JB Hi Fi and specialist’s retailers such as Utopia Records, along with Discrepancy Records are witnessing increased demand for vinyl records, but the big question is whether consumers are actually buying a product recorded from analogue tape or tracks that have been dumped to vinyl via a digital process.

A lawsuit alleging a variety of deceptive practices by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab (MoFi) a major player in the record industry, was filed in the USA last year by a premium vinyl record fan.

This was followed up by several other disgruntled consumers who had purchased a Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab vinyl LP believing it to be an authentic product manufactured using traditional analogue process.

The complainants who formed a class action, won their case, in a David Vs Goliath battle that exposed the risks associated with buying vinyl.

MoFi records are sold in Australia and New Zealand, with their global site listing Melbourne based Synergy as their Australian distributor.


The CEO of Synergy Phil Sawyer has told ChannelNews that MoFi vinyl produced using digital processes “have been sold in Australia”.

ChannelNews has seen the records on sale at various specialist audio dealers.

Back in July 2022, a record store owner named Mike Esposito in the USA revealed that MoFi uses DSD in the production of many of their so-called analogue recordings, the only problem is that they never disclosed the fact that they were simply transferring an already copied to digital file from digital to vinyl.

This angered many customers, leading to the recent court case.

This came to a head this month when the United States District Court in Seattle issued a preliminary order approving a settlement in the matter, the settlement came after evidence that Mobile Fidelity marketed premium vinyl recordings as all analogue product when in fact, they were merely a Direct Stream Digital product transferred to vinyl.

This is a Company that is a major player globally in the production of vinyl records.

In the settlement document the Company admitted that ‘All original retail consumers in the United States who, from March 19, 2007, through July 27, 2022 purchased, either directly from a Defendant or other retail merchants, new and unused Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, Inc. (“MoFi”) vinyl recordings which were marketed by Defendants using the series labelling descriptors “Original Master Recording” and/or “Ultra disc One-Step,” that were sourced from original analogue master tapes and which utilised a direct stream digital transfer step in the mastering chain, and provided that said purchasers still own said recordings (the “Applicable Records”) will be able to claim against the Company.

The company has agreed to offer purchasers of the Applicable Records three options:

Return for Refund – In this option, purchasers (“Class members”) of “Applicable Records” can return them to the company for a full refund of their original purchase price plus tax and shipping.

5% Cash Refund – For those Class members who prefer to keep their recordings, the company will refund 5% of the price they paid for the Applicable Records, plus tax and shipping.

10% Credit Coupon – Another option for Class members who wish to retain their recordings, the company will offer them a coupon equal to 10% of the original purchase paid for Applicable Records plus tax and shipping.

These coupons can then be applied to new purchases from MoFi’s Music Direct website.

The coupons expire 180 days after issuance and are not transferrable.

Excluded from the Class are persons who obtained subject Applicable Records from other sources.

In addition, the two named plaintiffs in this matter – Stephen J. Tuttle and Dustin Collman – will each be awarded US$10,000 to be paid by Mobile Fidelity.

MoFi will also have to pay the plaintiff’s attorneys US$290,000.

Any other costs associated with the administration and processing of claims will additionally be covered by Mobile Fidelity.

Estimates place the potential total of this settlement to be somewhere north of US25 million or $38M Australian.

One analysis in the court filing calculated a theoretical maximum of A$50 million in just customer claims, with all of the other items shown above to be added on top of other costs.

Questions are now being asked about the rights of International owners of a Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab vinyl recording and their rights to also take legal action against the Company.