MoFi Sued For Using Digital In “All Analog” Vinyl Reissues
Well it looks like the proverbial has hit the fan for Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs. Their marketing claim that its reissues were “purely analog recordings” created from the master tapes of the original records has “bit them in the ass”. The question in my mind is; was the use of digital files in their vinyl mastering chain just a recent thing or has it been going on for years? According to Jim Davis, the practice of using a DSD intermediate stage only started in 2020. Well either way it looks like the audiophile community has got its “nickers in a twist” over this and one customer is filing a class-action lawsuit against the company, accusing the Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs of false advertising.
This is all happening on the heels of the Washington Post piece from a few weeks ago and the visit last month of Mike Esposito, owner of Phoenix record store The ‘In’ Groove, who posted a YouTube video in which he claimed that he’d learned from “pretty reliable sources” that MoFi had used digital files in its vinyl reissues. Now Billboard is reporting that a North Carolina man has started a class action lawsuit against MoFi. The accuser claims that he purchased his vinyl albums from MoFi with the understanding that the ENTIRE vinyl mastering process was analog. The mans attorneys claiming that; MoFi intentionally kept their use of digital processes secret and that “MoFi intentionally hid this fact from consumers.”
I for one certainly always believed that their process was ALL analog until just recently, when it was revealed that they started using DSD intermediate masters in 2020. Billboard has indicated in their article that MoFi started using digital processing in 2011 with The “In” Groove claiming from 2015 for vinyl mastering.
So did Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab ever claim in print that their vinyl masters are “cut from the original master tape”? I do not ever remember reading that statement, generally reading statements like “mastered from the original master tape” or “sourced from the original master tape”.
However, having said all that and being a little disappointed about their misleading marketing, deliberate or in error, I CANNOT fault any of the releases I have purchased from them over the years. ALL of them have been excellent and generally superior to, virtually any other music pressing I have ever purchased.
As to how this will impact your vinyls value, if at all and whether you will continue to patronage MoFi, time will tell. It WILL NOT alter my support for Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab. I just hope that if they loose the case and have to pay damages to many millions of customers that it doesn’t put them out of business, or ALL audiophiles REALLY LOOSE and will rue this day!!
I suppose this all begs the question to all those audiophile “Golden Ears” amongst us who can supposedly tell the difference between analog and digital sources…. well what happened to your hearing? Apparently YOU can’t!
For the various news releases check out:
Check out these YouTube interviews.
Check out these posts on the unfolding process:
Check out this:
http://soundevaluations.blogspot.com/2022/08/mofi-gate-scandal-controversy-moving.html?m=0
In the end Claude Lemaire seems to have the some opinion as you 🙂
Dori,
Thank you for sharing the link. The reality is that nobody “heard” the MoFi vinyl releases as if having a “digital” sound or edge to them, no matter how golden their ears. That includes me, somebody who would be considered by all his peers to be an analog audiophile. I spent years working in all analog professional recording studios and I will stand by every review that I have ever done of MoFi vinyl. The problem for the professional golden ear reviewers now is that they have been made to look as if their ears are not so golden; despite their claims.
To be honest I have orders in for both Thriller and Eldorado and this DSD intermediate step will not put me off buying any MoFi vinyl. However, my next MoFi reviews will be just a little more analytical.
It’s a pity you cannot buy the DSD256 file from them instead of the SACD DSD64.
Regards
Paul