Mobile Fidelity Surface Noise

"I hope that everyone got it that it was a joke."

Which part?

I only have two MoFi pressings - 10000 Maniacs "In My Tribe" and Tears For Fears "Seeds of Love" - and I'm underwhelmed by both.

Both sound is thin and tinny. Admittedly, I have only a Pro-ject 5.1SE and a Sumiko Blue Point cartridge, but I would have expected more presence, more warmth from an audiophile pressing.

Interesting how so many of us expect a'phile re-issues to sound great...and why wouldn't we? However, we fail to consider the original recording source and quality of the original tape. Many times, that quality is going to be subpar. Unfortunately, with the new craze in re-issuing just about anything that was produced back in the day, this factor is overlooked by the a'phile labels in the rush to get the reissue on the market. A sad situation IMO, as too many hobbyists will be getting burned.
As an aside, I recently played one of the new Music Matters reissues on 33rpm...noisy copy with background hiss and more. The company that sold it to me is taking it back...after stating that they are out of stock since the pressing is being re-done and they are waiting for that. 'Re-press' is the term....I wonder why??

Davef if this is the MM 33 rpm reissue for Idle Moments or Blue Train, they are repressing it because the first pressing run of 1000 sold out.

Also there is lots of tape hiss on Van Gelder's 60s recordings. His equipment did not have the best SNR. On Joe Henderson's Page One and Grant Green's Idle Moments the tape hiss is present on every version I've heard including the original first pressings with Plastylite ear. It's made even more prominent on Idle Moments since the music on the title track is so quiet.

I will agree that RTI's pressing quality has gone way down hill. I had no problems with Music Matters 45 rpm reissues, but had several noisy pressings with their 33 rpm series.