Do Mobile Fidelity Vinyl Re-issues Have a Digital Step in the Process?

[Catcher10]

My issues are very simple with MoFi. Pretty much the whole industry and consumers believed that MoFi was cutting lacquers using the ORIGINAL MASTER TAPES. The whole process was 100% in the analog domain, no digital steps were involved. So we as consumers paid them a premium for this service, all their language pointed to an all analog process.
I have ZERO issue with LPs cut from a digital source, I have tons of LPs that sound amazing that are digital. But I have never paid $100 for one of these albums....Why should MoFi charge $100 or $125 for a digital cut album? I have no issue giving them a premium for having some of the best mastering engineers in the world and doing great work, but not at 150% more than someone else's digital LP. To me the most I think MoFi records are worth is about $75, and I think I'm still being very generous.....
My 2015 Thriller album cut at SST Bruggemann in Germany sounds amazing, I am sure from a hi-res digital file and I paid $25 for it. I doubt I would buy the MoFi Thriller for $75, let alone give them $100 for it.

MoFi needs to correct their language and be 100% transparent on every issue they produce as well adjust their pricing to reflect the current market for digitally cut LPs.

 

[XV-1]

Myles Astor put the mofi situation perfectly into words on audionirvana.

This is like buying something marked Kosher and finding out there’s pork in it.

 

[Drikus]

On May 16, 2022, Michael published a notice about the upcoming Mobile Fidelity Thriller reissue:

40th Anniversary Mobile Fidelity "One-Step" Thriller Coming November 18th (CLARIFICATION UPDATE!)

LOS ANGELES, May 16, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Sony Music and the Estate of Michael Jackson today announced that it will celebrate the 40th anniversary of Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the biggest selling album of all time, with the November 18 release of Michael Jackson Thriller 40, a double CD set...

www.analogplanet.com

"Mastered from the original analog master tapes, Mobile Fidelity will also make available the original Thriller album as a One-Step 180g 33RPM LP, pressed at RTI and strictly limited to 40,000 numbered copies as well as a hybrid SACD. (An UltraDisc One-Step 180g 45RPM 2LP set of Thriller will be released at a future date.)"

CLARIFICATION UPDATE!: The above quote is 100% accurate and true and contains no ambiguities, though it might appears to. Upon my return from High End Munich next week I will post a further clarification with additional information that will satisfy you, me, Mobile Fidelity and The Estate of Michael Jackson.

Did Michael ever post the clarification referred to in this May 16 announcement?

Nope, he said on the YouTube video with the 45 RPM Audiophile from July 17 that Mo-Fi told him that he was gonna get a clarification update from them later but but he never got one.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Nope, he said on the YouTube video with the 45 RPM Audiophile from July 17 that Mo-Fi told him that he was gonna get a clarification update from them later but but he never got one.

Thank you.

 

[microstrip]

Myles Astor put the mofi situation perfectly into words on audionirvana.

This is like buying something marked Kosher and finding out there’s pork in it.

The Dieselgate of vinyl ... Does anyone know for sure when DSD256 was introduced as an accepted format?

 

[Audire]

FrankenVinyl

Me thinks some Attorney’s will be filing lawsuits. This won’t be soon forgotten.

 

[Catcher10]

The Dieselgate of vinyl ... Does anyone know for sure when DSD256 was introduced as an accepted format?

That was asked by MikeE during his visit to MoFi this week, they admitted that going back to 2008 they have been cutting lacquers from digital file. They were not specific if it was DSD, we can only assume so, but MoFi mentions only making copies of tapes using 4xDSD. Specifically the question was about the 2008 Abraxas, Shawn Britton was very confident he cut it using a digital file.

 

[microstrip]

FankenVinyl

Me thinks some Attorney’s will be filing lawsuits. This won’t be soon forgotten.

On the contrary, I think that many people will try to forget it very fast. So many years spent appreciating and laudating the pure analog sound of DSD 256 or even other digital formats!

 

[dminches]

FrankenVinyl

Me thinks some Attorney’s will be filing lawsuits. This won’t be soon forgotten.

There have been thousands of re-issues by other labels that say "remastered from original tapes" that weren't AAA. Are those companies going to get sued too?

 

[Audire]

On the contrary, I think that many people will try to forget it very fast. So many years spent appreciating and laudating the pure analog sound of DSD 256 or even other digital formats!

I’m not one that purchases MoFi anyway - I have a few, and then quite buying them.

I prefer real analogue. So, I’m glad I live in FL where a lot of the older generation lives. There is tons of old vinyl available here.

And nothing about DSD is “pure analogue.”

 

[mtemur]

There have been thousands of re-issues by other labels that say "remastered from original tapes" that weren't AAA. Are those companies going to get sued too?

Probably not, but they didn’t advertise it with bold fancy words or charge 125USD for a record.

 

[Ed.P]

Hard to say the comments at 1:40 aren’t intentionally misleading considering their audience.

 

[Ron Resnick]

At 01:40:

“Well, some people ask us questions like ‘Is it an all-analog mastering chain?’.”

“It is.”

We now know this statement is false and misleading. In general parlance this statement is a lie. Mobile Fidelity appears to be guilty of fraud.

 

[Ron Resnick]

Me thinks some Attorney’s will be filing lawsuits. This won’t be soon forgotten.

I do not know if an attorney will calculate it to be a worthwhile project. The totality of what we now know — false and misleading written marketing materials and press releases, false statements such as are in this video, false mastering flow charts and recent admissions by Mobile Fidelity confirming the falsehoods — likely makes for a valid cause of action here.

I wonder if a lawsuit could be structured as a class action using a “fraud on the market” concept demanding rescission (refund of purchase price) on behalf of all consumers who purchased an LP with a digital step in reasonable reliance on one or more statements by Mobile Fidelity falsely or misleadingly stating or implying that the LP was AAA.

 

[Ed.P]

Consumers aren’t the only aggrieved parties. Competitors are also harmed by deceptive trade practices.

unfair competition

www.law.cornell.edu

 

[Ron Resnick]

Nope, he said on the YouTube video with the 45 RPM Audiophile from July 17 that Mo-Fi told him that he was gonna get a clarification update from them later but but he never got one.

I suspect that Michael was just as trusting of the Mobile Fidelity press releases and statements as was I and other consumers.

 

[microstrip]

I do not know if an attorney will calculate it to be a worthwhile project. The totality of what we now know — false and misleading written marketing materials and press releases, false statements such as are in this video, false mastering flow charts and recent admissions by Mobile Fidelity confirming the falsehoods — likely makes for a valid cause of action here.

The lawsuit could be structured as a class action demanding rescission (refund of purchase price) on behalf of all consumers who purchased an LP with a digital step in reasonable reliance on one or more statements by Mobile Fidelity falsely or misleadingly stating or implying that the LP was AAA.

Yes, but I can see the MoFi lawyers showing hundreds of written testimonies of prestigious audiophiles stating that these LPs sound better than anything else and people reporting about the great experiences they had listening to these recordings. IMHO in the end such lawsuit would be great marketing for MoFi and the existing LPs cut before the trial would become even more valuable.

Anyway a great subject for an episode of the Bull series!

 

[dminches]

Probably not, but they didn’t advertise it with bold fancy words or charge 125USD for a record.

Actually, that is not true. The hype stickers are always saying "Remastered from the Original Tapes." Bolded, etc etc.

The price is irrelevant.

 

[Mike Lavigne]

i hope this subject can soon run it's course, so negative. like a dark cloud. Stan Ricker must be tossing and turning in his grave....not to mention Tim dPv.

 

[microstrip]

Consumers aren’t the only aggrieved parties. Competitors are also harmed by deceptive trade practices.

unfair competition

www.law.cornell.edu

The effect of such lawsuit could also be spreading discredit in the whole LP industry - no one in the business is interested in poisoning the vinyl resurgence.