MoFi controversy

One last posting on this mess. This copied from Cookie Marenco at Blue Coast Music. (Yes, just like PS Audio's Octave Records they sell CDs and DSD files of music they record using DSD).

"It was hard to avoid the conversation about Mobile Fidelity (MoFi) and their vinyl releases over the last few weeks. I have my own perspective on the situation - take it or leave it...

In case you missed it, here’s what happened.... Mobile Fidelity has been a long time favorite brand for audiophiles to purchase licensed vinyl. They master in their own facility in Northern California using well respected engineers and top notch equipment. After watching the interview with the mastering engineers, I believe they made the best choices possible to preserve the sound of the original tape and transfer that to vinyl. Even the vinyl critics agree that the sound is spectacular.

In the last few years, MoFi engineers started cutting from DSD256 rather than make a second analog tape stage. I completely understand. I love analog tape, but I’ve made the comparison tests myself... making a copy on tape from another tape (called a safety copy) doesn’t sound as "good" to me as making a copy of the tape to DSD256. If you have to chose between a safety copy on tape or DSD256, I would choose DSD256. And besides, as a tape lover myself, finding new tape that sounds good is a problem. After Ampex/Quantegy went out of business, I had questions whether I could tolerate the sound of new tape... some of it sounds worse than PCM recording - just my opinion.

It happens, one of the mastering engineers, Krieg Wunderlich, had been our repair tech for more than 20 years and he talked about their processes often. I knew what they were doing and how. It was never a secret. He never said, "Don’t tell anyone how we do this".

But, many vinyl music lovers felt there was a coverup as to how MoFi was mastering their vinyl recordings. I think the journalists and reviews for vinyl didn’t want to ask the right questions. Technology changes... tape and machine become obsolete and fragile. Changes to processes have to be made to offer anything on vinyl or other formats. One thing was clear in all the confusion... the audiophile reviewers loved the sound MoFi was getting for their vinyl reissues.

I watched a lot of videos taking advantage of the ’click bait’ opportunities with even the mention of "MoFi" on their youtube channels. There are interviews of journalists, reviewers and more about how "outrageous" the situation was. Then, they interviewed each other. There was also a lot of misinformation being spread by these outraged journalists. People heard what they wanted to hear and made up what they didn’t pay attention to. Frankly, I was more disappointed in the journalists involved than MoFi.

One thing was clear - the journalists and reviewers felt the MoFi DSD256 vinyl recordings sounded fantastic.

So why did I know how MoFi was mastering and not the journalists or reviewers? Maybe because the journalists didn’t want to know and never thought to ask? Didn’t want to learn something new? Needed a dumbed down answer because the truth is technology is difficult to understand? There were a lot of assumptions being made on a very difficult subject. Personally, I believe that if any journalist decided to interview any of the great mastering engineers they would hear a lot of things they don’t want to hear... or understand.

Having been in the business of selling DSD and HD downloads for a long while, we get a lot of questions from consumers and even other distributors. If there were easy methods for any of the recording, mixing or mastering process, everyone would be doing it. But there’s no easy explanation. We routinely respond to our customers and many ask the same questions 10 times... to which we answer 10 times. It’s like using the word "best"... If a $200 DAC is the best or a $20,000 DAC is the best... then what does the word "best" mean?

People want black and white answers when there are multiple shades of grey. Systems aren’t perfect and each mastering has a different set of issues. Believe me, we all wish that wasn’t the case. At Blue Coast Music we try to be transparent in our work by adding the provenance to each album.

Since all this news shattered the vinyl enthusiasts dreams, MoFi has released a statement that they will include the information about the methods used in each mastering. Better late than never.

There is (of course) the other side of this which is..... A lot of DSD enthusiasts who listen to vinyl already know how good DSD sounds and many people wondered what the fuss was about.

Here we say ----

Enjoy your music, how ever you want to listen to it!

Cookie Marenco"

Thank you for the post @moonwatcher.   I hope all the people who hold analog and tape up as some holy grail will hone in on one sentence,

And besides, as a tape lover myself, finding new tape that sounds good is a problem. After Ampex/Quantegy went out of business, I had questions whether I could tolerate the sound of new tape... some of it sounds worse than PCM recording - just my opinion.

I will repeat it again for those that do not want to believe,

sound of ... tape

If tape has a sound, then obviously it is far from perfect.

I don't think it was because the reviewers and vinyl\analog promoters did not want to know, or didn't want to ask an uncomfortable, for them, question. No, for all their bluster as being the experts, they simply did not know and it they didn't ask because it never occurred to them to ask. Nothing nefarious except not holding nearly the expertise they claimed.

Unfortunately, people want to hold onto their truths, so some companies are getting accolades because they are "pure analog", working all analog from the masters to the stamp. From the article above and as I stated.  It will not be the original, 1st master, driving the cutting heads. It will be a 2nd gen, maybe 3rd gen (but still called a master). Do you see all those pure analog companies telling you how many steps removed from the 1st master the tape driving their cutting heads are? Nope.

So it’s okay to use deceptive practices, and charge more money for it. I’m pretty sure it’s a lot easier to use DSD than analog, but they charged for analog.

Looks like the digital b_#ches are here to prop up their format.

Regardless fact is a lot of studios use digital master and cut lacquer.

Third Man records will not and Jack White is true to the art of vinyl. As a matter of fact Jack is now cutting the masters to vinyl first shot.

@blisshifi - I'm certainly far from a hifi expert.  I do a little reading and watch some videos and try to pick out the commonalities and things that seem to be common sense to me.

The idea that the mastering for vinyl (70 dB dynamic range) and CD (100 dB dynamic range) and SACD (120 dB dynamic range) would be expected to yield different sonics making it impossible to truly compare them directly.  It's always going to be an apples to oranges comparison starting with the media.

It seems reasonable that the best mastering for each format would result from the mastering being done with that format in mind.  Even though the mastering for vinyl could be placed on on either CD or SACD, maybe the sound could be improved by better utilizing the full dynamic range.

I doubt they will do it, but I suggested that PS Audio include their masters for vinyl on SACD.  This would allow listeners to compare SACD mastered for SACD to SACD mastered for vinyl to vinyl mastered for vinyl.

My personal opinion is that the more limited dynamic range of vinyl leads to a specific sound that is very pleasing to the ear for most people and the mechanical process of the stylus also adds some of the smoothness that's associated with the format.  I couldn't find the video, but I think it was Paul from PS Audio that described the methods of "compressing" the master onto vinyl where it can be done by squeezing top and bottom (bad) or just increasing the level of the bass (good).

In the end, there's so many factors the impact the final result that I don't think it's possible to make a definitive statement.  The best that I've heard in an A/B was vinyl, but the digital was also fantastic.