Mofi--- overrated or not????

Mofi overrated???

I guess Mofi is overrated... yes, they have remastered some wonderful reissues, but most of their titles are averaged, and not much better than the original release.

What do you think???

 

I don't know enough about their vinyl releases, but I think their CD releases are all right, definitely more consistent in terms of sound quality than most reissues out there.

 

MOFI

Hmmm.....I dont know that I agree with those statements.

When they were released, the MOFI Beatles were ASTOUNDING.

Nobody knew how good the Beatles could sound until those LPs came out. Say what you want about the EQ (its never bothered me), those LPs were stupendous.

Heard on a High End system, they will blow you away, especially the Please Please Me Lp in stereo.

But, I guess thats just one artist. I never had a lot of MOFI stuff, but what i had, I really liked.

 

Please keep in mind I'm not a vinyl man......yet.

I agree with Matt on this one, as other than vinyl and our accomidating hosts recordings nothing comes close to the quality of MFSL cds.

 

It's pick and choose. Just don't knock a normal Lp with better sonics. MFSL can be beat, but there are those occasional titles that have become godlike. Just don't give in to the fact that MFSL could do no wrong.

 

I tend to side with Sckott...

There are some good ones, but there are some really BAD ones too. I wouldn't just write MFSL off... I have some of their stuff... However, I do find that there is a consistent inconsistency for the most part...

hummm...

 

I generally like the MFSL releases. I agree that it is important to understand that they had their imperfections as well. But more importantly, MFSL is significant because more than any other label, they were responsible for bringing a higher quality of sound to the masses.

Argue as you may about the quality of individual MOFI releases, but understand without them, many individuals (many on this forum) may not have learned to appreciate better recorded/ mastered music.

I'll step off my soapbox now and seek shelter from all the missiles about to be fired....

 

KLM,

I agree that MFSL's manifesto was to put out higher quality/mastered stuff from "the original master tapes" (not always) but I doubt it was targeted at the masses. I don't think they would have been able to keep the "quality" if they had to press tons of copies of their stuff on release deadlines like the big labels. They targeted a smaller crowd and did what they did. Also, I don't think MFSL was the first label to follow the concept of putting a lot of work into their releases in regard to quality of mastering, pressing, etc (which is always stated as gospel). There are a lot of first pressings (and other stuff) out there that seem by their "quality" to have had some pretty capable people behind the controls...

Todd

 

One thing that bothers me is the packaging. I really wish better care was taken with the packaging of the Ultradiscs. A lot of the photographs in the liners look like bad scans. It's too bad many reissues, not just MFSL, don't make an attempt to find the original photograph negatives or at least a good print for their covers. At the very least, MFSL should get rid of their format for the front cover. It's bad enough to shrink covers to fit the CD, why make it worse with that border?

 

Yes, they had no good designer... why not me?!
I have visited them a couple years ago, and I also have visited the "art director"... cheap scanner! That's no wonder many of their artworks look cheap!

 

They were the first, had some hits, some misses, but yes, overrated!

 

Check out the back cover of the MoFi Warchild booklet. There were howls from the old jethro tull news group about how crappy it was (before the trolls invaded it that is)

 

Actually Grant, from an audiophile standpoint, Mobile Fidelity was not the first. Sheffield Labs has been making high quality recordings longer than MoFi...and there may even be others.

 

I am sure Claviusb will say the same as you Claus...

Both being REAL art guys, you must be cringing when you see some of those really bad scans from MOFI and others!

That's another great thing about the DCC releases... Always GREAT packaging!! I can remember Steve posting somewhere that all of the Gold CD and LP artwork was personally approved by himself and Sam P at DCC.

I was very surprised when I opened one my LP's and found even the paper sleeve was true to the original! (wish I could remember which album that was.)

Real perfectionists, those guys!

If you are going to do it, you have to do it right!

 

I agree re the packaging of MOFI CDs - DCC gets it much better. As for the sound, some are clearly better than others. I don't think they are over-rated (although the prices paid for some discs does make one wonder what they are thinking).

Certain of their CD reissues have yet to be beaten by more recent reissues, and probably won't for a long time. I am thinking of a few that I have - "Steve Winwood" (s/t), "Robbie Robertson" (s/t), Traffic "Low Spark" (I'm not holding out too much hope for the forthcoming remaster).

 

I've got UK imports that were better when the MoFi's were released, after all these years they still sound better (and they been played a lot).

 

While I generally think DCC does/did a great job on artwork, I must take exception to Cosmo's Factory. At least on my copy the colors are somewhat washed out and the image cropped compared to an original LP and the remaster.

Also, somebody mentioned they weren't expecting much for the Traffic reissue. Why is that? I've got the first 3 albums, and while I don't have much to compare with, I think they did a pretty good job.

 

I have listened to almost all of MOFI's cd releases. The first one I listened to was Floyd's Dark Side and it blew me away! After listening to it, I was hooked and started my collection.

Anyways, I think the best cd to listen to to tell if there is any difference between MOFI's and anyone else's is Clapton's Slowhand. The original release sounded muddy, with very little crispness, especially in the percussion. When you put on the MOFI release, it's like listening to the music all over the way it's supposed to be heard.

I also think that some of MOFI's releases don't show much of an improvement over the original release, so I agree with Audiogirl that there is some inconsistency, but not much. I just know whenever I put on a MOFI cd, it will sound good, and that must count for something. The same is true for DCC and Steve's work.

Although I don't regularly listen to MOFI on low-end equipment, I must admit that I can tell a very small difference when I pop one in on a cheap stereo, but it just doesn't sound as good as the high-end stuff.

 

Define high-end.

 

Well, high-end to me is Klipschorn speakers with Sony ES electronics. My philosphy is that the most important piece of equipment is where the signal changes from one form to another, say from electrical to mechanical as in the speakers.

With recent cd players and amps having little or no distortion, I think that the speakers remain to be the most important part of the reproduction and should be where 1/2 the money should be spent. Speakers are personal, so I'm not recommending that Khorns are the best speakers, just the best for me.

 

Oh.

 

As one of those fortunate people who bought all the MFSL's and all the other audiophile labels when they were around. IMO compared to the terrible pressings that were being offered by the majors at the time they were great. They were carefully pressed and consistent. Are there better sounding versions of some titles? Definitely! Unlike some of the other Audiophile labels at the time they had a large and varied catalogue. And it’s because of this there been both hits and misses.
I may be easy to say that such and such pressing beats the pants off the MFSL version but how easy is it to find that pressing and in near mint condition. Sure if an album is a particular favorite of mine I would want the best version of the LP.
I know there has been a lot of talk about MFSL tweaking of their recordings. Maybe I'm not as critical as others are but it doesn't bother me.

 

Hi,

In general, I preferred Mofi's vinyl to Mofi's cd releases. a lot of the Mofi vinyl really works for me. But then I prefer vinyl to cd so maybe that comes into play.

Let It Rock,
Jeffrey

 

I define high end (music) with the transmission of an exception musical experience! I can't get this with boom-boom equipment, but with a serious built home equipment... it doesn't matter if you spent $2000 or 200.000!

Unfortunately most of the music today doesn't sound good on my equipment, although I can enjoy the music.