#128 - What was all the fuss about MoFi, vinyl and DSD?

It was hard to avoid the conversation about Mobile Fidelity (MoFi) and their vinyl releases over the last few weeks.  I have my own perspective on the situation - take it or leave it...

In case you missed it, here's what happened....  Mobile Fidelity has been a long time favorite brand for audiophiles to purchase licensed vinyl.  They master in their own facility in Northern California using well respected engineers and top notch equipment.  After watching the interview with the mastering engineers, I believe they made the best choices possible to preserve the sound of the original tape and transfer that to vinyl.  Even the vinyl critics agree that the sound is spectacular.  

In the last few years, MoFi engineers started cutting from DSD256 rather than make a second analog tape stage.  I completely understand.  I love analog tape, but I've made the comparison tests myself... making a copy on tape from another tape (called a safety copy) doesn't sound as "good" to me as making a copy of the tape to DSD256.  If you have to chose between a safety copy on tape or DSD256, I would choose DSD256.  And besides, as a tape lover myself, finding new tape that sounds good is a problem.  After Ampex/Quantegy went out of business, I had questions whether I could tolerate the sound of new tape...  some of it sounds worse than PCM recording - just my opinion.

It happens, one of the mastering engineers, Krieg Wunderlich, had been our repair tech for more than 20 years and he talked about their processes often.  I knew what they were doing and how.  It was never a secret.  He never said, "Don't tell anyone how we do this".  

But, many vinyl music lovers felt there was a coverup as to how MoFi was mastering their vinyl recordings.  I think the journalists and reviews for vinyl didn't want to ask the right questions.  Technology changes...  tape and machine become obsolete and fragile.  Changes to processes have to be made to offer anything on vinyl or other formats.  One thing was clear in all the confusion... the audiophile reviewers loved the sound MoFi was getting for their vinyl reissues.

I watched a lot of videos taking advantage of the 'click bait' opportunities with even the mention of "MoFi" on their youtube channels.  There are interviews of journalists, reviewers and more about how "outrageous" the situation was.  Then, they interviewed each other.  There was also a lot of misinformation being spread by these outraged journalists.  People heard what they wanted to hear and made up what they didn't pay attention to.  Frankly, I was more disappointed in the journalists involved than MoFi.

One thing was clear - the journalists and reviewers felt the MoFi DSD256 vinyl recordings sounded fantastic.  

So why did I know how MoFi was mastering and not the journalists or reviewers?  Maybe because the journalists didn't want to know and never thought to ask?  Didn't want to learn something new?  Needed a dumbed down answer because the truth is technology is difficult to understand? There were a lot of assumptions being made on a very difficult subject.  Personally, I believe that if any journalist decided to interview any of the great mastering engineers they would hear a lot of things they don't want to hear... or understand.

Having been in the business of selling DSD and HD downloads for a long while, we get a lot of questions from consumers and even other distributors.  If there were easy methods for any of the recording, mixing or mastering process, everyone would be doing it.  But there's no easy explanation.  We routinely respond to our customers and many ask the same questions 10 times... to which we answer 10 times.  It's like using the word "best"...  If a $200 DAC is the best or a $20,000 DAC is the best...   then what does the word "best" mean?

People want black and white answers when there are multiple shades of grey.  Systems aren't perfect and each mastering has a different set of issues.  Believe me, we all wish that wasn't the case.  At Blue Coast Music we try to be transparent in our work by adding the provenance to each album.  

Since all this news shattered the vinyl enthusiasts dreams, MoFi has released a statement that they will include the information about the methods used in each mastering.  Better late than never.

There is (of course) the other side of this which is.....  A lot of DSD enthusiasts who listen to vinyl already know how good DSD sounds and many people wondered what the fuss was about.

Here we say ----   

Enjoy your music, how ever you want to listen to it!

Cookie Marenco