MOFI Beatles Remaster - 1982

Why they are so sought after remains a mystery to me; the SQ is pretty bad.  That being said, I have the whole set of course

digger,

Can you provide more details as to how the MoFi compares to originals?  They remain highly sought after. Is the SQ really "pretty bad", or just not so much to your tastes or expectations?

I have the MoFi Abbey Road and find it has much greater dynamics and warmth along with a highly reduced vinyl noise floor versus the original.  MoFi top end is definitely muted, but still a more engaging listen than the standard LP.  For overall dynamics, clarity, balance and mix I find the remastered CD is superior. Still each version of my favorite LP has something for me to appreciate.  Always something different to be heard on each mix.

The SQ of the MOFI is awful. The current remasters are much better but still not as good as the original LPs.

What is it with MOFI? A few of their remasters are superb (The Yes Album, Alan Parsons Tales of Mystery and Imagination are excellent) yet I find the majority have a peculiar "soft" sheen that robs the music of sparkle and excitement.

It's almost as though they've tried to make them too analogue - nice but boring.

I remember when the MoFi Beatles box was released.  I cycled into Concord and there it was proudly on display in the window of Pitchfork records.  Oh how I wanted it, but there was the small matter of cost - $150.  A few days later it was gone... However, I quickly learned that it had been bought by the resident Beatles maniac who just happened to also live in my house.  For the next few days he must have been the most popular guy on campus - everyone wanted to see it, handle the LPs and of course, listen to the promised sonic revelations within. Unfortunately, said Beatles maniac (Hi Ben) declared that they would only be played once, recorded onto tape (naughty) and then be lovingly placed back in the box and the box sealed up again.  Of course, everyone wanted a copy (even naughtier) and so began a bootleging operation with a couple of Nakamichis and lots of Maxell UD XLII cassettes pressed into operation.  Somewhere I still have some or all of mine.

Hi Tony,

I agree with you on MOFI vinyl. I have a number of '80s MOFI LPs, mainly Beatles, and the SQis poor. I vowed never to buy them again but took a punt with the recent Bob Dylan 45rpm LPs and they are truly excellent. Unfortunately you'll have to change your 'geddon for a Radikal if you want to play them. 

Steve

I can't be doing with all that up and down, flipping LPs over Steve. 

Remember that the original MOFI went under and was resurrected by Music Direct. I think the newer releases are a little better on the whole.

I bought a copy of MFSL Hard Days Night back in the mid 80s when record stores were selling off their vinyl en masse to make room for CDs. I think I may have paid $6 or so for it back then. I played it for the first time just about a year ago and found it so sound excellent...just bristling with vitality and pace, and were it not for the rather odd 'stereo' mixing, sounded quite live. Even a CD rip of it sounded much better than the 2009 Apple remaster of the same. 

PS...you can get the Geddon to play 45rpm if you use one of those mains regeneration units made by PS Audio that can increase the AC frequency. I used the PP300 for years with my LP12 and it allowed my to listen to the handful of 12" 45rpm EPs that sounded truly excellent. 

'nuff said - if the cd sounds superior there's obviously something wrong.  I bought the MOFIs when they first came out and I had a more humble system in those days.  At the time they sounded pretty good to my ears - low background noise as you say, due to the high quality Japanese vinyl pressing no doubt.  But my current system is more revealing and now they sound flat as a f*rt.

As has been pointed out, MOFI went belly up (more than once I think) and today's offerings are hit and miss.  Steve is right; the Dylan 45s are excellent but many of the others are even worse than the Beatles releases.  For example: Ray Charles/The Genius Sings the Blues - "best for laying down and avoiding!" - sounds like it's playing in the next room.

Mastering for vinyl is a bit of a lost art it seems, and there are so many ways to get it wrong.  Nothing can restore what is lost if the original recording is poorly done of course, but even a well done remaster can be sabotaged further down the chain of the production process.  Read this:

http://robertmusic.blogspot.ca...ines-mintons-on.html

As for getting good Beatles vinyl, look for the earliest pressings.  In mono the Japanese red vinyl set is very good and for stereo it's hard to beat the blue box (BC-13).  Many of the early German pressings are also excellent.

Thanks Ron, that's interesting. I'm not sure I'd want to stump up for one of these for the few 45RPMs I'm likely to acquire but maybe I'll ask about a DIY solution "In Another Place"

Agreed.  Both these German pressings I have sound very nice, far better than the US domestic pressings.