See attached review from analogplanet of the recent Mobile Fidelity 45 rpm release of Brothers - useful background to the recording of the original

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Surely this would be a release the digital folks would say proves that vinyl fans are out of their minds. Why would you buy a vinyl LP version of a DDD production when you can buy the CD? After all, the Sony 3324 used to record the album is a 16 bit machine capable of at best 48k sampling and given that this release was meant for CD, it's quite possible it is CD resolution (which makes you wonder why Mobile Fidelity bothered with an SACD release not to mention vinyl!).

Since first posting this review I contacted co-producer Neil Dorfsman and got some interesting information, beginning with the fact that contrary to the SPARS code, this was not at "DDD" production! The original digital multitrack recording was done at 48K/16 bit but because it was mixed via an analog SSL (Solid State Logic) mixing board, the digital tracks first had to be converted to analog and then mixed to two-track DAT at 44.1K/16 bit resolution. Therefore, this double 45 was mastered from a CD resolution tape. If it was the original tape, it was a DAT tape.

Now while cynics might say "why not just get the CD"? It's not that simple. "Get the CD" and use what to decode the digits? Your CD player or DAC? Is it as good as the one Mobile Fidelity uses? Or do you think all DACs sound the same? When listening to this double 45 you are hearing a combination of Mo-Fi's D/A converter, the mastering engineer's EQ choices and what the analog cutting process does or does not do to the resulting analog signal, just as when you listen to the original CD or LP you are listening to the gear used for those back "in the day" and the EQ choices made by Bob Ludwig.

Comparing the original Bob Ludwig mastered LP (Warner Brothers WB 9-25264-1) with this double 45rpm edition is easy: there is no comparison. Ludwig was stuck with an early D/A converter and while there still are those declaring those and digital "perfect", you can hear that early converter ringing and if that's not what causes the bright, annoying global glare, then something else is responsible—like maybe the A/D converters in the 3324? In that case nothing could solve the problem other than to apply EQ that would probably kill the record.


It strikes me that producing MQA remasters of old albums will be far from simple and that the claim doing the rounds of the dealers in the spring that MQA would launch with around 1000 albums was probably optimistic.

It's not clear to me at which point in the process the MQA magic is applied - what is the starting point in the mishmash above? Could those more knowledgeable walk though the process using Brothers as an example? Presumably it won't be possible to get a true hi res recording out of this example.

Last edited by VirusKiller; 2015-08-03 08:37. Reason: Added quote tags
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