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
Interesting how so many of us expect a'phile re-issues to sound great...and why wouldn't we? However, we fail to consider the original recording source and quality of the original tape. Many times, that quality is going to be subpar. Unfortunately, with the new craze in re-issuing just about anything that was produced back in the day, this factor is overlooked by the a'phile labels in the rush to get the reissue on the market. A sad situation IMO, as too many hobbyists will be getting burned.
As an aside, I recently played one of the new Music Matters reissues on 33rpm...noisy copy with background hiss and more. The company that sold it to me is taking it back...after stating that they are out of stock since the pressing is being re-done and they are waiting for that. 'Re-press' is the term....I wonder why??
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.
Dnath, actually I am talking about the Kenny Burrell Midnight Blue album.
The recording on this one is superb, BUT the pressing that I have is noisy.
I bought the KB Midnight Blue Music Matters 45 and found it to be bliss.Also bought MoFi 45 RPM Blonde on Blonde really superb in all ways.