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MoFi controversy

I see this hasn't been mentioned here yet, so I thought I'd put this out here.  Let me just say that I haven't yet joined the analog world, so I don't have a dog in this fight.

It was recently revealed that Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs one step LPs are being cut from digital masters (DSD) rather than being straight analog throughout the chain.

Here is one of the many Youtube videos that discusses it

 

To me, it seems that if MOFI is guilty of anything, it's "deception by omission."  That is, they were never open about the process and the use of digital in the chain. 

One thing to mention is that hardly anyone is criticizing the sound quality of these LPs, even after this revelation.  Me personally, I wouldn't spend over one hundred dollars for any recording regardless of the format.

 

ftran999
bstatmeister
537 posts
 

If I wanted DSD, I would have bought the SACD for $100 less.

sns
3,295 posts
 

I don't get using digital in analog chain, much prefer my vinyl analog mastered. To pay these prices for analog/digital hybrid doesn't make sense. Get a real nice streaming/cd setup and hear these recordings with both excellent sound quality and at reasonable cost.

coralkong's avatar
coralkong
681 posts
 

$125 for a vinyl pressing of a SACD you can buy for under $30. Ouch.

 

lewm
13,148 posts
 

What costs $125? You can by Mofi LPs for $35 and less, last time I looked, unless you’re referring to out of production re-issues which do sell for high prices owing only to the collector market. That’s not Mofi’s fault or intention. The vendor is up charging, not Mofi.

Please read Tre’s description of what’s going on; they are not selling “a vinyl pressing of an SACD”.

tomcy6's avatar
tomcy6
2,597 posts
 

I don’t buy vinyl but there are some facts that should be stated before this takes off.

MoFi takes a modified tape deck to wherever the master tapes they are going to reissue are stored (I’m sure that most labels don’t let the master tapes of their best selling albums out of their sight any longer). They play the tapes on their tape player/analog to digital recorder and record them at 4X DSD. The guys that do this are very highly regarded mastering engineers. 4X DSD is very transparent digital. It’s not like CD quality.

The MoFi engineers say that this gives them a better quality recording to work with than making a tape to tape copy would.

The albums made this way are said to sound very good, for the most part, and nobody has said that they don’t sound right until the digital step was revealed.  Michael Fremer had some of them on his 100 best records list.  He has since removed them.

Now, many people are very angry and say that they were duped into buying records they thought were all analog but now find included a digital step in the process.

It is true that MoFi did not tell people about this digital step and gave the impression that it was an all analog process.

The records sound the same as they did before the revelation, but some people want MoFi’s head over the deception by omission.

That’s what I know about this and I don’t buy vinyl so I’m not taking sides.

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