Mobile Fidelity MoFi Controversy - They Master From Digital!

At the very least it will cause sleepless nights and lawyer fees and who knows what a jury will decide?

I suspect this is only the first of law suits to come. Couldn’t happen to a better bunch of cheats.

EXACTLY!!!

Note: the album still works well during current altered states of consciousness :grin:

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I disagree. No matter how MoFi have ‘conducted their business’ over the last few years, they’ve still produced superb products, that genuinely sound superb. How is that ‘cheating’? It simply isn’t.

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If a producer states their food is organic, or non-GMO, or vegan, or diet, or whatever you want, and it’s not, it’s still cheating, even if it tastes great.

@Marian

But that’s not what they did. They omitted some information…they did not say the product was all analog.

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I’m not contesting that. I’m just saying the quality of the records is irrelevant when determining whether they cheated or not.

They never stated that they mastered from analogue after they started mastering from DSD. So your claim of misrepresentation is dead-in-the-water there.

OK. They were less than transparent on how they mastered when they started mastering from DSD, and probably relied on some ambiguity on their past claims, but they never claimed they were mastering from analogue tapes when they weren’t. People just ‘assumed’ they were.

Got it. My point is: “The quality of the records is irrelevant when determining whether they cheated or not.”

And my point is, that as far as I can see, they didn’t cheat. Which completely undermines your conflated argument, and position on the quality of their products.

If you don’t like their products, then fine. But don’t ‘blame’ DSD masters - it has nothing to do with your opinion, or dislike.

I was simply addressing this part of your post, in which you seem to imply that they didn’t cheat just because of the quality of their records and nothing else matters. Maybe I got it wrong.

My view is that the action shifts from Mobile Fidelity, who to their credit have done their best to clear the air going forward, and onto “analog is king” crowd within the high end audio industry. Even more than MoFi this crowd now has lots of egg on their collective face.

As has been stated earlier in this thread, since DSD copies of master tapes are being used to make the LPs why not just release perfect digital copies of these DSD files either as SACDs or digital downloads?

Let’s look at the production and playback chain for the LPs versus for the SACDs/downloads

LP production: DSD master → digital to analog conversion (this step is still not shown in MoFi’s revised literature) → lacquer → convert → vinyl
So that’s four steps in the One Step process (gotta love marketing magic :grin: turning four steps into one)

SACD production: I can’t find the details on the exact steps involved but one step that is definitely not present is the digital to analog conversion.

Digital download production: make a digital copy of the DSD master available for download. Now that’s what I would call one step!

LP playback: LP → turntable → pre and power amplification → speakers

SACD playback: SACD player → digital to analog conversion → pre and power amplification → speakers

Digital download playback: digital audio file player → digital to analog conversion → pre and power amplification → speakers

Aside from the quality of the one’s vinyl playback system, one of the biggest differences between LP versus SACD/digital download is the location within the production/playback chain of the digital to analog conversion. With an LP made from a DSD master the conversion is being done by the LP manufacturer whereas with an SACD/digital download the conversion is being done by the end user.

Either way the upshot is that one is listening to an analog master that has been converted to digital and then converted back to analog. And for some reason or other the Golden Eared audio crowd could not hear the difference between pure 100% analog and digitized analog (for lack of a better term). Oh the shame! (Just in case you may still be wondering why I have such a low opinion of the Golden Eared crowd)

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Not accurate. See this -

I suppose one could argue that it is the engineers that are lying, but they take their marching orders from management.

Truly, I don’t have any skin in this game. I’ve never bought a MoFi LP, but I consider the whole affair to be emblematic of all the rip off artists that lurk in the darkness of this hobby.

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I didn’t care enough to watch the video before… At 1:40, Shawn volunteers this statement: “Well, some people ask us questions like ‘Is it an all-analog mastering chain?’ It is.” I don’t see how that’s subject to interpretation.

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Yes, that’s what I pointed to in my post. That’s as bald a lie as one can utter.

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Completely agree. I for one would be happy to buy digital downloads from them.

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Thought the same. I would love to buy some DSD files from them at a reasonable price.

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A Live Stream tomorrow that looks interesting, in light of the MoFi debacle.

I preordered some of the Van Halen one steps:
-Van Halen will be a DSD 4X: 1/4" / 30 IPS analog master to DSD 256 to analog console to lathe
-1984 pending: Mastering Source to Be Determined Closer to Production Date; Specifics Will Be Posted Here When Authenticated
-Thriller: 33- Source: 1/2" / 30 IPS analog master to DSD 256 to analog console to lathe
Transparency at the end, but not forthcoming…

The other Van Halen titles I preordered as SACDs save my self some money at least DSD64
The MoFi Silver labels at least are all analog-analog so far as per the M Esposito interview….
Analog productions UHRQs are supposed to be analog only.
I have the Jimi Hendrix Experience that was worth the money. 20K pressings
Preordered Milles Davis Kind of Blue 45 UHRQ-25K pressings.
But at over $175 once tax and shipping are added, there’s only some many of the UHQR one can buy…

Some of the MoFi I purchased on vinyl probably will be DSD but bought under the assumption that it was analog to analog. That pisses me off as I probably would have opted for the SACD versions instead
The SACD AP versus MoFi, I prefer some of the AP, the Japanese SHM-CDs are overpriced at $60 a pop, but bought the Stones Hot Rocks SHM-CD and that sounds great
This hobby is pricey…but buying based on inaccurate advertising sucks

Just sell me the DSD files as download and I will buy some. But no way I’m going to buy a $150-200 vinyl

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You could get one of these and make your own from the dsd’s :joy::rofl::joy:

https://community.roonlabs.com/t/the-po-80-record-maker/217154

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