So what sounds then better Mono or Stereo?

We're very possibly kindred souls. Having both experienced what we could call a greater than 180 degree effect from headphones. It's not common to find other headphone listeners who have experienced that. I've tried to explain that sort of sound to others at head-fi meets and been left with them giving me a strange look from their eyes. I've heard it. I've experienced it. But I've come to realize that it is not a common experience even amongst dedicated headphone listeners. It makes me think and realize that this sort of listening experience on headphones really is possibly a brain tease. Relying on the brain having been trained to listen in a certain way. My experience in trying to explain this to other headphone listeners makes me believe that this is something that only the chosen can hear, but my heart does not allow me to believe that. My heart says that this is music, this is sound, this is emotion, this is space and the sound of space around your head. This is something that others should be able to experience when listening on headphones to the same gear I am. But sadly, it seems that some people just don't, or can't, hear it.

The greater than 180 degree sound effect is something that I refer to as envelopment. An enveloping headstage. As if I'm poking my head into a bubble of sound around my head. That effect really is possible with regular stereo recordings on headphones. But it requires a certain style of gear and sound and headphones to make it happen. And that combination of gear and headphones and special sound is not very common. Not very common at all. I've found a gear combo that does it for me. And for that I'm extremely grateful. It's like discovering nirvana. My quest in headphone sound is now in exploring gear that helps enhance that effect. I know how to find it. I know it when I hear it. It's just a question now of finding a DAC and headphones that helps enhance that effect.

What's equally weird is that if I listened to your SPL Audior setup with your HD800 I'm not sure if I'd hear this greater than 180 degree effect, at least not in the way that I want to experience what I call the envelopment effect. The SPL Auditor hasn't done that sort of magic for me when I've listened to it. You've heard it with your gear. I might not. Which is something that makes this even weirder and harder to explain.

An interesting datapoint is that the PonoPlayer is an example of an amp/dac that does the envelopment style of sound to me. And it does it well. It's an effect that makes the special sound of the Pono very obvious to me. And something that leaves me wondering why others don't hear it. It's something that is incredibly obvious to me when I hear it. Maybe it's because my brain has been trained a certain way due to me listening to headphones like the HD600 for the past 15 years? I don't know.

Your bumping this thread did get me to realize that I had not yet listened to any mono tracks on my PonoPlayer. So I just listened to Pet Sounds 40th Anniversary (has both mono and stereo versions) and Cream "Disraeli Gears" on MFSL (also has both mono and stereo versions). I used my Audeze LCD-2 rev 2 headphone with balanced cable. And wow. I enjoyed the mono versions of both albums better than the stereo versions. I was hearing depth and layers that the stereo didn't have. The Pono does mono on headphones very well. Very well. It's doing something special. Amps and DACs and portables that are able to do that enveloping soundstage thing with headphones seem to have the right magic to also make mono very enjoyable on headphones.

 

Wouldn't the ultimate mono rig only have a single monoblock and one speaker?

 

It would.

 

Hi Steve. I was thinking this thread would be an appropriate place to ponder the question of why mono aficionados play mono material through stereo rigs. Of course, practicality will be the first reason. But surely there have to be some hardcore "mono only" people out there playing mono material through a single speaker?

 

So it sounds like you know of no one playing mono material through a single speaker?

 

So what sounds then better Mono or Stereo?

Live.

 

For me less than 10 instruments recorded on a track (MONO), more than 10 instruments go for stereo and do a proper mix! Don't split the instruments, happens way too much with stereo.


sean

 

That's a myth created by the makers or music equipment. Live music is most often a huge compromise of everything making it sound awful. Not even if you're in the same room as the band it will sound as good as a good recorded album through great equipment. Acoustically live is rather bad. But there are a sum of other factors that make a live show greater than a recording but its for sure not the sound

 

So, you're saying if I go in and record a band today, with bass, drums, 2 guitars, and vocals, we should mix to mono?

 

It all depends on mixing. Mono pretty much became obsolete since the late sixties because studios got more practice working in stereo. The Beatles are sometimes better in mono because the stereo mixes feel weird on your ears or are unbalanced. Frank Zappa's Hot Rats has a great stereo field because the technology and skill was developed enough at that point to have stereo rival mono. To me, stereo is better because the instruments are clearer and more alive, though inexperienced mixes in stereo can be fatiguing.

 

Yes>

sean

 

Was listening to The Essential Elvis last night and was thinking "Man the stereo mix is busy!" Never even crossed my mind to hit the mono button on the preamp! lol

 

With The Beatles alone I have to decide on a song-by-song basis. My vote is for whichever is the best mix. I'd love to say that Mono wins every time but many times it just sounds weak by comparison. But when it doesn't it's sweet.

But for headphones: Stereo all the way, even if the Mono mix is better. Don't like being stuck in the center for headphones.

 

Not to be a jerk, but this is the specific album where I think there's a clear winner. Not really sure what there's to like about the stereo that the Mono doesn't offer or better, save for the fudged animal sound effect.

 

You position your mics well.

 

Well if ever there was a music set up made for Mono that's it.