Anyone here addicted to MONO pressings?

[Wakefield Turntables]

I've finally managed to get a decent MONO setup that I'm happy with. I must admit to being astonished by just how good a decent MONO pressing can sound. Some sound dire but most have an impressive depth and width to the soundstage. I'm now actually hunting out MONO pressings to explore and enjoy this area of vinyl reproduction.

[mr shovel]

I dont know the details but i once heard a very nice recording of Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a theme by Thomas Tallis recorded in mono (1950s i think).

Anyone know a likely candidate for the conductor etc?

Could be 1946 Barbirolli? (on YouTube)

[oceanobsession]

mono pressings on the steamboat label can sound great frank Sinatra and Peggy lee for starters .

[vintagesteve]

Mono recordings by their very definition and nature cannot present a soundstage as all instruments and voices are coming from the same point; a single speaker.

[Ammonite Audio]

Mono recordings by their very definition and nature cannot present a soundstage as all instruments and voices are coming from the same point; a single speaker.

Yes, but with a good true mono setup, the 'soundstage' is actually rather like what you'd experience at an actual concert. I find that when playing mono, the lack of stereo effects means that I am more drawn into the musical performance, rather than distracted by 'imaging' etc. On top of that, the brain soon fills in and creates its own soundstage. Until I started using a Miyajima Zero mono cartridge, I never realised how good mono can be, and like Andrew found myself scouring the local second hand record store for more mono recordings, some of which have turned out to be complete gems.

[vintagesteve]

Yes, but with a good true mono setup, the 'soundstage' is actually rather like what you'd experience at an actual concert. I find that when playing mono, the lack of stereo effects means that I am more drawn into the musical performance, rather than distracted by 'imaging' etc. On top of that, the brain soon fills in and creates its own soundstage. Until I started using a Miyajima Zero mono cartridge, I never realised how good mono can be, and like Andrew found myself scouring the local second hand record store for more mono recordings, some of which have turned out to be complete gems.

I'm not knocking mono by the way, I love vintage audio and all that it entails, long may it live and be enjoyed. But as you say, any soundstage in mono is all in the mind.

[jandl100]

I find that mono works best on headphones.

Coincidentally, I am currently listening to a 1942 recording of Bruckner's 5th symphony on headphones and it sounds great!

[speedracer]

Yes, me too. It is a fairly recent discovery for me; obviously I knew about mono pressings but until I heard some examples played on a good system I had no idea what they could bring to the party so to speak.
In fact I had another turntable made specifically for mono records so I don't have to keep changing cartridges all the time, my Lenco GL75, & even with a fairly lowly AT/MONO3/LP it sounds glorious. I marvel at the sound that can be achieved, the vibrancy, excitement, the get up & go, the fun, the feeling it is happening right there in front of you. I only had around 10 mono LP's when I commissioned the Lenco, now more like 50 & growing all the time. It is expensive too, I currently have a Lyra Helikon mono cart on loan & the Lenco has upped its game by quite a substantial leap, as I suppose it should given it's price tag, so I am doing my best to find the pennies to keep it here!

[Lee Henley]

Ive been fortunate to compare original mono Bluenote pressings with stereo pressings of the same album, in my opinion the mono wins hands down, with the stereo mix you tend to have the drum kit the size of the soundstage, ie cymbals coming out of each speaker which can detract from the listening experience. The mono mix has the drum kit scaled correctly. You also get a better depth of soundstage with the mono mix and the presentation is far more holographic.

If I had the choice when buying used vinyl Id buy the mono version everytime over the stereo version

[montesquieu]

Mono recordings by their very definition and nature cannot present a soundstage as all instruments and voices are coming from the same point; a single speaker.

Well-recorded, well-reproduced mono has a back to front soundstage that is as realistic as anything in stereo. If you haven't heard that then you haven't come close to hearing what mono is capable of. Of course mono soundstage happens in the mind, it's the mind that constructs stereo soundstage too. Interestingly I find using two speakers to reproduce mono gives the mind a lot more to play with, with all the parts resolving on a much larger canvas - it's almost as if mono doesn't really come to life with a single speaker.

There's are quite a few threads on here about mono, I reckon 20-25% of my 4000 or so LPs are mono and I have the kit to reproduce them to the point where they sound fantastic. As Hugo says, a mono soundstage is rather more like a real concert than stereo reproduction, which is far less natural if you compare directly.

The legendary record producer and impressario Walter Legge (responsible for finding and bringing to prominence some of the finest classical artists of the 20th century including Elizabeth Schwartzkopf - who later became his wife - Dietrich Fischer Dieskau, Maria Callas, Carlo Maria Giulini, and Herbert von Karajan) resisted stereo for years as he felt it was a gimmick that detracted from the experience of the performance. And I kind of agree with him, after a night of mono I go back to stereo and I do wonder whether it really adds very much to musical enjoyment. Certainly the art of recording, producing and mastering realistic front to back spatial information has largely been lost over the years and now panning left to right is, for the most part, all we have - who says that's really any better? It's certainly not any more natural in terms of capturing a performance, though we can all appreciate the 'hifi' aspect of it.

It's not just classical ... many albums from the golden years of jazz, which co-incided with the early decades of the LP from the late 40s through to the early 60s, are mono and do a wonderful job in capturing every nuance of performance as well as the acoustics of the recording space. Of course with these early LPs there's more to playing them back than sticking a record on with a normal stereo cartridge and expecting things to work - the groove width and shape were different, and equalisation wasn't standardised on RIAA officially till the late 1950s (and in practice, till the mid 60s) so to hear them at their best you need not only appropriate mono cartridges for playback, but also an adjustable phono stage.

Thin, weird sounding, letterbox mono is an artifact of poor reproduction. Properly reproduced mono is far from 'quaint' or 'vintage' - it can be a really vibrant and expansive, room-filling experience.