Mobile Fidelity Surface Noise


Recently bought my first two MoFis in a few years - 'Sinatra in Paris' and 'The Cars.' Cleaned both on a VPI 16.5 w/ the VPI fluid. Both have an unacceptable level of (the same) background noise - kind of a shushing sound with the occasional tick. Played some other LPs after for comparison, inc. a vintage MoFi and some regular issue stuff. The noise was not there, eliminating a set-up issue. Has anyone else had this problem with the new issues? Is it mold-release compound, or the old saw they used back in the day ('i.e. "MoFi does not de-horn its masters, so you my hear the occasional tick or pop until the record is played a few times..."), or just lousy QC? Disappointing, to say the least.
radiodaddy

Showing 2 responses by dnath

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.