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Mobile Fidelity admit to using digital
I
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God is an American
I see lots of people (audiophile dinguses, mainly) losing their minds about this news, but as an engineer myself I don't understand the big deal. A super hi-res digital transfer captures the original source perfectly, if done right, and then the mastering engineer can use that digital transfer to very finely tailor their mastering to an LP they're cutting, as well as to an SACD for those of us still rocking hi-res physical media, or whatever else you wanna hear it played on. Best of both worlds.Originally Posted by Frozen Beach
When it's recorded well, analogue tape is a great medium for sound, but it's fragile and requires a lot of care and effort to maximize its quality. It doesn't have any intrinsic voodoo magic in it that is suddenly lost when digitized after the fact. Likewise with records: there is nothing prima facie that changes in analogue reproduction formats whether or not the sound has at any point been through a good transparent digital conversion.
But this isn't science, it's religion. So burn the heretics I guess?
Last edited by botley; 07-22-2022 at 03:51 PM.
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I'm with you, but I also understand the anger cause Mobile Fidelity blatantly deceived their customers, which is wrong.
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just grabbed the new Zola Jesus. .contender for album of the year.
nindivinedebris
Not seeing the link, is there an article with more info?
I assume, unless it is stated otherwise, that any vinyl record pressed in the last 15 or 20 years is cut from a digital source. I always hope that it's from a hi-res source (higher than CD quality hopefully) so I'm getting some benefit from listening to vinyl. Some releases will state this and mention 24/96, and the ones that say it's cut from analog usually fall all over themselves to state that fact. Even stuff from the 90's was likely cut from a DAT tape which isn't much better than CD.
That's why for me, I'm more interested in collecting vintage records that I know are all analog. Releases from the last 20 years, I either have to really like the music to own it on vinyl, or it needs to have some sort of exclusive factor to it such as the packaging.
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Personally, I don't care how it is recorded (I mean, I collect shellac where the recording process is pretty much yelling at a lathe) so much as mastered well for the format. Like, too many modern releases really just seem to put them at half "volume" and we know full well that there's a lot more depth than that (most 45RPM 12" singles are great examples of that). Maybe they are just being "safe" but it always feels a bit unfinished to me.
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This week's edition of Friday treats...
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@Mr. Blaileen waiting on my Brooklyn Vegan variant of the new Primus to show up!
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Nice! That splatter variant looks awesome.
I'm working from home today so I'm about to throw these on and listen. Can't wait!
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nindivinedebris
Here's a great article explaining the whole Mobile Fidelity vinyl debacle: https://www.washingtonpost.com/music...gital-scandal/
Thanks to @Leviathant for sharing on Twitter.
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It fills me with glee. There are idiots who've proclaimed to have golden ears, and they've been listening to and advocating for vinyl cut from digitized masters since 2008.
Look, I have a bunch of records, I enjoy the aspect of pulling out a record and having a listen, and I'm even thinking about buying a nicer turntable now that I'm in my fucking 40s, but I have no patience for analog voodoo mumbo jumbo.
If you like how it sounds, great! If you're not involved in the creation process, maybe don't pretend to know what really works.
Now, if this company's been charging a premium while maintaining a false narrative, that's a little more tricky, but at the same time, I sometimes wish I were less ethically inclined when it comes to audiophiles. If there's someone out there spending five figures on pre-amps and dumb wood carvings to go with their cryo-treated RCA cables, I see the attraction of wanting to part a fool with their money. Trouble is, you have to be pretty dishonest, and you have to stick with that. Even with as much schadenfreude as I get out of things like this (or the hilarious saga of the THX certified Lexicon BD-30), I still couldn't bring myself to lie to people like that.
God is an American
I have a few MFSL vinyl pressings, they do sound good but not better than hi-res digital can sound (even their own SACDs, which I guess now we know are basically the same thing). Mind you, their '79 vinyl cut of Dark Side of the Moon is pretty well the best I've ever heard it sound... but that was of course produced forty-three years ago.
RA-MEN ROPPAI
The only OG MFSL vinyl I have is Grateful Dead's From The Mars Hotel. I have a slew of gold jazz CDs I purchased in the 90s that are either Mobile Fidelity or DCC, but they aren't anything to write home about as far as "improvement" or "fidelity".
I've steered clear of the more recent Miles Davis SACD releases because I had a feeling that what was true... was true.
God is an American
Huh? If it's true they're getting the Miles stuff from Sony in DSD, why would making an SACD from tape transferred at its native resolution be reason to steer clear? I only recently got Filles de Kilimanjaro from that series but it sounds pretty darn good to me.
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that was a wild ride from start to finish to author bio.
nindivinedebris
I think one thing some people tend to forget is that getting a high resolution version of a recording is important, but as long as it's AT LEAST in CD quality, then I think that whatever mastering is done is probably more important to how it sounds. Example: I'd rather have original CD of Nirvana's Nevermind than a hi-res file that has been near brickwall remastered.
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RA-MEN ROPPAI
Thanks, I'll have to check some of them out; my reasoning obviously stemmed from a misunderstanding of how these were being done.
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Two posts...
1. the 1975 Canadian release of "Dreamboat Annie" by Heart
2. the 1981 Canadian release of "Greatest Hits" by Queen
3. the 2016 180g remastered US release of "Wish You Where Here" by Pink Floyd
All re-buys because of "reasons".
1. the 1989 Canadian release of "Alannah Miles" by Alannah Miles
2. the 1986 Canadian self-released of "I'm An Adult Now" by The Pursuit Of Happiness (two years before the first album and re-worked version of the song)
.net (24.24.2.1447)
Anyone rocking a vintage dual 505 turntable? I think I finally need a new stylus and I’m looking at my options: straight replacement ortofon dn165 e, or upgrade to an ortofon cartridge? And if I do that, how does the superOM’s default stylus compare to option A? It gives me the option of upgrading further, if it’s worthwhile.
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The new Sleep's Dopesmoker reissue with marijuana leaves pressed inside the vinyl is amazing. If I lived in Detroit I'd certainly be picking a copy up (because of the marijuana this item can't be shipped outside Michigan).
(For some reason I can't embed the IG post, here's the link)
https://www.instagram.com/p/ChkH_wAL...on_share_sheet
Last edited by cahernandez; 08-23-2022 at 04:30 PM.
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