I saw something called MFSL on the net today, it was a release of the beatle's white album on cd. I own the original capitol cd releases, and was wondering if the sound is any better on the MFSL ones.

MFSL is the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab:
http://www.mofi.com/

All of their recordings I have heard were excellent, but I personally don't agree with some of their more arcane techiques (like gold CDs). I haven't heard their version of White Album, but the Capitol version is good to my ears.

MFSL has excellent qualit.
It startet with some guy recording sounds of trains in the 60ies, and then he recorded rain and thunder sounds, and now they also release high quality vinyl and CD Albums. (it started when the quality of vinyl records in the USA got very low in the 70ies, and they thought it's a good idea to focus on quality more than on quantity)
MFSL Vinyl are very expensive. Some cost 60 Dollars or more.
They only use original master tapes and record them with half speed for better conversion quality, and use sophisticated audiophile tricks.

so would a vinyl sourced MFSL of the white album be superior to my official capitol release?

Yes. The existing CD versions of the Beatles' albums were all poorly mastered, and in desperate need of an overhaul. But be forewarned: any Beatles CDs you see on the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MFSL) label are pirated needle drops of the vinyl MFSL releases. There have never been any Beatles albums released as official MFSL CDs. (MFSL is in the process of reissuing all of John Lennon's solo catalogue, however. You can find their complete discography here.)

That said, some of the needle drops in circulation are quite good - the best are done by a group calling themselves "Millennium Remasters," and those by Dr. Ebbetts Sound Systems run a very close second; neither are labeled as such, masquerading as official releases - but unless you already own legitimate copies of the official discs I can't very well recommend them to you!

- M.

The "Millennium Remasters" are pirated ??
I thought it's an official release.

I can't tell you if MFSL is better than the Capitol Release, because I don't know the Capitol release.

OK, yes, MFSL was started by a geek recording trains. My own personal experience with the CD's I have from this source is that they are always better than the originals. Are they worth the extra money?? To me they are. YMMV.

The company had business problems but seems to be back on it s feet again. I will be buying more of the CD's to replace what I have lost and to expand on what I have.

Are there other labels like this? I am curious to see as many available recordings as possible that have gone similar processes.

I know of no other label which remasters the sessions of other companies. MFSL does it under license from the original company.

DCC Compact Classics has remasters as well.

Interestingly, MFSL originally ceased operations in 1999. It came back to life in 2001, as a music industry veteran purchased the name/assets in bankruptcy. Here is a link to the history of MFSL (including the train recording and the bankruptcy):

http://www.mofi.com/history.htm

In my view the benefits/value of the MFSL series vary by album depending upon how bad the original transfer was.

"DCC" stands for "Dunhill Compact Classics"; you can see a modest listing of their discography here.

Steve Hoffman was responsible for transferring many of their masters. You can see a hoffman-specific DCC discography on his website (which also lists other labels/titles for which he was responsible).

It's interesting to note that although MFSL acquired Lennon's catalogue, DCC released a half dozen of McCartney's albums!

- M.

Don't buy into the MFSL mystique uncritically. Some of their releases are fine, others not.
Sometimes they seem to have used some rather 'interesting' EQ on their remasters. In some cases the artwork reproduction was crap. An example of a 'plain' remaster I prefer to Mofi would be the Jethro Tull album 'Warchild'.

Doors LA Woman - DCC Gold - has 3 major hick-ups. Probably damaged master tape. Fixed/not present in original CD release and 1999 remaster.

Opinions will obviously vary on the subject of which pirated Beatles MFSL collection is the best. But if you search the internet, I think you'll find the consensus is that Dr. Ebbetts did the best job. To my ears, Ebbetts' are cleaner than the Millennium Remasters, with a better overall sound. Ebbetts has also recently obtained new equipment, and will be "upgrading" all of his offerings, including the MFSL albums. The Millennium Remasters are pretty good, don't me wrong. They, along with Mirror Spock's MFSLs, are also a good option.

-Rob-

As you said, opinions will obviously vary.

- M.