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A new player in the quality Mono cartridge game

For awhile there, if you wanted a mono cart to get the most out your new mono Beatles collection, other mono reissues, or vintage mono LPs, there were the budget offerings from Grado, a big price gap, and then the more expensive good stuff. The elliptical mono Grado goes for around $150.

But now the Audio Technica AT MONO3/LP, a HOMC, is available in the US. The link goes to the official importer, LpGear, who prices this $299.99 cart at $189.99. However, I also found that this cart is available from Amazon for $112.65. Worried that the unofficial import puts your purchase at risk? For a mere $12 extra you can buy a 2-year protection warranty.

I ordered mine via Amazon Prime on Sat. Oct. 24 and it arrived today.

This thing is NICE! 1.2mV output, which is plenty, conical stylus (don't know if it's nude or not, but it *sounds* nude), tracking force range 1.5-2.5g. I'm breaking mine in at around 2g.

Even fresh out of the box, this cart's a revelation. I started with "Within You Without You" from the new Beatles Mono vinyl reissue. It's really something when you play a mono record with a cartridge that produces no signal in the vertical plane. The noise floor drops down to the indiscernible. In fact, even cueing the needle makes very little sound thru the speakers.

Everything on Sgt. Pepper's sounded richer, lusher, more distinct, more dynamic, with great treble extension and no hint of sibilance. I followed it with Analogue Productions' 3-LP 45 rpm remaster of Nat King Cole's "After Midnight." Fan-TASTIC! I thought Nat was in the room before, but the dynamics, transparency, and truth-in-timbre reached a height I hadn't heard on my rig up to now.

I finished my mini-audition with a *real* mono record, an original mono Columbia Masterworks pressing of "Grand Canyon Suite" performed by Eugene Ormandy and The Phily Phil. Again, smoother, quieter, more dynamics. It showed its age a little bit, but I think I could bring this 55-yr-old record close to the reissues with a steam cleaning. Even without it it was very satisfying.

Folks, if you have nothing but the new Beatles mono reissues and have an easy way to switch cartridges or set up a mono rig, this cart is so worth it.

Right now I have around 13 Beatles mono LPs, two Beach Boys reissues, the Nat King Cole, some old Columbia Masterworks and shaded dog Orthophonics, mono reissues of Prestige and Miles Davis LPs, and some mono pressings of '60s pop.

I'm thinking of separating all my mono vinyl into its own shelf so--when I mount the AT Mono3 LP--I don't have to sort through my entire collection to play the compatible LPs.

BTW, if you decide to go after this cartridge, make sure you get the AT MONO3/LP cartridge, which is for mono LPS, and *NOT* the AT MONO3/SP cartridge, which is for 78s.
johnnyb53
johnnyb53 OP
3,510 posts
 
Lewm, I think I can shed some light on your questions.

No, my preamp does not have a mono switch.

Until last Tuesday, I've played my 30 or so mono LPs with a stereo cartridge,
the Audio Technica AT150MLX.

I only started playing these mono albums with this new AT mono cart for the
past six days. I have been giving heavy rotation to the Beatles and Nat King
Cole mono reissues plus vintage pressings.

Your "In theory, a stereo cartridge played through mono switching ought to
be about the same as a mono cartridge, on mono LPs" overlooks a couple of
things. Original mono pressings only have modulations in the horizontal
plane. Modern mono pressings are pressed like stereo pressings--horizontal
modulations for one channel, vertical modulations for the other channel.
When both channels have the same info and are played back on a stereo
cartridge, yes, you do get mono. However, the two channels will be slightly
out of sync unless the cartridge is *perfectly* aligned.

A mono cartridge can *track* in both planes, but only the horizontal
modulations are transmitted. This means there are no right/left phasing
issues and the noise floor is lower becausethe noise and accumulated dust
of the vertical channel transmits no sound.

Also, modern mono cartridges have a suspension that allows the cantilever
to move horizontally and vertically, probably so you don't inadvertently ruin a
stereo record. However, the vertical circuit is "dead." The needle moves
that way but makes no sound.

Another advantage with the AT MONO is that the stylus is conical (not so on
many mono cartridges), so overhang isn't so picky and tangential alignment
isn't so critical. With a stereo cartridge with a microline, Shibata, Fritz-Gyger,
etc. stylus the opposite is true--for best mono playback alignment needs to
be as close to perfect as possible. In fact, playing a stereo cartridge on a
modern mono record is a good tool for spotting alignment problems--and
also for subwoofer integration. I once played a mono Miles Davis reissue and
iit sounded like the music was coming from the left wall. I had to adjust the
azimuth to fix it.

The mono cartridge sound is very focused and free of any phasey artifacts
because it's playing only one track rather than merging two identical tracks
that are supposed to sound identical. With a mono cartridge, because only
one track is getting picked up, music from both speakers *is* identical.

For me, at $112.65 and a turntable with interchangeable headshells--even
for playing just 30 records or so--this was a no-brainer.
lewm
13,263 posts
 
I don't know about the particular AT cartridge under discussion, but many/most "modern" mono cartridges are merely stereo cartridges that are internally bridged to produce a mono signal. Mono cartridges thus constructed would therefore produce a signal, in fact, in response to vertical movements of the stylus that is canceled at the outputs. The result is very little different from using the mono switch on a preamplifier with a stereo cartridge playing a mono LP. Neither is "perfectly" mono. (I would not argue for a minute that either option is not superior to playing a mono LP with a stereo cartridge into a preamp set for stereo mode. That's easy to hear.) Admittedly, there are "true" mono cartridges out there; I think Ortofon, EMT, and Miyajima make examples, and probably others. I'd like to hear one of those.
johnnyb53 OP
3,510 posts
 
You could also have a stylus that can wiggle in both directions to protect stereo records but only has a coil and magnet to pick up horizontal motion. In that case the signal's not canceled; there's no signal from vertical motion at all. It could also mean less moving mass.

It *is* different from using a mono switch, because that's summing both channels to produce mono. A cartridge that picks up only the horizontal movement--regardless of how it does that--is factoring out the second version of the mono signal and eliminating noise that would be generated by the vertical track.

There is no question from my listening that the AT MONO3/LP has a lower noise floor and a more focused sound because it's only playing a single mono track rather than the sum of two.
lewm
13,263 posts
 
Johnny, As I thought I clearly stated, I am not arguing at all that playing mono LPs in mono mode, no matter how it is arrived at, is not optimum. In your last paragraph, you seem to be talking about a condition that I have not even dreamed of... playing a stereo LP with a mono cartridge. (I could be wrong about your intent.) Let's leave that out of the picture as a generally bad idea.

To repeat, many if not most modern mono cartridges are internally constructed as stereo cartridges, except that the outputs of the two channels are summed prior to exit. Such cartridges will likely be responding to vertical modulation imparted by the record grooves. Of course, on a mono LP, there is no music encoded for vertical modulation, but there will be some spurious noise which is cancelled prior to the output connections. When you use a mono switch on a preamplifier, exactly the same thing happens. Thereby, mono LPs played even with a stereo cartridge will sound much better than if played back in stereo. What I am wondering about is whether in fact it makes any important audible difference whether one uses a mono cartridge or a mono switch to play back mono LPs. I don't say that I know the answer; I am just curious. There is a well known guru on Vinyl Asylum who insists that the two methods are indistinguishable sonically. I am never as certain about anything as he is about everything.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
9,893 posts
 
A great discussion, Lewm and Johnnyb. There is one playback scenario not mentioned, the one I use. I have a fair number of 50's and early-to-mid 60's mono LP's, and in addition to my main pre-amp I have been using one (ARC LS-1) with a mode switch having the following settings: Stereo, (Stereo) Reverse, Mono, Left (channel only), and Right (ditto). Using a stereo cartridge, a mono LP can be played with the mode switch set to not only Mono, but also to Left or Right, whereupon that channel's input signal will be fed to both the left and right outputs of the pre. Switching between them allows one to compare the two groove walls! The best sounding wall can then be the one listened to.

I also listen to early stereo LP's (particularly Beach Boys and Beatles) via the Left and Right inputs separately, to hear the extreme left/right panning on those records, with the instruments in one channel and vocals in the other. Many of the early Beach Boys albums were not offered in true stereo, but in Duosonic (mono reprocessed fake stereo). The two channels of Duosonic LP's can be compared, to hear the processing (frequency and phase differences added to the original dual mono channels).

A cartridge of particular interest for the playing of mono LP's, I believe, is the Decca/London, because of it's sum-and-difference design. The cartridge produces a L+R signal and a L-R one, to attain stereo. How that can be exploited for mono LP's I don't know.
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