Do Mobile Fidelity Vinyl Re-issues Have a Digital Step in the Process?

[Audire]

Just joking. But I can assure you that Mercedes do not refer the motor origin in their marketing ...



Yes, still a lot to be known. But the more we know the more golden ears will suffer.
This type of threads survive on speculation - if all the facts were known it would die fast.

I’m not one of those golden ears by any stretch. But I enjoy what I enjoy and would rather have AAA vinyl.

I went back to vinyl expecting to be playing real vinyl. While I have a great digital system and sound, I don’t want to mix my analogue with digital. I don’t like to mix my vegetable on my plate either. Everything tastes better for me when I eat them separately.

 

[microstrip]

This article from 1998 about DSD being compared to the master tape at Mobile Fidelity's headquarters is a great time capsule of changing technology at the time.

https://positive-feedback.com/Issue1/MoFiDSD.htm

Did you forget to quote the conclusions? Just to be sure people will want to read it!

"We must move to the highest possible density and resolution before we will begin to see the strengths of digital match its mere convenience. Positive Feedback therefore supports the movement to 96 kHz (or higher!)/24-bit PCM and SACD at the earliest possible moment, and calls for re-mastering and reissues of all of our great stereo masterpieces before the analog(ue) masters decay and are lost forever. Our audio archives MUST be preserved for the next century. High density digital, properly implemented, has the capability of doing just that—and with a transparency and faithfulness to the master tape that is breathtaking." https://positive-feedback.com/Issue1/MoFiDSD.htm

 

[microstrip]

I’m not one of those golden ears by any stretch. But I enjoy what I enjoy and would rather have AAA vinyl.

To be true, I do not care about the origin of my digital. But I appreciate and enjoy reading about the recording process and technical details.

I went back to vinyl expecting to be playing real vinyl. While I have a great digital system and sound, I don’t want to mix my analogue with digital. I don’t like to mix my vegetable on my plate either. Everything tastes better for me when I eat them separately.

For logical reasons I am tempted to do the same - but I am can't consider buying again in digital format some great LPs I own just because they are digitally sourced.

 

[microstrip]

Francisco, you keep referring to these “golden ears (TM)” Who are suffering or who were tricked or who were wrong about their assessments. Who are these people that you keep talking about? Who are the golden ears and what does that even mean? There is an air of vitriol from the digital side in this discussion and I just don’t understand it.

Peter, it seems you only read a very limited part of this forum activity and are not able to understand the obvious.

It is not vitriol, it simply a bitter reality. And sorry, do not expect me to translate our classic audiophile language and jargon to naive natural style.

Edit: I should add that this thread is just the tip of the iceberg of the MoFi fraud commenting - if you want to understand it there are very long threads in other forums or sites debating it.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

I was addressing exactly the Abraxas and your 2016 post. You were so hot about it that you posted your enthusiasm in more than one forum. I also said nice things about the Gain 2 Ulta Analogue 33rpm issue, not the one step.

In fact you predicted it all as soon as in 2006 when you wrote :

"MOFI used their relationships with the various labels to secure the original masters. in theory at least; this would result in better records when combined with half-speed mastering and other process enhancements."

You were really spot on! Congratulations!

So my “one” 6 years ago, is your “some others”.

 

[Al M.]

It is not vitriol, it simply a bitter reality.

This.

 

[Al M.]

i know personally i have been much more excited about the Tone Poet Blue Note Series than any recent MoFi pressings.

I am excited about the Tone Poet Blue Note Series too! Besides being glorious AAA sound, more importantly, it is glorious jazz in glorious sound!

 

[PeterA]

Peter, it seems you only read a very limited part of this forum activity and are not able to understand the obvious.

It is not vitriol, it simply a bitter reality. And sorry, do not expect me to translate our classic audiophile language and jargon to naive natural style.

Edit: I should add that this thread is just the tip of the iceberg of the MoFi fraud commenting - if you want to understand it there are very long threads in other forums or sites debating it.

Yes, only a few topics interest me. I don’t see the reality as being bitter. Nor very meaningful.

I know what a golden ear is, I just did not know to whom you were referring. If you won’t specify, the rest of us are left to guess or ignore the comment. Perhaps you mean specific reviewers who were marketing the recordings.

 

[microstrip]

So my “one” 6 years ago, is your “some others”.

Effectively it is the only One Step. But at some time you owned a lot of MoFi LPs and praised them, although you sold them to a friend - I got the idea along years that you liked the MFSL re-issues.

 

[microstrip]

Yes, only a few topics interest me. I don’t see the reality as being bitter. Nor very meaningful.

I know what a golden ear is, I just did not know to whom you were referring. If you won’t specify, the rest of us are left to guess or ignore the comment.

Please feel free to ignore it. This is a free forum. But I can't stop thinking why someone having just got a fabulous turntable is interested in MoFi gossip ...

Perhaps you mean specific reviewers who were marketing the recordings.

No. I do not see reviewers marketing recordings, as you seem to.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

Effectively it is the only One Step. But at some time you owned a lot of MoFi LPs and praised them, although you sold them to a friend - I got the idea along years that you liked the MFSL re-issues.

It’s fair to say that MoFi since the early 80’s has had many levels of good pressings.

My early UHRQ’s, especially DSOTM and Supertramp, are my favorites. But those are not a normal live analog recording, but something different.

I’m glad MoFi exists, but there are degrees of quality with MoFi.

Yes, I like MoFi but it’s rare they are demo discs or first choices to reach for. Years ago when I was searching for best sounding pressings of various favorite pop pressings, the MoFi was in the mix but rare to win the battle.

If you want to see my great enthusiasm for any collection of reissues, it’s the single sided 45rpm early Classic Records ones. And next the Music Matters and AP subscription 45 rpm pressings. I have them all. They set the bar very very high, and MoFi’s never touched those.

 

[Bergm@nn]

I do not see reviewers marketing recordings

Fremer has long time shot his mouth off about all analogue and his ability to discern the merest whiff of digital in the production of vinyl.

He’s praised some MoFi releases (and in fairness criticised some others with the tragically ill thought out smiley EQ) which it’s now apparent have the digital transfer step before cutting which he has said on at least one occasion (and therefore in all likelihood many times more) that this is ‘bad’.

He’s one of a few so called ‘golden ears’ who are either doing somersaults or sticking their head in the sand even deeper to cover for their previous assumptions which they were only too happy to trumpet or repeat for an audience.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Fremer has long time shot his mouth off about all analogue and his ability to discern the merest whiff of digital in the production of vinyl.

Would you please provide links to Michael’s writings or videos which prove this statement? Thank you.

 

[Ron Resnick]

. . . look at the somersaults Fremer is doing right now to try to distract from his former claims.

Would you please provide links to Michael’s writings or videos which prove this statement? Thank you.

 

[Bergm@nn]

Would you please provide links to Michael’s writings or videos which prove this statement? Thank you.

Re Fremer doing somersaults - Basically the two videos he put up on Tracking Angle channel on Youtube. 'I won't say any more about it...' then goes on about it. I think but would have to review again, the video he did with Michael from 45rom Audiophile.

Re his claims about being able to hear digital in the chain - give me some time as I'd need to track through previous articles and videos.

What - you don't think he's said these things or trying to protect the site from any challenge/ libel etc?

 

[PeterA]

Would you please provide links to Michael’s writings or videos which prove this statement? Thank you.

Ron, I do not know if this will prove the statement, but here is a review of a one step recording from Fremer in which he praises the sonics to an incredible degree. He writes that perhaps it is the best sounding record he’s heard. Perhaps this is an example of what Francisco was talking about where the golden ears could not tell they were listening to a digital step. I do not know.

Mobile Fidelity's One Step "Abraxas": Is Any Record Worth $100?

Before you pay $100 for any record you have to ask yourself if you really like the music, right? Then the question becomes is this version that much better than the one you already have, assuming you already have one. The record is Santana's Abraxas the group's second album was released in 1970...

www.analogplanet.com

 

[Mike Lavigne]

we all missed the digital step. 4xdsd is a wonderful format. i know at a particular point i acquired some tapes which were 4xdsd sourced from tape. after a few titles i stopped buying those tapes, they were not superior to my vinyl versions in my system and i liked but did not love them. later i put 2 and 2 together. but i did not "hear" the 4xdsd step. and i was paying close attention. i am always skeptical with tape, even from rights holders. the worst tape i ever acquired was from a rights holder and i know the provenance. it sucked. later titles from that same source were magnificent.

so all this Fremer bashing is misplaced. it took someone in the know, and the implications of the Thriller volume projection, to alert us.

no reviewer starts from a point of doubt, and then has to be convinced. hopefully they start neutral and go with what they hear. sonically there was no smoking gun. hindsight is simply not a valid basis for such vitriol.

 

[Kingrex]

Fremer is very good at telling it as it is. And for all those that complain reviewers never print a bad review, Fremer will tell you if he likes it or not. So what if MoFi snuck something past him. They did it to all of us. The overall industry is a lot better off with Michael. We could use more people like him.

 

[PeterA]

we all missed the digital step. 4xdsd is a wonderful format. i know at a particular point i acquired some tapes which were 4xdsd sourced from tape. after a few titles i stopped buying those tapes, they were not superior to my vinyl versions in my system and i liked but did not love them. later i put 2 and 2 together. but i did not "hear" the 4xdsd step. and i was paying close attention. i am always skeptical with tape, even from rights holders. the worst tape i ever acquired was from a rights holder and i know the provenance. it sucked. later titles from that same source were magnificent.

so all this Fremer bashing is misplaced. it took someone in the know to alert us.

no reviewer starts from a point of doubt, and then has to be convinced. hopefully they start neutral and go with what they hear. sonically there was no smoking gun. hindsight is simply not a valid basis for such vitriol.

I agree Mike. Just listen. It's either good or not, and either liked or not by the listener. The digital step per se is not important to me, personally. I never really liked the few MoFi pressings I bought used. I am just curious about what I perceive as glee or vitriol from the pro digital side in this thread against their so called "golden eared" analog opponents. I don't get that at all. The seem to delight in the "gotcha" moment. The discussion should be about and against MoFi for lack of transparency or deception, not about fellow listeners or reviewers who could not hear the difference, or actually seem to prefer it as expressed in Fremer's review.

 

[microstrip]

(...) Perhaps this is an example of what Francisco was talking about where the golden ears could not tell they were listening to a digital step. I do not know. (...)

Why do you insist on systematically trying to distort my intentions or use my posts to nick people? Just to give me the hassle to write you are clueless about the subject?

Mike Fremer is an open minded reviewer and the opposite of the anti digital link in LPs - although he praises the pure analog he also a wrote in 2018: https://www.stereophile.com/content/sonus-faber-aida-loudspeaker

"At around 2am, as the reverberation of the Ninth's last notes faded away, I found myself exhausted, overwhelmed, and somewhat disoriented, all in the most pleasurable way, by the most convincing illusion I've ever experienced—by a considerable margin—of having been transported from my modestly sized listening room to a concert hall (the Berlin Philharmonie).

I haven't heard the multi-miked version. I have sets of the Beethoven symphonies by Bernstein, Karajan, Klemperer, Leibowitz, Walter, and Paavo Järvi—all of them sound good, some better than others. This new one from Rattle and Berlin might be the most spatially together and believable of all, and it's digital. Of course, I think the reason for this is the minimal M/S miking. The digits are just how it's originally stored, and the software keeps getting better."