Thinking of buying a Mono cartridge...need help, thanks

It's correctly done, missan. Stereo cutting head cuts vertical and lateral information even if source is mono. The vertical component isn't very much, but still you don't want to unduly damage or wear the record. Want purist mono, has to be cut on old mono cutting heads and electronics, That equipment has not been in record industry use since it was obsoleted and haven't been since mastering facilities upgraded to modern Stereo equipment in the 1966-1968 time frame. Reality! Studios keep equipment which is productive and works, and gets them clients. Most studios which cut music recordings went Stereo, as that's the way the industry clients went. Many older mono setups continued being used by studios which catered to A/V type work (educational record clients, filmstrip soundtracks on disc records, spot commercial advertising, etc) past that for several years more.

 

I wrote that it´s good to use mono cartridges with vertical compliance, always. Can You show me the vertical info on a mono record; when cut with a stereo head?

 

Call up a mastering studio, or email one. They'll give you the same answer. Yes, your advice about using mono cartridges with vertical compliance is good practice, by the way. And I recommend that practice. I went through a lot of mono/stereo transition issues in my early years as an assistant broadcast engineer who did most of the studio equipment on air beginning in 1973. I had to also modernize the studio plant and justify the expenses of doing so. I had to take said facility from then 25 year old equipment which had to use adaptations on the old turntables just to play mono 45 singles from their earliest (by 1955 left on full time) and tonearms which didn't track reliably lighter than 6 grams. In short, 1948 equipment in that department, which did not play mid to late 1960's Top 40 and Rock music without being horrible on tracking and record life. I had to drag that studio from being tube to mainly transistorized also. And got tracking force down to 2.5 grams also. And reliably every day. And could play anything from 78 RPM discs to modern Stereo and matrixed Quad on air as operations needed.

 

@missan , since you are skeptical, can you offer your own interpretation of what Steve wrote?

Please be careful. Mono recuts from about 1968 on were cut with stereo tips!

Presumably Steve knows a lot about this kind of thing. Why, then, are we being advised to "be careful?"

 

Maybe also overweighted tonearm?

 

It would have to have had tracking forces measured in pounds to do that kind of damage! I don't think there's any stylus made since 1945 that could so completely destroy a groove!

 

So to play the studio's mid 60"s mono vinyl the issue was tonearm weight not needle spec's?

 

It does not skip but you can hear it pass over the very feelable cocentric line.
It is a French 1966 Press of Around & Around. Maybe the young buyer put it on his grandparents 1945 turntable?
I also had a 64' Dutch ep that had roughed up grooves for the fist 20 seconds of one track.

 

I have found Kevin Gray to be very open about answering emails from strangers. I had a back and forth with him about mastering roles for one album and he was very gracious about the whole thing. Hopefully he will have the answer you are looking for. I'm curious as well.

I'm glad I can play all the new mono albums with my stereo cartridge. Still, I have about a 100 or so mono records from the early days so I still could use a dedicated mono cartridge. And tonearm. And new turntable that will hold two tonearms. Sigh. I'm saving my pennies as we speak.

 

I just acquired THREE c.1958-59 Rek-O-Kut turntables (two B-12-GH's and one B-12-H) in various states of neglect, and at least one of them will become a dedicated mono spinner once restored. I have two ESL (Ortofon) S-1000 arms and a wooden Grado Laboratory arm ready to go!

 

Maybe you and me both as i have approx 60 Mono lp's and approx 600 Mono 45's. Still as i am used to 1 cart it sounds fine and i just ignorantly might not know what iam missing?

 

I'm thinking for now I can get away with just a mono switch. That I can afford.

 

The Bernie Grundman studio had a full-track tape deck and a lathe with a mono cutter head at one time - they may still. That's how they cut the Classic Records' Blue Note mono reissues a few years ago.

 

Nice knowing Bernie Grundman Mastering had one also.

 

And compliance if cut on Stereo cutting heads. Old school mono was lateral modulation only. When Stereo cutting heads took over, vertical and lateral modulation became the norm, as there was a little bit of vertical compliance. And we also had to deal with records which were cut at much louder levels on average than what was cut earlier on. So we had stylus size, tracking force, and compliance issues to deal with, and vertical rumble issues playing Stereo cut discs. We were dealing with 1940's 16" mono transcription and 78 RPM equipment here, adapted just enough for LP and 45 RPM use when those formats arrived.

 

(Laughs)
Is that an amplifier with a mono switch?
I have an NAD one with that but what difference does it really make when depressed?

 

So maybe thats what originally caused the gouge lines in my 60's Mono vinyl?

 

Might well be. Those gouge lines are often from bad styli or too much stylus force.

 

Bad as in damaged yes?

 

I believe there is a bit of misunderstanding here. Of course we should be careful and not really play anything with a cartridge that lacks compliance vertically.
What I mean is that mono records, cut with a mono head or a stereo head, don´t have any intended vertical info cut. All vertical info is anomalies that should not be there. How much vertical info there is in a cut will vary; but all will depend on tolerances involved.

 

I've heard that before, and it may well be correct, but I don't know enough about the subject to comment.

Pity that Steve doesn't rejoin the conversation.

 

I don't know. The last amp I had had a mono/stereo on it, but at that time I had no mono recordings at all. However, what really sticks in my mind is the statement about not needing a mono cartridge for pressings from 1968 onward. That's where the majority of the mono pressings I have that I really want to play are from. I can wait a little while before playing the Beethoven symphonies conducted by Toscanini for a little while. Like a year or two.

 

I have a dedicated mono setup: Garrard Type A turntable & Fisher TA-500 mono receiver through a KLH Six speaker. The only non-mono link is the Shure M3D cartridge, with the TT connected to the receiver via Y-connector. I only play pre-1968 mono LPs with no 180g reissues, no stereo LPs, no 78s, and no 45s. I was curious about the all-mono thing, so I bought another Garrard headshell, a new-old stock red GE VRII, and an NOS 1 mil stylus. I had it shimmed & mounted by a professional.

The results? Sounds great just like the M3D/N3D does, but if there is any difference between the two in terms of fidelity, volume, or background noise reduction, I cannot discern it.

 

Do you mean your mono lp's are reissues?
Almost all mine are from 1964-69.
That said did DECCA UK cut their 68'-69' Mono lps with Stereo heads/equipment?
Steve said that from 68" there are very few exceptions that had Mono cutting heads did he not?

 

For exactly this reason, my lone mono LP that I'm hesitant to play with the GE VRII is a Tamla/UK pressing of Marvin's 1969 MPG record...