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

Dear @atmasphere : " If I were you I’d be looking at a better quality capacitor rather than simply removing them. "

 

One of the latest 5 years targets in my system was changes inside my speakers to improve its QS and was precisely to find out the best caps out there and that " find out " took me as 3 years of tests, patience and a lot of money till I choosed the best caps no matter what.

 

But even that with not only a truly neutral cap with very low developed distortions and that in any operation condition makes the rigth job still the best cap is no cap at all and that’s why the trade-off I choosed is no cap.

 

Yesterday I remember whom was the ADS L 2030 designer that after left ADS ( several years ago ) started his own speaker manufacture that’s Aerial Acoustics and I sended an email asking for his advice. He was the creator of my loudspeakers. We will see.

 

Btw, maybe you or some one else could think that if I spended heavy money with the caps adventure why not put that money in a new speakers and seems logic but it's not only that I'm accustom to my ADS but that are really good performers even today and in the other side maybe I need over 50K to be in the same league than my ADS and need more money than that to outperformed and who knows about because all those very good and very expensive speakers its crossovers are full of bs " boutique/fancy " caps that's what the audiophiles are looking for but all of them from Duelund to teflon V-caps and passing for Mundorf ant the like are way colored caps, as a fact the less colored of those  kind of caps are the Alumen by jantzen. Another issue with those expensive speakers is that in the crossovers almost always use by-pass caps as the Duelund silver that almost all audiophiles love and that been a by-pass is almost stupid because helps to nothing down there. Anyway, I will wait for the L 2030 designer advise.

 

R.

@atmasphere  and audiophiles : This link confirm what I posted ( I try not to post just at " random ". ):  that a 300K price tag speakers uses caps as " equalizers " too due to its heavy colorations against " neutrality ". This beautiful made Tidal top of the line use 5 different caps between the Duelund models , Mundorf model and Audyn ones and it uses too the " terrible " Duelund resistors that I know are " terrible " because I used in my speakers and by coincidence under measurements along other resistors the Duelund were really bad.. It looks " impressive " and what Tidal said is true : a Tidal stand alone crossover has a higher price than top pair of speakers. Go figure ! ! :

 

Well, there is nothing new if you know where and what to look for.

 

R.

 

 

Tonight I decided to do a shoot out between my MoFi ’Anadisc’ Muddy Waters ’Folk Singer’ and the newly released ’One Step’ of the same title.I had done a similar ’AB’ when I first acquired the ’One Step’ and in some ways i felt it to better the ’Anadisc’.

One thing I had noticed on the first ’AB’ was that the ’One Step’ seemed to be a little more specific in its soundstage reproduction.Tonight, I began to hear where the ’Anadisc’ has it all over the new release...and it is in the ’warmth’ of Buddy and Muddy’s guitars. To that, the ’Anadisc’ is far more dynamic when it comes to Muddy’s voice...I had noticed this aspect before, but thought it might have been because the ’One Step’ had been mastered at a lower level..Now I believe the DSD step is the culprit here.Why MoFi could not have used the AAA master for their ’One Step’ is unknown, but of all of the ’One Step’s I own, I think the biggest error they made was not using the incredible sounding original master for this one!

@daveyf: I too have the old MoFi Folk Singer, and have never felt the need to own another version. But Analogue Productions has a 1-LP/33-1/3 RPM version of the album, as well as a 2-LP/45 RPM, and I’ll bet they’re the best of them all. $40 and $60, respectively.

The AP UHQR version of Kind Of Blue certainly improves on the MoFi version. The AP LP was made from the metal works Bernie Grundman made for Classic Records back in '97. He took possession of the 1/2" 3-track analog master tape from Sony (Sony was doing that at the time, at least for Grundman, whose facility, like the Sony offices, was located in NYC), mixing the 3 tracks to 2 live as he fed the output of his 3-track playback machine directly into his lacquer cutter! No tape copying done, either analog or digital!! 

Dear @daveyf  and friends : Folk Singer is just another very good recording and always will be " Folk Singer " and your experience obviously is system dependet.

I posted before " since when MoFi was doing digital " and well since 2011 and way before that some of us posted here that many non-MoFi LPs were digital recorded and not only almost all of you just did not care about but even blamed to the one that posted on.

 

Today that all know for sure about the LP digital recording every one blame MoFi when in the past almost no one of you took in count that several MoFi were digital as I posted many years ago and several times and not only with MoFi.

The analog recording industry ( AP, Music Direct, Elusive, Classic records, and many more ) in reality grow-up mainly with LP re-issues and with nothing really new recordings but re-issues: 3, 4 or even 7/8 different kind of same title re-issues and almost all of us were buying as crazy horses. Every new reissue ( no matter what. ) we buy it. Why, who cares ! ! 

The LP stampede started around 20 years ago and it follows today and this thread confirm that stampede.

 

3/4 years ago I left it. I made a stop in the road and asked my self: why in hell am I running in this long no sense LP stampede when there is nothing new ? and since then I stop to buy re-issues no matters what.

 

The best QS LP  happened way before the " stampede " with some of the D2D by Sheffield, M&K, Cristal Clear and the like that even today can´t be ouperformed and the AP efforst with its D2D recordings was not not only near those references but really bad D2D recordings.

For years I posted that digital medium is the superior alternative and no one today can't stop digital that always will be better. The One Step re-issues confirm that.

 

R.

 

Anyway, the world is in continuous movement and a lot of people have no other best way of life that spend any kind of money for truly little rewards but such is life.