMO a lot worse. Candy-O is "ok". I think HB City is about the only one I could say is the keeper.

Elvis Costello- IMO the UKs are better.

Foreigner- all originals are better.

J Geils-Meh, idk, I think the original is better. Some may argue with this. But Im leaving it in the lose column.

Workingmans Dead and American Beauty- Nice alternative, but IMO the best originals still trump these for naturalness and life.

T Rex-The UK Fly is better IMO

Spinners-I prefer the mastering on my original

-------------------------

Winners or at least a toss up for the win:

To be fair and show Im not pickin on AAA, Id say the Dean Martin This Time Im Swingin is very good (though I dont have an original to compare. May sound better in mono. But thats a mix issue).

Superfly is very good (again, I have no original to compare)

David Crosby (its also very good, but the 50th I believe still wins out. But Ill call it a tie and be fair)

The Sinatra's are all really good. But Id say my 70s press of "Sinatra's Swingin Session" bests the Mofi. But Ill leave it in the very good column to be fair.

Learning To Crawl, probably a toss up. Ill leave it in the win column though to be fair.

All in all from what is listed its about a 70% meh to 30% good as far as comparing these AAA transfers to previous/current other reissues or originals.

Id have to conclude for me anyway that this comes more down to a mastering issue than anything else.

Since these are AAA titles, it would seem logical that it isnt the source that is causing these to sound good or bad.