I have heard several of these cd's and have been very unimpressed. They are slightly better then the originals but not by much and the general over all quality poor. The only good ones I have heard are Pink Floyed which are great to begin with. Am I missing something? Did I just happen to not hear some of the better ones?
I believe the MOFI's releases overall to be of the the best remastered recordings in the industry. While some of the titles were poor to begin with they never fail to astound me with there ability to translate music. Wish they could have made sacd's before there demise.
Iam not impressed with mobile that much. HDCD and 24/96 I find much better, not so dirty sounding you know,like they place a blanket over the mike. My 2cents worth.
Mobile's orignal approach was to not apply an (re)equalization when transferring from the master tapes, whereas most (all?) "regular" versions were typically equalized for the perceived listening preference of the audience or radio play or to actually make up for some weakness in the two track master, as I'm sure you know. The MF idea was faithfulness to the original. This often made for an awesome result, but sometimes revealed undesirable characteristics of the master. I don't know whether this approach continued into the CDs, especially the more recent, or not because the technical direction of the company certainly changed hands.
IMHO, the majority of the MFSL catalog is *very* good - I own about forty or so titles, mostly on LP. As with any label, they have a few "misses," and critics focus on these - mainly with the criticism of "midrange suckout." The most obvious example of a MFSL LP to avoid is The Beatles White Album - it's just a stinker! (in my opinion - Oh no, here comes the negative feedback!) But not to belabor the *negative* (feedback or otherwise), the majority of the titles are wonderful! Cat Stevens - I agree!! Muddy Waters - Folk Singer - Impeccable!! The extended and crackle-free Who - Live at Leeds gold CD- Indespensable!! MoFi is *sorely* missed - my heart sank when they went bankrupt.
Perfectimage, look for some early #500 series in the MFSL Gold CDs (UltraDisc I's which were made in Japan). They are very, very warm and tube sounding. I have every single MFSL UltraDisc I and II Gold CD and the Japanese recordings are more analog and rich sounding. Good Luck on your persue in listening and finding the 500 series in UltraDisc I.
Its not that I find the recording bad as much as I think they are to analytical. They lack warmth. They sound incredible in my friends car but on my high end system I find them lacking. Thanks for the advice Abstract I will try the Cat Stevens. I have been debating that one for a long time.
There's no question they vary. There are some instances where the imports are better than MFSL, but MFSL is consistently better than the standard--sometimes by a tremendous amount. Try Cat Stevens Tea for the Tillerman--compare that to the original. You won't be able to listen to the original again
That would be nice if MFSL came back. WHO's Next #UDCD-754 is the most incredible rock recording I've ever heard. The dynamics & details of vocals, guitar and drums are absolutely the best. Any doubters of MFSL have to listen to this recording. I can guarantee it will be your top Rock reference CD to judge your system.
Heard through the grapevine that a Chicago base company is looking to buy the rights to MFSL, not sure if the same quality level will be duplicated. Heard that it could possibly happen in a few months. I for one do hope this happens and that the quality is as in the past, especially being a buyer of these outstanding CD's.
Very Well said Victor1. I think I am going to spin a few MFSL Gold CDs myself tonight. A little Dave Grisman -Hot Dawg and Elton John Madman Across the Water.
I've had the great pleasure of reviewing MFSL recordings in both the LP and CD format. With the advent of GainII technology, some resmastered discs were simply breathtaking. The level of execution in transfers was consistently of the highest order. I own nearly every MFSL gold CD, aluminium CD and LP (with the exception of about five) and there is no way, I would ever part with a single one of these. Something is not right with your system or listening parameters. I suggesst you relisten, then you may reconsider. It was a very sad day for me when the company went under. MFSL had a superb staff of dedicated people. They, as well as its recordings, are missed. While I would not always agree with some of their choices to remaster, it was always fun to read with great anticipation forthcoming titles. Better still was purchasing these and giving each a repeated spin. MFSL's dedication produced clear and worthy improvement over mediocre sources and superb results from great ones. I think I'll go play a few now.
I don't know which ones you have listened to but most od MOFIs disks are subtlely better to just awsome.Certainly the Pink Floyds are good example,Johm Mellecamp,Moody Blues are examples of far superior to their counterpart cds.Don Maclean,,Jethro Tull are examples of modest gains over the commercial cds.The original master was crap in the first place.If you have good audio equipment,the audible differences are obvious.
MFSL recordings for the majority are impressive recordings even with today's technology. MFSL was the originator and everyone else followed. Just check Ebay, and some of the people selling MFSL CDs here on Audiogon. If they were garbage or poor quality as you say Mr.PerfectImage, I don't think they would be fetching that kind of $$$. They are probably the only CDs that sound great and actually increase in value.
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