So, perhaps I was too understanding of MoFi’s use of DSD in their much touted One Step releases. As the fall-out continues, am now reading customer service notices that buyers received which apparently assured them there was no digital step. MoFi seems to be making an effort to rewrite earlier social media postings, stating earlier messages or replies to customers were ‘unauthorized’ etc. This whole mess seems like a case study in mismanagement.   Meanwhile, folks are having a field day posting videos of claimed all-analog processes from a couple of years ago, or quoting ‘expert’ reviews that raved about the sonicss being evidence of all-analog superiority, sharing promotional material that touted the MoFi process and in which there is not a single mention of a digital step. Ah, the internet, history is there if you know where to look.  Am even seeing  reports of price drops on the used market for some of the MoFi collection  (though given the asking prices from before the news broke, any adjustments are hardly at the fire sale level). 

It all has the hallmarks of a road crash. You hate to see it but can’t look away. And in there are other nuggets — like Analog Planet’s tour of Music Direct’s record storage where the company head not only pushes the party line to Mikey Fremer who notes that he does not have a copy of one record there, the owner basically says he must have it as they send a copy of every release to him. Now that’s music direct!  Not a dig at Mikey, who would not take such a deal, and has been a great advocate for good sound,  But am not impressed with his response to the mess here, where he basically argues Mike E, who exposed the story, did not sufficiently act “like a journalist” and was ‘rolled’ by the MoFi team. He does admit, in public, that he covered up for MoFi in some of his columns. Oh dear. Is that how a jourmalist should act? I suspect some rewriting of history is actively ongoing.

In the end, I feel for the engineering guys at MoFi who are doing their best to release great sounding records. And I have sympathy for people who did spend tons of cash for a form of record they feel was misrepresented, often directly, in response to inquiries they made prior to purchase. This is not a scenario that makes the audio industry or even the press look good. I still feel that if you love the sound of your MoFi LPs, and many people do, then that’s what ultimately matters. We can but hope that going forward, all releases will clearly describe the what your buying and maybe the pricing will adjuct accordingly.

So, perhaps I was too understanding of MoFi’s use of DSD in their much touted One Step releases. As the fall-out continues, am now reading customer service notices that buyers received which apparently assured them there was no digital step. MoFi seems to be making an effort to rewrite earlier social media postings, stating earlier messages or replies to customers were ‘unauthorized’ etc. This whole mess seems like a case study in mismanagement.   Meanwhile, folks are having a field day posting videos of claimed all-analog processes from a couple of years ago, or quoting ‘expert’ reviews that raved about the sonicss being evidence of all-analog superiority, sharing promotional material that touted the MoFi process and in which there is not a single mention of a digital step. Ah, the internet, history is there if you know where to look.  Am even seeing  reports of price drops on the used market for some of the MoFi collection  (though given the asking prices from before the news broke, any adjustments are hardly at the fire sale level). 

It all has the hallmarks of a road crash. You hate to see it but can’t look away. And in there are other nuggets — like Analog Planet’s tour of Music Direct’s record storage where the company head not only pushes the party line to Mikey Fremer who notes that he does not have a copy of one record there, the owner basically says he must have it as they send a copy of every release to him. Now that’s music direct!  Not a dig at Mikey, who would not take such a deal, and has been a great advocate for good sound,  But am not impressed with his response to the mess here, where he basically argues Mike E, who exposed the story, did not sufficiently act “like a journalist” and was ‘rolled’ by the MoFi team. He does admit, in public, that he covered up for MoFi in some of his columns. Oh dear. Is that how a jourmalist should act? I suspect some rewriting of history is actively ongoing.

In the end, I feel for the engineering guys at MoFi who are doing their best to release great sounding records. And I have sympathy for people who did spend tons of cash for a form of record they feel was misrepresented, often directly, in response to inquiries they made prior to purchase. This is not a scenario that makes the audio industry or even the press look good. I still feel that if you love the sound of your MoFi LPs, and many people do, then that’s what ultimately matters. We can but hope that going forward, all releases will clearly describe the what your buying and maybe the pricing will adjuct accordingly.