Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs CDs

I have just bought 5 MOFI CD's from Elusive Disc. Postage from the USA to Sydney was $16 and they arrived in 6 days.

Cheers - I will check them out.

How are they sounding?

... most of the original MoFi's are outstanding in sound quality but hard to get. The new MoFi's (mostly SACD and now as well again a lot of vinyl) sound very good as well.
I use their website only to see new releases but just like Lontano go to elusivedisc or acusticsound to buy.

Hi Worm

I have quite a few of these CDs.
They are always excellent quality IME.

I had an old CD copy of Creedence Clearwater Revival which was crap quality, the MFSL is brilliant (which has resulted in me buying four more CCR CDs )!

I also recently compared Exodus Orig' Tuff Gong Barry Diament remaster against MFSL. The orig' is excellent, but the MFSL has more detail, & I think I prefer this (still getting used to the differences hence uncertainty).

I had a similar experience to you from the MFSL website - one CD S&H = US$120. When I asked them how come they explained they charge DHL ratecard for international orders & suggested using acousticsound, which is there sister co'. I have & they are very good!

Amazon.com & .co.uk (to a lesser extent) are good sources of MFSL CDs - mainly marketplace. Use the advanced search function, & specify label. I've found if you order results by price high to low you get the unavailable releases a the end of the list which saves time.

Other sources I have used successfully are ...

musicdirect.com

eBay

audioaffair.co.uk

gemm.com

musicstack.com

I understand eil.com are very good, but expensive.

I assume you are looking for audiophile quality CDs? If you haven't already take a look at the shm cds verdict thread. From my experiences so far these are very good. I received three more today. I've had a quick listen & am very excited! I'll post more about this in the SHM thread later.

Again if you haven't already, take a look at the your good bad experiences with cd/vinyl suppliers & cheapest japan import cds threads, as these contain info' that you might find useful.

Please do let us know how you get on,
& if you find any other good sources of audiophile CDs.

Cheers - John

555

Thanks for the great reply - I will let you know how I get on.

Cheers

worm

quote:

Originally posted by 555:
Hi Worm

I have quite a few of these CDs.
They are always excellent quality IME.

I had an old CD copy of Creedence Clearwater Revival which was crap quality, the MFSL is brilliant (which has resulted in me buying four more CCR CDs )!

I also recently compared Exodus Orig' Tuff Gong Barry Diament remaster against MFSL. The orig' is excellent, but the MFSL has more detail, & I think I prefer this (still getting used to the differences hence uncertainty).

I had a similar experience to you from the MFSL website - one CD S&H = US$120. When I asked them how come they explained they charge DHL ratecard for international orders & suggested using acousticsound, which is there sister co'. I have & they are very good!

Amazon.com & .co.uk (to a lesser extent) are good sources of MFSL CDs - mainly marketplace. Use the advanced search function, & specify label. I've found if you order results by price high to low you get the unavailable releases a the end of the list which saves time.

Other sources I have used successfully are ...

musicdirect.com

eBay

audioaffair.co.uk

gemm.com

musicstack.com

I understand eil.com are very good, but expensive.

I assume you are looking for audiophile quality CDs? If you haven't already take a look at the shm cds verdict thread. From my experiences so far these are very good. I received three more today. I've had a quick listen & am very excited! I'll post more about this in the SHM thread later.

Again if you haven't already, take a look at the your good bad experiences with cd/vinyl suppliers & cheapest japan import cds threads, as these contain info' that you might find useful.

Please do let us know how you get on,
& if you find any other good sources of audiophile CDs.

Cheers - John

John the CCR is a DCC gold disc.

Re MFSL discs I have quite a lot,Allman Brothers, Supertramp, Joe Walsh, Eric Clapton, Derek and the Dominos, James Gang, Steve Winwood, Tom Petty, Aretha Franklin, Robert Cray, Santana and Elton John too name just a few.

I also have quite a few DCC gold discs, Jackson Browne, Steve Miller, Bob Seger, Bad Company, Deep Purple, Wings, Bonnie Raitt, Gerry Rafferty etc. Generally these are more consistent sound wise

Not all MFSL discs are the bees knees. It really depends on what you are looking for.

Post a list and I will tell you whether I have heard it and what I think maybe a better option.
Re buying MOFI discs get them from Fred alias Jonifan off eBay. Rememebr to warn your Bank Manager if you start buying them just to arrange overdraft facilities.

Cheapest and best service for new MOFI discs. Usually about £12.49 + postage. He is the one I always buy from.

The latest release is Santana- Abraxas for the second time.

quote:

Originally posted by worm:
Thinking of trying a couple of these and interested on forum members views on whether the sound quality improvement is worth the premium?

Also, has anyone in the UK bought direct from their website? It seemed to suggest shipping would be iro $150 which seemed a tab steep for a cd

Cheers

worm

Certainly the vinyl quality is simply superb - though that's not what you asked! However I've been ordering them from acousticsounds.com, service is fine, prices are good (esp compared to UK suppliers) but be aware they come via UPS and you *will* be charged duty/vat/handling fee. Still worth it on a large order.

Steve.

quote:

Originally posted by ewemon:

John the CCR is a DCC gold disc.

Thanks for the correction E!

quote:

Originally posted by worm:
Cheers - I will check them out.

How are they sounding?

I have played three Patricia Barber CD's - Verse, Nightclub and Modern Cool. They al sound excellent. I have Modern Cool on regular redbook as well and I find the MOFI a little warmer, more refined with better bass.

Another good source I forgot in my prev' post is ...

better-records.com

... excellent service & lots of tempting MFSL & DCC Gold OOP.

I have to be honest I had not really understood the vast array of ‘audiophile’ quality recordings.

DCC Gold - a new one to me and the feedback seems very positive. However, the prices of these seem very scary $50-$100.

MFSL / MoFi Gold - more variety in the quality but a slightly more attractive price for current releases $30.

SHM / Japanese – I am guessing probably not as good as the above but much better availability / pricing.

SACD / HDSC – improvement over regular CD

Bank manager is still reeling from the CDS3 purchase – but I have that hankering to hear what it can achieve with a really good recording.

Overall therefore, if I was interested in Paul Simon’s Graceland (which I am) what are peoples views on the best quality recording available (probably not a good example to pick)?

Cheers

worm

Hi Worm

It's a conundrum, but IMHO there isn't a right or wrong answer.

There are lots of things that happen (& therefore can go wrong) between the studio,
& the CD coming out of the factory.

I haven't had a duff MFSL CD yet.
I think ewemons comments about these might relate to remastering.
For example if you've listened to a record for years with backing vocals at a certain level & in a certain position (in the soundstage) that's what you expect.
When a MFSL CD which has been remastered is played in comparison to the original some find these changes unacceptable, although the fidelity of the new CD is much better.
I hope ewemon will tell us more.

I understand these gold CDs came about partly due to fears over CD rot in aluminium CDs.

Japanese CDs are usually better quality,
I guess because they seem to take the production process more seriously.

SHM is very good IM(limited)E & compares favorably to DCC Gold/MFSL where I have been able to make a direct comparison.

I'm sure you know SACD isn't supported on Naim CDPs.
However the CD layer in dual layer (AKA hybrid) versions are often far superior to standard CDs.

I must admit I do look on these CDs as an excessive pleasure, but they are a good investment too. I bought Blondie - Parallel Lines on DCC Gold for around $30 a few years ago – my 1st. Recently I saw a sealed copy with a cut-out sell for $150. My copy isn't sealed, but it is mint & has no cut-out so I guess it's worth more than $150 now. Of course I've also had the listening pleasure too!

Another thing to remember is all that glitters is not gold.
Some of the these “audiophile” reissues are crap.
I was recently warned off the K2 Creedence CR CDs which sound bright.

Sorry - I'm not familiar with Graceland.

Cheers - John

... I bought a lot of DCCs before they went under. All of them are excellent - wish I had bought them all at the time. As mentinoned above prices have gone a bit crazy recently.

I have bought two from amazon.com in the last year. The postage direct from MF was prohibitive. Fragile (Yes) and Permanent Waves (Rush), the latter being in a very high quality mini LP sleeve complete with a soft inner sleeve. I can’t recommend them highly enough but hesitate to give blanket recommendations for a label’s whole output because there are always good ‘uns and duffers. MFSL from all accounts maintain a consistently high standard – as voiced in this thread.

I went through a phase of sucking up as many HDCDs as I could a few years back. These were of variable quality but good for the most part. It is a terrible shame that this promising catalogue hit a brick wall, although there are many HDCDs lurking about anonymously.

If something I liked came out from MFSL I would be confident about buying it. Ditto HDCD but I would be prepared for the slim possibility of a less than perfect outcome. Anything else I’d seek opinions, such as in here.

Cheers