Hot Stamper Pressings of the Music of Women Who Rock Available Now
We recently auditioned the Mobile Fidelity pressing of Learning to Crawl and wrote down our impressions as the record was playing that you see below.
We try to be very specific about the strengths and weaknesses of the records we play, which is why we reproduce our notes — in this case for audiophile records — whenever possible. (There are plenty of shootout notes for vintage pressings on the blog as well.)
The title at the top of our post-it sets the stage for what you are about to read: the specific faults of an “especially bad MoFi.”
Do they make any other kind? Well, sometimes, to be sure, but the good ones are few and far between.
It must be hard to make a record sound this bad, but if anyone can do it, Mobile Fidelity has proven that they are the men and women for the job. Let’s get down to brass tacks.
Side One
Dull drums at intro.
Bass compressed and wooly.
Vocal present and hard.
Everything else recessed.
Side Two
Very dry snare and guitar.
Flat, edgy and lifeless.
Not even clear.
Just shitty.
Lacks bass here too.
Consensus
NFG.
This one definitely belongs in the Mobile Fidelity hall of shame (along with 66 of their other titles). My CD sounds better.
To aid you in understanding just how lost the buyers of these audiophile records are these days — and who am I to talk? — we reproduce the five most recent reviews from Discogs as of 5/2026 below.