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Quality of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab CD Re-Issues?

Wes

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I'm curious about what MFSL does to digital files for their CD reissues. Does anybody know?

Some of it sounds like there is less grunge, but for rock less grunge isn't always the best idea...


* not the LP's but the CD's
 

Blumlein 88

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I'm curious about what MFSL does to digital files for their CD reissues. Does anybody know?

Some of it sounds like there is less grunge, but for rock less grunge isn't always the best idea...


* not the LP's but the CD's
For replay of the tapes they used special RTR machines modded by Tim de Paravicini. Also claimed to be using the original master tapes but that isn't as easy to determine as it seems sometimes. Way back when prior to SACD they monitored results using Ultra Analog based 20 bit DACs which I think were VTL tube units. I think most of the gear was from TdP.

Something I've never seen referenced prior to their SACD issues were which ADC they used.

They also used those Gold discs. I always thought that a marketing thing. You hold them up to the light and the gold is so thin it is mostly transparent. On top of which all I've ever seen had lots and lots of holes where the plating wasn't uniform. As in dozens of such holes.

I have much preferred their discs to the originals. I don't know who was doing the remastering for them, and I doubt it was as simple as get good gear and play the master tape direct and record it though maybe it was. That was the story they put out anyway.

I'd analyzed a few where I had both the original CD release and the Gold MFSL at one time. Should do that over since we have pkane's Deltawave to work with. What I found were gentle differences in frequency response, and more uniform speeds on playback of the MFSL tape machine. Some regular releases had rather widely varying tape speed and sometimes had some low level tones that were artifacts of the tape machine or something else in the chain.
 

Snoopy

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I'm trying to figure out what makes their SACD so "special".
Everywhere I read about MFSL Bob Dylan SACDs vs Sony SACD and the diffrent CD and LP masters used people seem to prefer the SACDs for their "warmth".

But at the same time these people often seem to be into vinyl and believe In 20bit mastered gold CDs and lots of snake oil"ish" things.

Is there somewhere a analysis that really compares these SACDs with Sony releases or what is currently available through Qobuz etc?

I purchased the Bob Dylan Mono (Sony)CD set , I'm interested in some of the SACDs like "Desire" , "infidel's" , "blood on the tracks" but is it even worth it ?

I'm not sure if some of these people just prefer the most expensive version because it's something not everyone can get his hands on.

And lots of these posts on Steve Hoffman are often from 2007-2014.. not sure how up-to-date that is with current qobuz versions .
 

Joe Smith

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I have a few older gold disks...Gaucho, The Unforgettable Fire, etc...and a few Dylan and Elton SACDs. They do sound good, but at my level of equipment, I don't really hear any difference from standard CDs. If it were me, I'd get one title and compare Redbook to SACD or MFSL on your system and see if you can hear any difference. If not, no need to go down that road, unless you want the bragging rights to owning the more expensive copy. The price these titles sell for floor me. All the ones I own, I got at standard CD type of prices, they were just targets of opportunity.
 

Snoopy

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I have a few older gold disks...Gaucho, The Unforgettable Fire, etc...and a few Dylan and Elton SACDs. They do sound good, but at my level of equipment, I don't really hear any difference from standard CDs. If it were me, I'd get one title and compare Redbook to SACD or MFSL on your system and see if you can hear any difference. If not, no need to go down that road, unless you want the bragging rights to owning the more expensive copy. The price these titles sell for floor me. All the ones I own, I got at standard CD type of prices, they were just targets of opportunity.
I don't even have a SACD player or a Blu-ray player. Yeah the prices are nuts for something that is nearly 20 years old and a dead medium.

The Ryoku David Bowie CDs are similar insanely priced.. but there I see the value if someone wants the bonus tracks

I purchased "oh! mercy" as DSD download, but it's the Sony version. sounds good to me.

But I would be really interested in a comparison with measurements of the dynamic range between the MFSL SACDS and the current qobuz releases in 96khz.
I'm sure there must be better comparisons out there than people describing their feelings.
 

Joe Smith

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For the prices involved, I think "can YOU hear a difference on your equipment" is the main yardstick. Yes, the differences might be able to be analyzed, but as Spock once observed "a difference that makes no difference is no difference."
 

DVDdoug

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I'm pretty sure the digital (and analog) releases are not subjected to loudness war remastering (compression & limiting). The official (current) release from the original record company may or may not have the dynamics destroyed.

They also used those Gold discs.
I had one of their gold CDs a long time ago. It fractured into pieces "for no reason" other than being stored in my car along with other CDs that didn't fall apart. I think I bought it because that was the version of the album they had in the record store. I always assumed it was a "burned" disc because the first CDRs were gold. But I still have a few of those early gold CDRs that I burned myself and they didn't self-destruct.

When I replaced it with a regular CD I didn't notice any difference, but of course I couldn't A/B or ABX. This was probably before the loudness war kicked into high-gear.

I also had at least one MFSL vinyl record in the vinyl days. Again,, I probably bought it because that's what the store had. It DID have better quality than the "average" record but I also had some other better-than-average records

I've never owned an SACD or an SACD player.
 
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