Dumb Question about Mono Vinyl Playback

Very nice list of records.

 

My dad collects early mono jazz LPs, mostly 10" format, and he has this device. He swears by it. Next visit down to me he's going to bring it so I can plug it in and listen on my system. The issue is, his rig isn't quite in the same category as mine fidelity wise - plus he most definitely has some high frequency hearing loss (former plant manager and spent a lot of time near production line heavy equipment without any hearing protection - this was the old days before people wore plugs...).

So he says he can't hear any added noise or hum or decrement in sonics by having it in the loop, but having set up a DIY mono switch with a series of Y connectors and a Radio Shack switch box on my rig a few months back and hearing a huge drop-off in sonics and signal strength before, I'm a little circumspect. If my listening test with the DRX Retro goes well though, I may plump for one - as I do find myself playing more and more mono vinyl and it gets to be a real pain hooking and unhooking the double Y adapter at the back of the amp.

 

Tony, Take a look at this as well, I am considering it and it is cheaper.

http://www.kabusa.com/drxjr.htm

 

anyone have a radio shack SKU # for "double-Y" conntector? I was just there locally, and the guy looked at me like I was from Mars. I'm pretty sure I finally got him to comprehend what it is, but no dice. He says it may be "special order".

doug

 

Well, actually you have to get two Y-connectors. One would have two males on one side and a female on the other, and the other would have the opposite.

 

SKU 274-881



SKU 274-511


These two should do the trick quite nicely. You would have to use an extra set of cables, but it should be a neat connection (not too many wires).

Edit: The first Y adaptor is gold plated, so it's a bit more expensive, you could probably find a non-gold one for less.

 

Mike, would there be any possibility that one pair of your cartridge ouput terminals were connected to the tonearm incorrectly - this would cause any in phase sounds (ie the whole mono sound) to cancel out and do exactly what you have described. It would be less noticeable on stereo records.

 

nope those aren't them. what you want are a pair y rca cables. as said above, one cable has 2 males and 1 female, and one cable has 2 females and 1 male. shack has them and they run about 6 bucks for each cable.

 

Those would work too, but there's no reason why these adaptors won't do the job. You just hook up one to the other and then connect them to the turntable and phono stage.

 

Is it safe to say that you "y cord" folks use this method all the time when listening to mono?

 

I only use it when listening thru headphones (my amp has a "mono" switch but it does not affect signals through the headphone jacks.)

 

I can outdo any dumb mono question!
here's mine:
why listen to mono when stereo gives you
the abitility to moderate sound for either
of your individual ears?
what makes the mono sound better?

 

This is what I bought:




Catalog numbers 42-2536 & 42-2535.

 

Me too.

 

Yes. I don't have a mono switch on my amp, so I have to.
However, I do a lot of needle drops using the double-y, so my mono recordings
benefit from having the channels summed.

 

ok, now i "see"! I was confused, thinking it was one cord, rather than 2.

back to the shack.

dc

 

wow. big difference. much more "cohesive" for lack of a better word.

listening to M- mono of rolling stones #2--sounds fantastic.

thanks, steve, for this giant ("value oriented") tip. to quoth p.spector: LONG LIVE MONO!

doug

 

Is the Y cord method necessary on CD's/SACD's or just vinyl?

 

This is a vinyl only issue.

 

I used the same kind of Y connectors that zloch 1 and Ryan use. And to address someone's question earlier, yes I pretty much always listen to mono with the Y adapters in place now. The pinpoint mono image and other sonic gains are worth the slight hassle of taking the time to hook it up. I tend to now "batch" my mono listening as a result, having some stereo listening days and some mono listening days.

Hi there Tony - sorry for the delay in my response, been a busy day.

I actually tried to buy one of these recently, and got a note back from the folks who make them saying they're no longer being produced and not available. Something to do with difficulty getting one of the component parts at reasonable price or something. Real bummer because I agree - it's cheaper and all I really want is the mono switch, don't really need the bells and whistles you pay more for on the Retro.

If you're able to locate a DRXJr (well, two maybe - if you decide you want one!) somewhere please let me know, I searched the Web and have been watching eBay and couldn't find one. At that price I would probably be willing to experiment.

 

I picked up the two Rat Shack Y cords today and am happily playing Buffalo Springfield Again. My G+ copy actually sounds listenable this way. Next up... Beatles binge, starting with mono Revolver!

Thanks for the tip!

 

I e-mailed Grover and asked him if he could create a double Y cord for us at a price of $50. He said that he couldn't do it at that price.

I'm very leery of using cheap Radio Shack cable between my turntable and pre-amp. What is the use of having "audiophile" cable if the signal first goes through Radio Shack dreck? If the Radio Shack dreck won't degrade the signal then why not use Radio Shack cables instead of "audiophile" cable?

I was really hoping that Grover could help us.

 

David, I use Monster premium Y's, which are better and I think Cardas makes even better Y's. Ask Grover what it would cost. Remember the path length in the Y's is very short and the noise reduction can be substantial. See if you can borrow a pair and give it a try.

 

Tony,
I just sent Grover an e-mail asking him at what price he could make the cable. One of the reasons I was hoping Grover could make the cable was to avoid having to use 2 cables with the RCA connector between them. Not only does Grover make great cable, but having a single cable without the additional connector should sound better.