Mobile Fidelity Settlement Update

A few weeks ago I received a letter containing info on the 10% credit I had available to use on the Music Direct website for the MoFi LP’s I chose to keep. A few days ago I received an email with a return authorization label to send MD the LP I elected to return for a refund.

I don't consider the digital step to necessarily be a deal breaker, but most of my MoFi's are AAA. I also have a fair number of MoFi SACD's, which sound great.

There were a fair number of negative reviews of MoFi Lp’s before the digital step was revealed. Michael Fremer was removed from MoFi’s promo list because of his panning of certain MoFi titles.

Analogue Productions, Speakers Corner, Intervention Records, and a couple dozen more companies continue to make outstanding LP reissues (mostly pure analogue, if you care about that), and some contemporary artists make a point of recording and pressing LP’s to the highest audiophile standards: Gillian Welch, for one. She owns her own LP lacquer-cutting lathe (a VMS 80 with Ortofon amplifiers)---the first step in LP production, and her Acony Records LP’s sound stunning.

It just so happens a good number of the MoFi's I bought were made without the digital conversion step: the three Ry Cooder's, for instance.

But ya know, a lot of original mastering jobs used an intermediary copy tape as the source---what's called a production or safety master---not the original 2-track mixdown tape. A MoFi digital file---made off a 1st or even 2nd generation analogue tape---may sound better than does the tape the original lacquer was cut from.

MoFi claims they found the above to be true, but they didn't disclose that fact to the public, knowing that audiophiles would then perhaps not buy their LP's. A lot of them are no longer going to, that's for sure. 

I'll bet the decrease in sales of new and upcoming MoFi titles is and will continue to hurt MoFi more than does a settlement.