MoFi lawsuit

Even though I have half a dozen one step albums I couldn’t be bothered to file a claim. The only ones who will make out on this are the lawyers as usual. 

I have about 60 MoFi that fall under the settlement, which should be worth a couple/few hundred in credit to me. However, the paperwork for all those was too overwhelming for the return on effort, so I did nothing. They really should have forced MusicDirect/Mofi to just make it automatic from their sales records, without requiring documentation for each and every MoFi purchase.

Maybe it's just me.
They misrepresented something everyone in the industry is doing.
Enjoy the music.

I hate to see the generalization made that smaarch1 did just above. His statement is false.

There are quite a few companies that have been 100% honest and forthcoming in disclosing the source they used for their LP reissues: Analogue Productions, Speakers Corner, Vinyl Me Please (VMP), Intervention, Light In The Attic, Music Matters, Blue Note, Craft Recordings, Impex Recordings, ORG, and Sundazed, for instance. There are others.

Now, if by "everyone in the industry" you are referring to many of the major labels, then yeah. But informed audiophiles know better than to buy those LP’s. smaarch1 is obviously not an informed audiophile. Other uninformed audiophiles lump all MoFi titles together, regardless of when they were produced. Informed audiophiles are aware of the fact that the sound quality of MoFi LP’s varies wildly, for a number of reasons (which I won’t go into here).

What MoFi did was not only hide the fact that they were cutting some of their lacquers from digital files, but when asked if they were doing so they deliberately lied, saying they were not, that all their LP’s were being made free of any digital conversion or steps. Boldface, deliberate lying, right to the interviewer’s face. Shameless.

@winoguy17: Claim form applications were due at the law firm handling the case no later than September 21st. There is no mention in the application of the anticipated date of refunds/credits being made to applicants. I myself made a claim on a half-dozen titles; one for a refund (an LP to be returned), the rest for credit (LP’s kept) towards other MoFi product. Yes, I am still buying selected MoFi titles.

For those interested, all the MoFi Ry Cooder titles were cut from analogue tapes, and they sound fantastic. There are others as well. But ya know, many of the titles made from digital sources also sound fantastic, some better than the original pressings from major labels. Mass-produced LP’s are rarely---extremely rarely---made using a master tape (either the 2" 16/24 multi-track master, or the 1/2" master mix tape); the lacquers are cut from a "production" a/k/a "safety" tape copy. Is a 2nd or 3rd generation analogue copy tape ipso facto "better" than a DSD 256 digital file? Not necessarily.

For those looking at reissues of Tom Waits LP’s (clean used copies are hard to find, and not cheap), avoid the ones done by Rhino; they are not good. The new ones---supervised by Tom and Kathleen themselves---are cut from the master tapes, and sound fantastic. The Rhino reissue of Warren Zevon’s s/t album also stinks. Fortunately, clean originals are not too rare, or expensive.

Were any of you unhappy with the sound of your MoFi product before you learned  "the truth".  @dwette if your purchased so many I'm guessing the answer is no?  I've only bought 4 titles from them over the years.  I didn't buy more for the simple reason I've not heard any appreciable improvement in sound over other versions I owned.  Tempest in a Teacup. IMHO