Washington Post article on MoFi vs. Fremer vs. Esposito

My post from August 6,2022:

"I have purchased vinyl that was cut from digital--like Steven Wilson remasters that are excellent. I’m not against such a purchase. But with MoFi, we were lied to--flat out. The One Steps contain an insert that purports to provide all of the steps in the reproduction chain. The insert and advertising were designed to extract more $ from the customer due, in whole or part, to what the consumer was led to believe was the purity of the process. Most importantly, MoFi knew that if it revealed that DSD was part of the process, some customers would avoid the purchase and others would not pay the enhanced price--so they purposely left that information out. Most state Consumer Fraud Acts provide that such an omission is a violation subjecting MoFi to enhanced damages on an individual or class action basis.

I suggest that MoFi offer exchange refunds or credits to any customer who wants to return a digital One Step to avoid such liability. Just sayin."

To elaborate today------

As a legal matter, the issue is not whether you or I can tell the difference between a Mobile Fidelity pressing directly from tape or with a DSD conversion with any particular record. It is about whether the purchaser was misled by the seller and was damaged.

Let’s look at it from this point of view:

Was the product sold as advertised? No.

Did the insert and public explanation claiming to show every step of the process cause me and others to make the purchase at the enhanced price? Yes

Would I or other purchasers have made the purchase had we known of the DSD conversion? For many, No.

Conclusion:

Mobile Fidelity has obtained $ from me and other record buyers allowing them to make a profit through misleading advertising.

That's all that is required in a consumer fraud case.

+1 @gpgr4blu 

I'm a Physician.  I am not a fan of lawsuits.  However if it deters companies going forward from actively misleading people to make a buck, then it has a purpose.

My vinyl was tainted by A/D/A conversion(s).  There ought to be a law!  Maybe us audiophiles need to take the law in our own hands -- YEEHAW!!!

What this does is support the assertion of many audiophiles that DSD (as in SACD records) does not distort or destroy the "analogous-ness" of the original the way PCM does.  There is a reason download services use DSD for ultimate sound quality in their downloads.

I entered the online audio world with that claim way back when SONY first release it's DSD recordings, and I could do comparisons of analog, PCM, and SACD releases.  DSD has been accepted by critical listeners.  PCM now with high bit rates and somewhat extended frequency response has nearly matched it (some would say it has matched it.)  But for MoFi, they obviously felt that DSD could be used without distorting or lessening "the analog sound" of the master tapes.  Doesn't excuse their lack of disclosure, but does tend to support the belief that for a decade DSD far exceeded PCM in "truthfulness" to the analog signal.

All recordings are quantized. With ‘analog’ tape the signal is generated from a stream of magnetic particles which are which are either magnetized, or not ( i.e. 10 or 0). As the tape passes over the head gap these pulses are integrated to produce a continuous signal. Usually with some ‘hiss’ noise. The wider the tape track and the faster it moves it moves the less the noise.

My understating is that these particles, and thus the pulses they cause, vary in size. But the recording itself is NOT a pure analog image of the original signal.

With digital the pulses are all the same size, and are converted to an analog signal electronically.

If there are enough bits, and they are saved retrieved accurately, the only issue is the accuracy of the DA process itself. I am not versed in the latest technology but I understand that is not an issue these days.

Also, I believe, if all the magnetic tape particles were the same size, “analog” tape would be equivalent  to 1-bit digital encoding albeit with a different conversion process.

I would be interested to know (if there is someone out there who can tell us - approximately)

• The number of magnetic particles used to store 1 second of recording studio quality audio (stereo) on tape
• The number of bits used to store 1 second of a studio quality DSD audio (stereo)
• The number of PVC molecules (particles?) that impact the stylus for 1 second of LP audio (stereo)