Mobile Fidelity Surface Noise


Recently bought my first two MoFis in a few years - 'Sinatra in Paris' and 'The Cars.' Cleaned both on a VPI 16.5 w/ the VPI fluid. Both have an unacceptable level of (the same) background noise - kind of a shushing sound with the occasional tick. Played some other LPs after for comparison, inc. a vintage MoFi and some regular issue stuff. The noise was not there, eliminating a set-up issue. Has anyone else had this problem with the new issues? Is it mold-release compound, or the old saw they used back in the day ('i.e. "MoFi does not de-horn its masters, so you my hear the occasional tick or pop until the record is played a few times..."), or just lousy QC? Disappointing, to say the least.
radiodaddy
Send em back for refund...It seems ( for me anyways ) the MoFi Vinyl is a crapshoot...Some are spectacular and some are crap...I've gotten both......Its not worht the $$$ to take a chance...( just my 2 centsworth )
I have a MOFI Roy Orbison and on a couple tracks the speed is so far off that it sounds like the Chipmunks Christmas album.......
I am glad somebody brought this up.

I was thinking about starting a thread on the lack of quality of audiophile pressings these days. I have some from several different labels including Classic and Rhino that are way below the quality that we used to get from MoFi and Sheffield in the 70's and 80's. I have Coltrane Jazz from Rhino that is very noisy. I was busy and never returned it. By contrast, I have an original MoFi of Dark Side Of The Moon that is quiet. My fairly recent Close To The Edge from the small label Friday's Music is quiet. The bigger audiophile labels need to do better and we need to hold their feet to the fire.

And my hearing or my system is not particularly susceptible to surface noise these days. My Kleos is quieter due to it's line contact stylus than my Shelter but some of these releases have loud pops and other anomalies.

Hang in there,
Robert
Noisy vinyl serves no pleasure. When you can send them back and don't try any MSFL or other reissues. I stopped buying reissues 2 years ago. The only real top class reissues are those from Acoustic Sounds. The Kleos is quieter than other cartridges because it simply can't reproduce higher frequencies. A very good cartridge for those problematic reissues.
"The Kleos is quieter than other cartridges because it simply can't reproduce higher frequencies."

LOL

Perhaps you heard a bad sample? Or a system mismatch? Your Olympos may be hotter, I don't know as I have not heard one, but the Kleos is perfectly capable of retrieving high frequencies.

Or maybe you have it confused with something else?

Again, the Kleos is quieter than many due to the line contact stylus.

Y'all be cool,
Robert
Syntax wrote:
"The only real top class reissues are those from Acoustic Sounds."

While I agree many of those are wonderful, I have to say for consistently spectacular sound and high-quality (low-noise) vinyl, the Music Matters Blue Note reissues have been even better. The latest one I just received, and one of the few truly mono ones Music Matters has produced, is Louis Smith's "Smithville." It is jaw dropping.
I have recently bought some reissues from Mobile Fidelity and the sound quality is disappointing. You would think they would do a better job considering their owned by Music Direct. Jim Davis I hope you are reading this.
I've also found them to be hit or miss on the pressing quality. Music Direct has been good about returns. Sometimes the replacement has been better, but a bad pressing run is just that.
This can't be. Don't you read their catalogs. Everything sounds gr-r-r-reat, and is highly recommended.
Rah! Rah! Rah!!!
Do you clean them with Mobile Fidelity fluids? If not - you must. That's the ticket.
Do you clean them with Mobile Fidelity fluids? If not - you must. That's the ticket

Ahhh, yes, you are right. my retired medicine man - an Apache - always danced around my records before playing...unfortunately with no success (but it started to rain outside)...
"Do you clean them with Mobile Fidelity fluids? If not - you must. That's the ticket."

I know some with top notch systems, that use VPI cleaning fluid. I use RRL/MFSL, and it is a good product, but I would be shocked if it eliminated your surface noise after cleaning w/ the VPI cleaner. I would call MD, before changing to MFSL cleaning solution. I would only try new copies of your Sinatra and Cars titles if they agree to pay return shipping for the new copies and your current copies. This, in the event that your replacement copies are bad.
I find MoFi no worst than any of the other so called Audiophile vinyl pressing. The quality control is poor. All the companies need to sit down with the pressing factory and discuss product quality control. I have better luck with thinner so called domestic pressings, that by the way are much cheaper, than the so called audiophile pressings.
I hope that everyone got it that it was a joke. By the way, I almost never buy re-issues, audiophile or not.
I only have two MoFi pressings - 10000 Maniacs "In My Tribe" and Tears For Fears "Seeds of Love" - and I'm underwhelmed by both.

Both sound is thin and tinny. Admittedly, I have only a Pro-ject 5.1SE and a Sumiko Blue Point cartridge, but I would have expected more presence, more warmth from an audiophile pressing.
Interesting how so many of us expect a'phile re-issues to sound great...and why wouldn't we? However, we fail to consider the original recording source and quality of the original tape. Many times, that quality is going to be subpar. Unfortunately, with the new craze in re-issuing just about anything that was produced back in the day, this factor is overlooked by the a'phile labels in the rush to get the reissue on the market. A sad situation IMO, as too many hobbyists will be getting burned.
As an aside, I recently played one of the new Music Matters reissues on 33rpm...noisy copy with background hiss and more. The company that sold it to me is taking it back...after stating that they are out of stock since the pressing is being re-done and they are waiting for that. 'Re-press' is the term....I wonder why??
Davef if this is the MM 33 rpm reissue for Idle Moments or Blue Train, they are repressing it because the first pressing run of 1000 sold out.
Also there is lots of tape hiss on Van Gelder's 60s recordings. His equipment did not have the best SNR. On Joe Henderson's Page One and Grant Green's Idle Moments the tape hiss is present on every version I've heard including the original first pressings with Plastylite ear. It's made even more prominent on Idle Moments since the music on the title track is so quiet.

I will agree that RTI's pressing quality has gone way down hill. I had no problems with Music Matters 45 rpm reissues, but had several noisy pressings with their 33 rpm series.
Dnath, actually I am talking about the Kenny Burrell Midnight Blue album.
The recording on this one is superb, BUT the pressing that I have is noisy.
I bought the KB Midnight Blue Music Matters 45 and found it to be bliss.Also bought MoFi 45 RPM Blonde on Blonde really superb in all ways.
I agree with the OP. For example, I had bought MF Los Lobos By The Light of the Moon and found a $4 copy at a used record store that had much quieter surfaces. I now usually pull out original LP. It's too bad-- I live only about 1/2 mile from Music Direct and would buy them a lot if I thought the quality matched the price. I will also agree with other posters who say MF is no worse than others. I have had particularly bad luck with Friday Music releases and now avoid them. YMMV as always.