Why mono?

Err - get ready to duck, flat earthers probably about to start throwing things at you right about now....

Jonathan

Steve,

The mono switch on playback is useful for checking the azimuth of cartridges. On some test LPs, there are tracks that have the same LH & RH signal in opposite phase to each other so that when the stereo signal is mixed in mono, there should be no residual audible output from a perfectly aligned cartridge. Some flat-earthers also don't like to be distracted by things such as soundstage, depth and precise placement of sonic images.

On record, I have found the mono switch useful for balancing the recording levels between L & R channels. With a stereo signal, the twin metering bars bounces in every direction and establishing perfect balance (using off-tape monitoring on a 3-head deck) without a mono switch takes just that little bit longer. The same flat-earthers probably prefer to mono-ise stereo recordings to playback on hopelessly holographic equipment without mono switching.

Hope this helps.

James

Thanks for the reply, James.

For those with turntables and old records:

1)use the mono switch on mono lps because it will lower the effects of rumble and noise because most of it is out of phase and will cancel in mono.

2)use it on horrible "electronically re-recorded" fake stereo records where they put the treble in one channel and the bass in the other.

--Eric

I guess I never even thought of that. I must admit I have some jazz albums from the 50's where stereo means dexter gordon from the left, rythm from the right. Might be less distracting in mono...I'll give it a try.

Steve

Steve:

I believe those Dexter Gordon records were actually recorded in stereo that way. They are not mono records. Quite a number of 50's stereo is recorded in 2 channels in such a manner - hard left and right with no center. The mono release of these records might even have been preferable as sometimes mono mixes are better than the stereo release.

Paul

Not all are merely hard left and hard right, with the centre missing. I find that most of those 50's and 60's jazz jobs, especially if recorded by the ubiquitous Rudy Van Gelder, have hard left, hard right AND centre, nicely recorded at least. I have no issue with this, crude as it might be with today's "soundstage" junkies. What is abominable is the "fake" stereo, such as some early Beatles, where they simply boost the treble on one channel and cut the bass on the other. Yech!! Similar travesties exist with jazz (eg "Milestones" by Miles Davis - get the Japanese mono pressing - much better).

I remember Frank once gave an interesting use of the mono button on the old forum. I hope I remember it correctly: If you're sitting off center you can use the mono button to adjust the stereo image for your new sitting place. Press the mono button, and use the balance controls until you obtain the "center" for your new sitting place. Depress the mono button and the stereo image is adjusted to your new sitting place.

Unfortunately I don't have a mono button to try it out myself, but it sounds interesting.

Ciao!

Willem

P.S. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong.

The reason for pursuing mono jazz and rock lps is not solely because stereo is distracting. "Hole in the middle" Atlantics are certainly a problem. But the mono mix is often punchier.

IIRC, for instance, Van Gelder monitored via a single K-horn until 1959 or so, even when he started recording in stereo. So the mono is likely to be closer to what he intended.

--Eric

Mark Levinson said in a recent interview that sometimes he feels like going back to mono would be the thing to do ...

(in light of his preference of two channel stereo to five channel surround sound)!

Willem

You remembered! I feel as though some of this rhetoric isn't ALL a waste of space.

Yes, you're right. The only way to adjust balance accurately is if you have a Mono switch. For those who will say that a Mono record is enough, that's not true since you can't guarantee that the output from a Mono record will actually be accurate for each channel since other issues could be at work such as cartridge out on azimuth, length of speaker cables differ, length of interconnects differ per channel etc. The Balance and Mono switch combination gets around all that.

Regards,
Frank.