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

Steve, how about summing them in the software?

 

Good! That's what I sometimes do. What about any phase distortions coming from the cart? Wouldn't that make matters worse?

 

Thanks for the info, Even someone as "Audio Hardware" challenged as me can understand that. My local Radio Shack is going under, everything is 20 to 30% off.

 

I'm going to go get one of those @ Radio Shack -- I've got several Beatles mono LPs, and I guess I am not hearing what I should be hearing!

 

Me got a mono switch.

Though I do wonder if I'm missing out on anything by not using a dedicated mono cartridge?

 

Another interesting note: Regarding correct mono playback, I also heard that some mono records should be played with a 1.0 mil stylus? I know of a few mono records that seemed to mistrack on my setup, and I'm guessing this was perhaps a result of using the incorrect stylus? I may soon be building a dedicated turntable to play these earlier mono LP records and if necessary, another setup for styrene 45s (which have their own issues when played with a line contact or microridge stylus). Anyone else here have experience with mono LPs and the 1.0 mil stylus?

 

Yes, some early ones really benefit, but most mono LPs play better with a microline. I tend to use about 1955 as a rule of thumb, but that's just the point at which I'll try out the 1 mil. Just my opinion. Even though later LPs (like Mercurys) say to use a 1 mil on the back cover, I haven't really found that there's an improvement in the least. On a worn record, I get better results with a cheap conical stylus that can track at 6.5 grams. I know, that's heavy, but it's about the only thing I have found that will reduce distortions on some mono records.

 

I think I will avoid mono lps in the future. Too much effort to crawl behind the rack and insert a y cord.

 

I had great success by using a normal household '1-way' light switch to 'sum up' the stereo channels. The phono lead has to be cut in order to allow the two ends of the left channel wires to be twisted together and afiixed to one of the light switch connection holes. The two ends of the right channel wires are then twisted together and go in the other light switch connection hole. The 'ground' or shield wires must be connected together with a connection block and kept away from the left and rights as much as possible, to avoid shorting. It does work well, though, and once fitted, avoids the need to swap wires for mono listening, because all you do is flick a switch for mono, then flick it off for stereo ! This method depends on whether you would want to cut your nice expensive interconnect, or if I am making any sense whatsoever !

 

This is why many of us have two TT's...one for mono, one for stereo. Good setup, no muss no fuss...

 

I doubt it. You just want to electrically sum the signal into mono...whether it's done at the cartridge, in the cables, or at the preamp with the mono switch, the end result would be the same. (We're assuming that a "mono" cart these days is taking the output of a standard stereo cart and summing it within the body.)

If I do needle drops, I always do them in stereo. The advantage there is that I'm able to clean up the recording better before summing to mono. If one channel has distortion or a click, and the other one doesn't, I can easily copy in a split second from the opposite channel to fix it. Then when all the cleanup work is done, I can sum the two together.

 

Very interesting, I wish someone would manufacture something like this. Could you photograph your 'switch' Matt?

 

My pre-amp has a mono button. I have to access it from the remote control; there is actually no mono button on the pre-amp itself. It quite noticeably cleans up the sound on mono LPs, even if they're in pretty decent shape.

 

i am glad i saw this post as i just obtained a mono copy of the doors first lp.. once i did my mono reconnect, the difference in sound was very drastic.. this may be a dumb question, but would you need to do the same thing if you want to play a mono cd? just curious...

 

nope. just vinyl.

 

Sam is correct. Just vinyl.

 

In my experience, any phase differences between the two channels of the actual phono cartridge itself only show up as insignificant deviations in frequency response. That's assuming that the record is cut properly, of course. 99% of the time I've found summed is better than stereo or picking only one channel.

 

I guess it's a matter of luck. I've got at least two mono records that have noise and/or distortion in one channel but not the other. Picking the "clean" side ends up sounding better than both summed to mono.

 

Picking one channel could be better if you have a mono CD however. There's always the chance that mastering was done with a stereo playback head on the mono tape, and there could be phase/alignment problems then. Probably a rare occurrence, though, and there aren't very many mono CDs anyway.

 

Funny, I just posted something similar in this thread.

In those cases I usually burn a copy with one channel split out as both.

 

I thought since 1960-something almost all mono albums were cut with a stereo lathe, eliminating the need for a mono cart or button.

Can we get a definitive answer to this question: all else being equal, will modern mono records sound better with a mono cart?