SH Spotlight If you have a turntable you need to play your mono records in true MONO. How to do it cheaply..

I play them through this

 

Fortunately with my trusty McIntosh C29 preamp I can go mono L+R, L+R to L, or L+R to R.

 

If a mono cartridge behaves differently than a stereo cartridge, isn't using a mono button kind of cheating? Now, I'm all for cheating if it the results are just as good but I can't imagine that would be the case.

Keep in mind I speak with no first hand knowledge on the subject, I'm just attempting to be logical.

 

Thanks for your patience Easy E, but still confused I'm afraid!

If the L & R stereo cables coming from my turntable go into the 2 female plugs on the 1st widget and I then connect this widget to the 2nd widget, I'm left with 2 female connectors free on that second widget. How am I then connecting those to my tape input/output connectors on the amp? RCA cables have L & R male connectors on each end, right, so with the two free female connectors on the 2nd widget I would only be able to connect 1 RCA cable between the widget and the tape inputs on the amp as far as I can tell but by the sounds of it your are describing going into to both the Tape in AND out ports to create the loop?

Sorry, any clarification would be much appreciated - thanks!

 

A real mono cart is very expensive. The outlay for one of them must be commensurate with how much use you would have for one. As most folks have a stereo cart the mono button is the next best thing yes. Not as good no but it does do the necessaries. As I said before these are going to be brand new so there shouldn't be any noise floor to 'play' like old mono LP's from the 60's usually have so the whole palaver of Y cables and tape loops and whatnot theoretically shouldn't be necessary.

 

I use a Y cable too. A 45 that's split thru (if properly aligned) plays without a pop in summed-to-mono.

 

Yes you've got it at the end - the TT definitely still goes into the phono inputs and the widget loop connects to the tape in and out

 

I've got a stereo cartridge, the Ortofon 2M Red. I've played original mono releases through it and more recent reissues, including the Sundazed Bob Dylans, the Sony Legacy Bob Dylan mono box, and the RSD Miles Davis reissues. I don't have a mono switch on my preamp. All these releases sound great to me, even through my stereo cartridge and moderately priced system. Might one see an improvement to the sound using a dedicated mono cartridge or via some other means suggested in this thread? Possibly; I haven't tried. I'm just going to buy these Beatles releases and enjoy them without worrying about it.

 

A Y cable or a mono button on your stereo/preamp should do a decent job. The vertical components are wired for each channel to be 180 degrees out of phase, so they should come close to summing to zero. That should effectively get rid of a bunch of noise. It's not as good as a true mono cartridge, but it still works very well. I would think that the main improvement would be the slightly larger stylus.

 

Ah - Ok. So the turntable still connects into the Phono inputs as usual, and is not connected directly to the double Y cabling?

The double Y widgets are then connected, via two sets of RCA cables, to the Tape In and Out ports creating a separate loop? With the tape button On the signal is sent through this loop, summing the channels to Mono. Is that correct?!

 

Yes, Yes and almost - the tape monitor button is on. Better check that this is all possible! Photo time:

Yes it should be - the tape in and out is right there


But is there a monitor button on the front?



This piccy isnt clear enough - is there one?

 

My receiver has a "mono" setting, so I'm going to assume that's really all I need to care about? I have a Technics SL-1200mk2 turntable, stanton 681 eee cartridge, and Cambridge 640p preamp into Polk LSIM 703 speakers.

Am I all set?

 

Yes.

 

Actually, my amp is an Arcam Alpha 2 so it does have the Tape In and Out ports on the back and a 'Tape' button on the front which must be the Tape monitor button you describe. Hopefully it should be possible!

Thanks again for your help.

 

Every Radio Shack is going under however the Beatles mono box may save them yet.

 

If you can dedicate a cartridge/headshell for mono, just wire the cart pins together. This can be done in parallel or in series.

 

Sorry to sound like a right numpty but would someone please post a pic of what a double y cord looks like as I'm not sure we have them in the UK. I've googled and looked on ebay but the ones that come up don't look like they would do the job Steve describes. Many thanks.

 

From analog planet:

June 17th, 2014—Ortofon today announced the development of the 2M MONO SE cartridge intended as a "tribute" to the upcoming Beatles mono box set.
"The White cartridge" is not otherwise known as "The Beatles", nor does is the stylus a "top loader", nor are there any Beatles or Apple Corp logos on the cartridge—probably due to hesitancy on the part of one or both parties to get involved in a costly and time consuming licensing agreement.

However the press release does say the cartridge resulted from a cooperative effort between Universal Music Group and Ortofon.

The new cartridge has an output of 3.5mV, and is designed to track between 1.4-1.7 grams with 1.5 being optimal.

Most significantly the cartridge features a Shibata stylus capable of tracing every lateral nook and cranny groove inscription. Because there are no vertical modulations in a mono groove, VTA/SRA is not at all critical.

If you are connecting to a stereo phono preamp the usual 47kOhm 150-350pF loading is operative but via a mono connection Ortofon recommends a 23.5kOhm 300-600pF load.

The cartridge will be available only through Ortofon's website at the same time as the box set is introduced in early September. It will be reviewed here soon.

http://www.analogplanet.com/content/ortofon-announces-2m-mono-se-beatles-tribute-cartridge

 

Does anyone have a link for a double Y cable??

 

And, after you add a mono switch, be sure to check it each time before you start playing records or you might play a stereo record in mono if you happen to be doing something in the other room and not listening carefully. Not that I have ever done this.

 

Way to jump on it Ortofon. So the Phil Specter box set was prescient "Back to mono." I love the AAA mastering and the idea behind these upcoming albums. I just wish I liked mono.

 

Thanks to you and everyone else for wanting to help me. There is no Tape Monitor button on the stereo or the remote, but there are ways to record things judging from the manual here:

http://usa.denon.com/us/Product/Pages/ProductDetail.aspx?PCatId=AVSolutions(DenonNA)&CatId=AVReceivers(DenonNA)&Pid=AVR1804(DenonNA)

I read everyone's posts but unfortunately still don't understand exactly what I would be doing.

I think it is something like:

TT RCA cords connect directly to Phono input of stereo

RCA cord goes out of CDR/Tape Out and goes into the dual splitters (which sums the channels) and that is connected to CDR/Tape In?

So basically I would be having audio output from the stereo and put back in as mono?

This way I can use recording mode and then select this input for mono, but if I want stereo mode I can just use phono?

edit: Looks like there is something called Multi-Source recording, would I set it to be recording Phono but playing CDR/Tape In?

 

Hi Steve,

When I first got my turntable, I remember researching this quite a bit and reading your posts. I did indeed try the Y adapter method, and it works really well. However, being new into records, I have a lot of new reissues on mono that are flawless. Namely, the Bob Dylan mono box, Byrds and some others. Since the records are really clean and basically flawless sounding, I don't have issues with noise. For these records, most of the time I just play them without hooking up my Y adapter.

When you have nice clean pressings like that, are you missing something by NOT summing the channels together?

 

Just go to radio shack and you can piece one together really cheap.