Jim Davis

President Music Direct

Last Reviewed: September 27, 2026

Executive Summary

Jim Davis is President of Music Direct, the Chicago retailer of high-end audio equipment and audiophile vinyl, and of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, the record label Music Direct owns. He started Music Direct as a one-man business selling audio hardware by flyer out of Skokie, Illinois. In 2001 he relaunched Mobile Fidelity, a label founded in 1977, after buying its assets out of bankruptcy. That made him a retailer who also owned one of the best-known reissue labels in the audiophile market. In 2022 he was the public face of the label’s response when it disclosed that a digital step had been used in mastering records its buyers had taken to be purely analogue.

Career Highlights

• President of Music Direct, which describes itself as the world’s largest online retailer of high-end audio, audiophile music and accessories, specialising in vinyl records and turntables.
• President of Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab, named in that role by the label’s own official account in June 2025.
• Started Music Direct as a one-man operation selling audio hardware by flyer from Skokie, Illinois (6moons).
• Bought Mobile Fidelity’s intellectual property and hardware assets and relaunched the label in 2001 (SoundStage!, 2004).
• In August 2022 issued the label’s public apology over the undisclosed use of a DSD step in its mastering chain, and committed it to stating the source of each release.

Professional Journey

Music Direct began, according to a 6moons industry feature by Phil Gold, as a one-man operation that Davis ran from Skokie, Illinois, selling hi-fi hardware by flyer. The same feature called him “still the driving force behind the company”. The company is now based at 1811 W Bryn Mawr Avenue in Chicago and describes itself as the world’s largest online retailer of high-end audio, audiophile music and accessories, specialising in vinyl records and turntables.

Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab had been an audiophile label since its founding in 1977. Davis bought it out of bankruptcy, and SoundStage! reported in 2004 that he had “purchased all of MFSL’s intellectual and hardware assets and resurrected the company in 2001”. Music Direct is the label’s parent company.

In the summer of 2022 it became public that Mobile Fidelity had included a digital (DSD) step in the production chain of albums sourced from original master tapes. As president, Davis issued a public statement on the company’s website and social media: “We apologize for using vague language, allowing false narratives to propagate, and for taking for granted the goodwill and trust our customers place in the Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab brand.” He said the label would change its labelling and product literature to state clearly any digital technology used in mastering. In an interview with The Absolute Sound that August, as reported by Dagogo, he said the first title mastered from a DSD file was Tony Bennett’s I Left My Heart in San Francisco, released in 2011. The episode led to a class action, which the company settled for $25 million according to a 2025 podcast description.

In June 2025 he recorded an interview with Mark Caro’s Caropop podcast at Music Direct’s Chicago headquarters. He discussed the lawsuit, defended the high-resolution digital step as producing better sound, and talked about the label’s new SuperVinyl formulation and the Fidelity Record Pressing plant. Mobile Fidelity’s official account promoted the episode and described him as “Mobile Fidelity and Music Direct President”.

Education

No education record was found in any source reviewed.