MoFi controversy


I see this hasn't been mentioned here yet, so I thought I'd put this out here.  Let me just say that I haven't yet joined the analog world, so I don't have a dog in this fight.

It was recently revealed that Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs one step LPs are being cut from digital masters (DSD) rather than being straight analog throughout the chain.

Here is one of the many Youtube videos that discusses it

 

To me, it seems that if MOFI is guilty of anything, it's "deception by omission."  That is, they were never open about the process and the use of digital in the chain. 

One thing to mention is that hardly anyone is criticizing the sound quality of these LPs, even after this revelation.  Me personally, I wouldn't spend over one hundred dollars for any recording regardless of the format.

 

ftran999

Showing 1 response by mijostyn

MoFi releases what it thinks are essential albums is higher quality vinyl. I have seen nothing in their marketing that says they stick to analog masters. That would be hard to do anyway as most everything has been converted to digital. Digital has one major advantage. It does not age. You can also do processing in digital that is impossible to do in the analog world without distortion. 

I am totally with @rauliruegas on this one. I love records. I buy at least 1 record a week. I am in the process of spending $30,000 upgrading by vinyl rig. However, digital, from a strictly performance angle is superior. Where vinyl wins is in the psychology of the collector/gadget freak . Records are simply more fun from a sociological perspective. From a sonic perspective, the most jaw dropping recordings I have are in digital files. I will toss one more hand grenade while I am at it. In order to build a SOTA system in this day and age you have to use digital signal processing. There is no system that is totally free of problems that stand in the way of the absolute sound. Few of these problems are not amenable to digital processing.