anyone tried mono cartridges

[Bbrich]

Has anyone experience of using mono cartridges as a lot of the records we play are mono? just wondering if it may help with records that are not in such great condition playwise. Thanks for any info. 

[Guest]

I have kept my Amp for years as it still works, it's got a Mono/Stereo button on it.  These used to be on all amps, but now you can't get them at all!

The 60's and early 70's records do sound much better played in mono.   The sound is more together and the records sound less worn!

Even early stereo records sound better in mono, as the early stereo sound was so disjointed and everything seperated.  Backing singers coming out of one speaker, and  tambourine's coming out of the other!

I haven't had to try a Mono cartridge yet, but if my Amp packs up I will be giving one a go.

Edited August 17, 2017 by Guest

[Geeselad]

I've got a mono /stereo feature on my mixer. A by Mark m6. Deffo seems to  enhance old 45s when used.

[Tlscapital]

MONO read is not the same as MONO playback. MONO read to explain in simple words is a horizontal pick-up read of the stylus in the groove. STEREO is a vertical read ! Now they make some MONO cartridge (what I have) that can also play decently STEREO records without damaging them groove. A stylus reading vertically in a horizontal meant to be read groove can not be right.

This is crucial as the vertical read (STEREO) of a stylus in a MONO groove will pick-up a lot of undesirable noise and sound distortion no matter what. We all know what I'm talking about here. Do we ? OK ! Where the MONO playback push button is only a cross/mixing of both channels into one channel within the amplifier and is de-coupled at the speakers outputs to dish the same in both speakers. The undesired noises and distortions are only mixed with both channels.

So yes, I've been using a MONO cartridge for more than 5 years now and wouldn't go back to anything else. I don't want to sound geek, but many a thing are crucial in the phono thing like some critical notions to have in order to "assemble" the coherent phono set-up that will actually suits your records, earbuds and budget.

We search, buy and collect old records, mainly 45's of which most are MONO. We acknowledge that they are not the best mastered product at all times nor are they often carefully pressed for Hi-Fi play-time. Let's not forget the fact that they often had a life prior and do show that through the speakers. So why still play our favorite, most valuable money wise and/or leisure wise sounds on unfitted phono systems ?

It does come to a cost but it's a thrill to play my records like I never heard them before. Now my phono is rather peculiar but there are easier and/or "cheaper" MM (moving magnet) MONO cartridges ou there (used by some DJ's I've read) that could be fit on turntable like the SL-1200 and alike with maybe a minimum of adjustments to the tonearm to be done.

On my tonearm hangs a MC (moving coil) cartridge vintage style, a Denon DL-102, that required me to DIY few mods on my tonearm to perform at it's best. But there are "easier" options out there like the Ortofon 2M (not cheap but great reviews) or both from Audio Technica with the VM610 MONO (cheap and easy) or the AT MONO3/LP (looks even better but change of stylus is more complicated).

Now only a MONO cartridge won't on it's own be able to bring the best of your MONO records, but it's a crucial point in the chain as it does the read of the groove and the first justice one could do to their MONO records is to give them a MONO read ! And believe me there's no universal phono set-up no matter it's  Hi-Fi merits and high end price. Type of record differs just as music genres and they generally require rather different phono build-ups.

Misconception as a general belief is that a good system is expensive anyway. Yes, but not like to be good it has to be expensive. Then if it's expensive, it's good. No-no, I've witnessed once a marvelous all revised vintage high end phono set-up playing wonderfully Jazz albums but it was just unable to play reasonably well, like really not good, any soul 45's.

Edited August 21, 2017 by tlscapital

[Tlscapital]

On 17 août 2017 at 20:24, solidsoul said:

I have kept my Amp for years as it still works, it's got a Mono/Stereo button on it.  These used to be on all amps, but now you can't get them at all!

The 60's and early 70's records do sound much better played in mono.   The sound is more together and the records sound less worn!

Even early stereo records sound better in mono, as the early stereo sound was so disjointed and everything seperated.  Backing singers coming out of one speaker, and  tambourine's coming out of the other!

I haven't had to try a Mono cartridge yet, but if my Amp packs up I will be giving one a go.

More "together" is like saying more compact, but in real it is actually reduced. I bet you that there is a capacitor in there that has the purpose to reduce the high frequencies after the channel crossings/mixing into one. And this is OK, but one has to know that as well. I use to do all the same when I had that function on my amp. But it always kinda left me unhappy since if I won in less noise distortion, the sound spectrum was also amputate some and the dynamic loss inherent to that as well.

These functions, like the MONO selector, on these entry level 6T's and 7T's amp were made to dish out the bad sound less harsh actually. That was a remain from the 5T's and 6T's where the "smooth and warm" sound was the order of the day in home use. Tubes/bulbs amp for phono, radio, TV... until STEREO became the order of the day. The new global industrialized capitalism made us buy more of anything and nothing. MC cartridges was re-classified for phono geeks and MM became John Doe's cartridge. Same for the rest of the phono bits with the printed card board and processors replacing the old tubes/bulbs in the amp and pre-amp. When well done, allows much more clarity and dynamic than ever before.

But for the smaller budget, quality was disposable off since the new what was to be had and the old mainly disposable. Bigger margin profit, was the aim. The designers and engineers in their new technologies were inclined to follow their bosses paths. But people were still listening to their older records. Low to medium class STEREO stylus do have the worse tracking in a MONO groove and so the stylus and cartridge reading of a MONO record induce a lot of inner groove distortion and picks up all the undesired noise that a MONO cartridge would bare with much better resilience.

No offense but this "MONO" function on your amp is not really MONO. It is only STEREO converted in a monofied STEREO with a high frequency capacitor reducer to muffle the sound and render a less harsh sound coming from a wrong stylus and cartridge read. One can  very easily get use to that sound with comfort. Some are still favoring the vintage tubes/bulbs warm & round sound. They work a bit the same as your "MONO" button in the way that it is actually a "colored" and "textured" sound. The sound spectrum there is "naturally" kind of "amputated". High frequencies are always at a loss and the dynamic pays for it.

I use to be of that warm & round school. Not anymore. I much prefer to get a clear, neutral and dynamic sound out of a mix of both the old and the new phono gear that can allow the wider sound spectrum to be dished out. There's a lot of coherent configurations that are to be taken into account when coupling each composant of a phono set-up/chain and there's always the good and misfortunes in such a quest adventure. But once you have something allowing clean and "airy" high frequencies to pass through, the vocals come upfront and we listen to SOUL music, don't we !

In the phono equipment there's good, bad and better here, now, then and there. Honestly, I do sell records home to friends, and allow them to bring them back if they don't want them anymore after a while. One once brought back 5 singles back. I browsed through them and pulled out 4 to advise him not to return these 4 to me as he should regret them later. Instantly he replayed them on my system and went WOW ! They don't sound the same home. He just returned me the one 45 that was not so good even on my phono set-up.

That is how important a right, composed accordingly, good or better phono set-up is. It's half of the music from the records we listen to. Ady Croasdale once inquired on here if anyone had a good playing copy of a record as all that he had to this day had issues. Indeed I remembered that my copy of the record use to have some inner groove distortions on my previous "Y2K" phono set-up. Dug out my copy play and recorded an mp3 of it on my now phono set-up and send it to him. He went WOW ! I had to send him a heavier WAV format to him after that for his purposes...

Edited August 21, 2017 by tlscapital