Washington Post article on MoFi vs. Fremer vs. Esposito


Here's a link to a Washington Post article on the recent dustup with MoFi. The comments section (including posts by Michael Fremer) are interesting.

Disclaimer: This is a "public service announcement, a point Im adding since some forum members complained the last article I referenced here was "paywall protected", I'll note that, for those who are non-subscribers, free access to limited numbers of articles is available by registering (trade-off: The Post will deluge you with subscription offers)

kacomess

I only own one of the "One Step" albums by Eric Clapton Unplugged. I am very pleased with it and even the wife who is not into audio thought it sounded fabulous. Will I buy others? Possibly if it is something I really like. I am curious to see if they lower the prices going forward.

I get everyone's feelings about the obvious misreprentation, but going forward shouldn't we ultimately judge them by the value proposition of their products, i.e. the incremental quality relative to the incremental price?

Going forward simply stream the digital. Band limiting the digital to fit on vinyl in order to charge more is ridiculous. If you want to reduce fidelity , limit it with EQ. 

Given the excellent reviews on the MoFi albums, the experts involved, and the astronomical bit rate now possible, I would say that gerryah930 is likely correct that "the digital masters probably sound better than the aged tapes."  Even though I don't own any MoFi albums, I have no doubt they sound fantastic, and as they say, "It's hard to argue with results."

In general, my preference is for clean original copies, as they were likely all analog (depending on the era) and produced when the tapes were in the best possible shape.  In the case of Thriller, which is cited in the article, a NM original can be had for less than $30, maybe even less than $20.  Given how good my copy sounds (which cost less than $5 more than 20 years ago), it's hard to believe it could be significantly improved on.  So the justification for the price of a one-step reissue isn't clear (at least not to me).