MFSL Sound Quality?

[55LS70]

In the mid 80's I switched from albums to CD's. In the years since most of my albums were either sold or given away. The exception to this are my MFSL, Nautilus, imports and picture disc recordings. My wife took six of my MFSL recordings, had them framed and they now hang of my office wall. These include The Beatles' Abbey Road and Magical Mystery Tour, Pink Floyd DSOTM, Led Zeppelin 2, The Rolling Stones' Stickey Fingers and Emerson, Lake and Palmer's Picture at an Exhibition. They are all still sealed and recently I've been toying with the idea of returning to vinyl. I know there are reservations about the sound quality of MFSL's Abbey Road but what about the rest of them? I would especially would like to know about Led Zeppelin 2. It was so tough to get a decent recording of that years ago. If any of you out there listen to these on a regular basis I would greatly appreciate an opinion. Especially before I pull the trigger on a turntable, stylus and pre-preamp. Thanks.

[Emlyn]

If it were me, I'd sell some or all of the sealed MFSL copies on Ebay unless you're an avid collector. The Led Zep 2 could bring around $300 (one sold recently for $291), others around $150, some maybe more. People go nuts for the MFSL recordings. Do not open them to play if you're thinking you may sell them at some point. Some of the recordings have been remastered since the MFSL pressings were made and are readily available with excellent sound quality for a much more reasonable price. I'm sure you'd get a lot of responses/offers to buy if you asked at the Steve Hoffman forum.

[55LS70]

Thanks for the info, but if I should decide to part with them my brother has first chance. He has a pretty good vinyl collection and every once in awhile he ask about them.

[Johncan]

The sealed ones go for crazy $$ on ebay. I have many of the unsealed ones and I enjoy them very much.

I have not heard MFSL Led Zeppelin II LP, but I have heard all the rest you have listed and they are very, very good. The Led Zeppelin II that I have heard and really like is from the Classic Records Quiex SV-P 200 Gram Super Vinyl Profile edition boxset. It is all the studio LPs and is killer!

John

[TroyD]

MFSL rocks. Period.

I monkey with my privates listening to Alison Krauss on MFSL

BDT

[madmax]

Due to their hyped up value I'd sell them and arm myself with a ton of other recordings. The thing to worry about is whether or not they have warped or anything. Probably not but it is a possibility there could be a flaw or whatever even though they are still sealed. I can tell you I've bought a lot of sealed LP's which had problems. Yep, for the price of one of those you could buy some nice collections of mint vinyl if the Gods are with you.
madmax

[strider]

I monkey with my privates listening to Alison Krauss on MFSL

BDT

That is signature material right there.

I've always been a fan of MFSL releases myself. I've got a real low numbered copy of Bob Marley Catch A Fire that I think sounds pretty damn good on vinyl. All the other releases I have are on cd; in fact, first thing I did when I got my SDA's hooked up was load up the changer with the Mofi versions of DSOTM, Quadrophenia, and Hooker and Heat. I did, however, refrain from flogging the 'ol dolphin. Had a couple of friends over.;)

[heiney9]

The one thing with all original the Zep cd's (not sure on the MFSL) is that when they transfered the tapes to digital they didn't even bother to use the original masters. Many if not all the original Zep cd's were done this way; some were even more than 1 generation away from the masters. Jimmy Page was never consulted about transfering them, as he states "they just showed up on cd one day". It took a damn long time for he and Atlantic to remaster everything properly, but the re-masters are sooooooo much better than the original cd pressings.

I'm sure MFSL made a great transfer of LZ II, but I wonder if the just cleaned up the regular version or actually had access to the original master. Part of the reason for the shoddiness of the LZ catalog was haste to get things to market and laziness as some of the original masters couldn't be located quickly. At least that's the story I've read about on several occasions.

MFSL recording are usually pretty special and painstakingly done so I'm sure it's a great sounding disc.

H9