By: Ella Wang
On July 14, Mike Esposito, owner of Phoenix record shop, posted a very shocking claim on his YouTube channel about the Sebastopol, Calif. company, Mobile Fidelity (MoFi).
In the video, he states that some “pretty reliable sources” have told him that MoFi had actually been using digital files in its production of audio tapes. Mobile Fidelity is a company that prides itself on only using original master tapes in their pricey reissues, and in the world of audiophiles, using digital while claiming not to is the worst sin a manufacturer can commit.
Esposito’s claim received immediate backlash from many passionate members of the audio community.
Shane Buettner, owner of Intervention Records, defended MoFi. “I know their process and it’s legit,” he wrote, after he remembered seeing one of the company’s engineers at a recording studio working with a master tape.
Michael Fremer, the dean of audiophile writing, slammed Esposito for spreading false rumors and said his own unnamed source told him the record store owner was wrong. “Will speculative click bait YouTube videos claiming otherwise be taken down after reading this?” he tweeted.
However, MoFi’s executive vice president at the headquarters in Sebastopol, John Wood, knew the real truth behind all of this. Wood called Esposito and suggested he fly to California for a tour. However, Wood would later regret inviting him.
On July 20, Esposito posted a second video, revealing the truth behind MoFi. The MoFi engineers awkwardly and casually confirmed that the company had been deceptive about its practices and in its claim to authenticity, proving Esposito correct all along. The episode contributes to MoFi’s concession that the situation was mishandled.
“They were completely deceitful,” says Richard Drutman, 50, a New York City filmmaker who has purchased more than 50 of MoFi’s albums over the years. “I never would have ordered a single Mobile Fidelity product if I had known it was sourced from a digital master.”
On the tour, Esposito asked Wood if he could interview some engineers he had met. They had no problem with it.
“They didn’t come off to me as if they were trying to hide anything,” Esposito said.
However, after Esposito had exposed the company, Wood was asked if he regretted his decision to let Esposito interview them.
“I regret everything, man,” he said.
Record labels use digital files to make albums all the time as it has been the industry norm for more than a decade. The Kansas-based Analogue Productions, London’s Electric Recording Co., etc. are legit companies who have stuck to using the original master tapes. Now, Mobile Fidelity has been removed from this list of names.
Syd Schwartz, Mobile Fidelity’s chief marketing officer, made an apology.
“Mobile Fidelity makes great records, the best-sounding records that you can buy,” he said. “There had been choices made over the years and choices in marketing that have led to confusion and anger and a lot of questions, and there were narratives that had been propagating for a while that were untrue or false or myths. We were wrong not to have addressed this sooner.”
Link to article: