Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab
| Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab | |
|---|---|
| Parent company | Music Direct |
| Founded | 1977 |
| Founder | Brad Miller |
| Genre | Various |
| Country of origin | U.S. |
| Location | Chicago, Illinois |
| Official website | www |
Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL or MoFi) is a record label specializing in the production of audiophile recordings. The company is best known for its limited edition remastered vinyl LP records, compact discs, and Super Audio CDs but has also produced other formats.
In the late 1970s the label earned a reputation for high-quality audio from its Original Master Recording LPs, which had been recorded with its half-speed mastering process. The company went bankrupt in 1999 but was bought by Music Direct in Chicago. In the 21st century, Mobile Fidelity's sales grew with a renewed interest in vinyl.
In the 1950s and 1960s, it was common for record labels to press relatively heavy records on new or "virgin" vinyl. During the economic downturn of the 1970s, the cost of record pressing increased, and many record labels cut costs by pressing lightweight recordings from recycled materials, which contained impurities. Recycled vinyl pressings often exhibit pops, clicks, and surface noise.
The process of sound transfer from magnetic tape to LP is a highly complicated process. Apprentice engineers typically spend several years learning how to become an expert in disc mastering. A mastering engineer may need to adjust and or compromise the sound quality of a record in order to maintain loudness and make the groove traceable by the stylus a record player using a low quality phono cartridge. Often, sounds have been mastered with additional compression, limiting, and equalization. In order to reduce wear on the master most discs are not sourced from the original master tape. The source tape used may be many generations removed from the original. Typically, the engineer cut the first pressing and a "cutting master" tape in parallel. Subsequent pressings were cut directly from the cutting master. Some pressings were even cut from copies of the cutting master tape. Each subsequent tape copy added additional levels of tape hiss, and wow and flutter, degrading sound quality.
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