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Mobile Fidelity, ‘One Step’ etc

I’m waiting for lots of collections of these audiophile releases to flood the market at low prices but I suspect that won’t happen
 

Michael Fremer’s current take. He is in a really awkward position, in many ways the victim here as MoFi clearly hung him out to dry given he has pretty much built his career on being anti-digital. He then made a spectacularly bad error of judgement in attacking Mike at In Groove in the first video, and whilst there was no apology here, he appears to have rowed-back substantially. I detect a few goal-posts moving...

The whole thing is a fascinating little spotlight on how the audiophile industry works. In this series of videos we have all of the chain represented from manufacturer (MoFi), the paid reviewer (Fremer), the record dealer (In Groove), and the end user (Michael 45rpm). In this particular scenario the latter two behaved impeccably IMHO. The former two rather less so.
 
I am hugely enjoying all this and the fall out. I have generally been skeptical of audiophile reissues and I believe this 'honesty' issue goes way beyond MoFi. People are shocked that their favorite reissues that they love have been from a digital source. There are audiophiles out there saying, 'oh I am not going to buy MoFi anymore, Analogue Productions (fill in your favorite label) are more honest, etc...'. If you really think that, you are naive.
 
There are audiophiles out there saying, 'oh I am not going to buy MoFi anymore, Analogue Productions (fill in your favorite label) are more honest, etc...'. If you really think that, you are naive.

I’d be surprised if that was true. AP’s Chad Kassem has already brought cameras into his cutting and manufacturing process. Given what he is selling, and how precisely he is selling it it would be commercial suicide to lie. I suspect this situation will force others to do similar. My suspicion is this will do huge damage to MoFi, it may even wipe them out, and it is nothing to do with the digital aspect. It is all about integrity.

My own perspective as a music buyer/record collector has always been to seek out the first pressing of country of artist/label origin. I have a huge stack of fancy audiophile Blue Notes, Impulse etc, plus maybe even more Japanese pressings, but there are none I’d not swap for a mint RVG-stamped US copy. I don’t care if it is a later issue as long as it has that RVG stamp in the run-off. I buy the audiophile reissue to get a genuinely good sounding and nicely presented copy of something I either can’t justify LOLprice for, or just can’t find at all. I’d not care if it was from a high-res digital, a second generation tape etc, but I expect the company to be honest about that so I can make an informed buying decision.

There are huge doubts about everything IMO given the catastrophic fires that destroyed so much of the Impulse, Atlantic etc catalogue. I am hugely skeptical.
 

Michael Fremer’s current take. He is in a really awkward position, in many ways the victim here as MoFi clearly hung him out to dry given he has pretty much built his career on being anti-digital. He then made a spectacularly bad error of judgement in attacking Mike at In Groove in the first video, and whilst there was no apology here, he appears to have rowed-back substantially. I detect a few goal-posts moving...

The whole thing is a fascinating little spotlight on how the audiophile industry works. In this series of videos we have all of the chain represented from manufacturer (MoFi), the paid reviewer (Fremer), the record dealer (In Groove), and the end user (Michael 45rpm). In this particular scenario the latter two behaved impeccably IMHO. The former two rather less so.
WTF happened between 11:43 and 11:44 in that video?! Looks as if he's been ranting for hours and decided to edit it all out! :D
 

Michael Fremer’s current take. He is in a really awkward position, in many ways the victim here as MoFi clearly hung him out to dry given he has pretty much built his career on being anti-digital. He then made a spectacularly bad error of judgement in attacking Mike at In Groove in the first video, and whilst there was no apology here, he appears to have rowed-back substantially. I detect a few goal-posts moving...

The whole thing is a fascinating little spotlight on how the audiophile industry works. In this series of videos we have all of the chain represented from manufacturer (MoFi), the paid reviewer (Fremer), the record dealer (In Groove), and the end user (Michael 45rpm). In this particular scenario the latter two behaved impeccably IMHO. The former two rather less so.

Fremer doing what Fremer does, running off at the mouth, talking fast and loose and not taking care of the words he uses.

I’d love to see him debate how significant the differences are between an all analogue cut lacquer and a DSD cut one with the guy from Sterling sound - oh wait he had the chance but didn’t take him up on it.

He really does make an ass of himself in this video and I very much doubt I can trust that’s his last word in this - if only.

Love his passion for vinyl but he really does think it’s all about him.
 
How does Mofi square some of the funky EQ's on their releases, that clearly deviate from the original? I can understand some bass being 'added' where it might have been necessarily omitted several decades back, but some just sound like they've quirky mids and high frequencies etc.

I'm not a fan. Frankly speaking, it always banged of cash grabbing to me.
 
How does Mofi square some of the funky EQ's on their releases, that clearly deviate from the original? I can understand some bass being 'added' where it might have been necessarily omitted several decades back, but some just sound like they've quirky mids and high frequencies etc.

I was always under the impression the original series back in the 70s were flat master transfers, i.e. lacking the compression and EQ traditionally done by a mastering engineer (e.g. ‘Porky’) which can absolutely make or break an album. The thinking now seems to be that MoFi added bass and treble whilst not using any compression which led to the rather sucked-out and gutless sound I associate with that era.

I’ve never heard any of the newer ones so can’t comment there. I certainly didn’t rate the ones I’ve heard (DSOTM, Atom Heart Mother, White Album etc). I’d take bog standard UK copies over those any day. I’d really like to hear Bitches Brew or something like that though as the recent Miles seem very well liked.

PS The Bitches Brew is actually very interesting in that despite what Fremer says I was under the firm impression the two track master had fallen apart, hence the need for the back to multi-track remix that came out for the 40th anniversary. The Second Quintet era was all remixed too for the same reason, e.g. a modern CD of say ESP or Miles Smiles is actually a different mix than the original Columbia vinyl. All these albums sound very different now to how they did originally. I’d love to hear the MoFis to see if they managed to source the original mix from somewhere.
 
I assume you mean Nightfly. Yes, it was some obscure very early digital format that has been all but impossible to play since, so actually returning to that master would be highly problematic. IIRC they made analogue safety copies at the time, so maybe that is what is used now? I think Gaucho is the same, but I may be wrong there. Steely Dan had a lot of problems in the studio chasing new technology that proved unreliable, some of the early albums are blighted with bad tape noise reduction, Katy Lied being the most impacted.

I would love to know what Cisco used for their remarkably well regarded audiophile cut of Aja. I’ve never heard it but it is regarded by many as the best sounding copy ever, but logically it can’t have come from a master as I think that fell apart. I recently paid getting on for £50 for a 1977 1st Japanese issue and that is very, very good. Noticeably crisper, punchier and tighter than I’d heard it previously. That’s good enough for me. I’d previously been looking for a US AB matrix original, but they are rare in the UK and that wasn’t a good period for US vinyl even if the cut was superb. I think I’m done.

PS My Nightfly is a promo-stamped UK (not the far more common German) 1st press which sounds absolutely stunning. I can’t imagine how this one could sound any better so I’m done here too.
 
I’d be surprised if that was true. AP’s Chad Kassem has already brought cameras into his cutting and manufacturing process. Given what he is selling, and how precisely he is selling it it would be commercial suicide to lie. I suspect this situation will force others to do similar. My suspicion is this will do huge damage to MoFi, it may even wipe them out, and it is nothing to do with the digital aspect. It is all about integrity.

45 RPM Audiophile has Chad Kassem as his guest for a live stream this Sunday.

 
I assume you mean Nightfly...... I think Gaucho is the same, but I may be wrong there.

Yes, Nightfly - it was early!

it never occurred to me that Gaucho was digital, but I always found the bass on 'Hey Nineteen' all over the place, and cymbals sometimes sound compressed (Glamour Profession) though you never know what damping the kit had etc...

One of my favourite Dan tracks is Deacon Blues, but it sounds like it was recorded in a totally different location to the rest of the album - muffled and dynamic-less by comparison to all the other tracks...
 
Analogue Productions has just re-released Steely Dan's 'Two Against Nature'... ( favourite band / worst album imho)

so fine, so good - but the original will never have been analogue, so what's the offering?

just that the originals sold out, or the pressings are better??
 
it never occurred to me that Gaucho was digital, but I always found the bass on 'Hey Nineteen' all over the place, and cymbals sometimes sound compressed (Glamour Profession) though you never know what damping the kit had etc...

Thinking about it I have a feeling I’m wrong. The strange thing about Gaucho was it features a very early experimental digital drum machine ‘Wendel’. It is in the mix with the various session drummers and may explain some of what you hear. I love Gaucho and would suggest changing your copy (or system!) if the bass is all over the place. It’s a great recording, I have UK 1st press vinyl and the first Japanese CD (VDP 26, arguably the best digital copy) and often use them to setup a system/assess a change, e.g. I often use the very wide kit metal-work and backing vocals on Hey Nineteen to set anti-skate. In fact it even has a lyric ‘skate a little lower now’, which is right 50% of the time.
 
It's not my system! The bass intervals on Hey Nineteen just sound out of tune... can't blame Becker obviously!:)
 


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