MoFi Release Meets Expectations FINALLY


I have purchased 8-10 MoFi releases in the past year, but mostly I have been either underwhelmed or disappointed with the sound of them. The Pixies Doolittle lacks clarity and sounds really boomy. The Grateful Dead's Live/Dead does not come close in sound quality to the digital reissue. And of the four Elvis Costello reissues I bought, only Armed Forces sounds good enough to justify the cost.

I just got The Grateful Dead's Wake Of The Flood the other day, however, and it sounds amazing. They did a great job with the mastering on this one. Anyone else heard it?
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The original Wake was not too good sound wise. I came to this conclusion after trying various copies. Very murky, sounds like cassette. Some cuts fare better than others. When I saw the reissue was available I assumed it would be compomised by the Master Tapes, So this is good news! On a related note, I am unimpressed with the sonics on the new CD of Europe 72 #2.
I agree the original Wake has disappointing sound quality considering how good American Beauty and Working Man's Dead sound. Maybe in this case the MoFi tampering offers an improvement which would be good news. I do have a number of MoFis that I think sound good to very good. Many are long out of print though.
Understand what youre saying totally and Mofi is a crap shoot these days-didnt used to be. I was totally underwhelmed by teir relase of Santana's first album-dynamics absent, compressed-the original Columbia release is much better. This was released on their Gain 2 series which has been much better than this record. I recently bought INXS's "Kick" which is on their supposedly lesser Silver label, and this record is very good with good dynamics and the life not squashed out of it, so go figure. Maybe its just down to who is in the studio doing the remastering at the time.
The new MoFi in general is not worth the $$ charged both sonically and musically. I think they are running out of original tapes being made available to them by the recording companies because the recording companies are back in vinyl themselves, a problem for all of the reissue companies out there by the way. I recently purchased the latest expensive disappointment, the new Lyle Lovett album, and it isn't very good. Sonically speaking there is no air in the ambient and it just sounds lifeless and uninvolving. On the other hand, I went to my local used record store yesterday and purchased a $12.00 Albert King reissue which is superb and I bought a $5.00 copy of Friday Night in San Francisco also a knockout. I'm really growing bored with many of the disappointing and expensive reissues offered to audiophiles.
I own every MoFi vinyl release up to about catalog number 350 or so. The recent releases are absolutely horrible, easily being bested by original pressings. I finally decided not to waste my money on any more of these sonically compromised LP's. Try listening to any of the Patricia Barber reissues, even the 45 rpm ones. The sonics absolutely disappear and sound like a cheap cassette or 8 track recording. I can't believe people are still buying these things.
MoFi Wake of the Flood and The Band Stage Fright are both better than the original LPs. Beck Sea Change is similarly satisfying-- on a par with the original SACD. I have my eye on Pixies Bossanova for the next one. Has anyone compared the MoFi Pixies LPs to the garden-variety LP reissues?
Yes, I have both my original mint issue of Doolittle and the MoFi. The MoFi has deeper bass and punchier dynamics, it's not as compressed. Background is quieter too.
Philb7777, I agree that the newly released Elvis Costello Almost Blue is great. This makes two releases in a row for me that exceed expectations. My favorite Costello album, Imperial Bedroom, is due to be released soon. That will be the real test. It's one of his best sounding records, but not all of the re-issue treatments on CD are equal in quality.
"The MoFi Doolittle is fantastic."

I must be one of the only ones who thinks that they messed up on Doolittle. My copy sound very boomy in the bass and lacks mid-range detail. Surfer Rosa, on the other hand, is great.
very easy to go out of business if your supposed to be an audiophile label and your stuff isn't. Hope MOFI reads this stuff. It's inexcusable to release albums that are compressed. However, they do have to use the master tapes (hopefully they are using them) and if they aren't good they aren't good. I wonder if they have to listen to the artist, many who have no clue about how to put out good sounding records or cd's. Boy you'd think they would, but look at metallica.