Need recommendation on mono cartridge please


Recently I acquired quite a bit of mono LPs, mostly operas, classical music and a few Beatles. I think it might be fun to try mono cartrige. It will go on my Classic 3. Locally, 2 that would be readily available are Lyra or Miyajima. I would say that Lyra Kleos mono or Miyajima Kansui mono would be my upper limit. However, I think Kansui's low compliance probably would not work with JWM 10.5. I could probably burrow Kansui stereo on JWM first to see if it might work but I tried other low compliance cartridges on JWM 10.5 and did not the result very much (Koetsu Rosewood and Onyx). I already have Lyra Atlas in my system so I think something different from Lyra would be more interesting. If anything, I prefer more full body, warmer side of neutral, more emphasis on tonal color than detail if that might be of any help. MM, MI or MC would be fine. If MC, I would be using it with SUT into Lamm LP2 MM input most likely.

Thanks for any suggestion.
suteetat
Seraphim was a Czech or Eastern European label which then may have gotten bought out by Angel/EMI. RCA Victrola are later re-pressings of music found on His Master's Voice 78's and RCA Red Seal (both shellac). Most RCA Red Seal recordings were re-pressed on the Shaded Dog or RCA Vault Treasure labels. Odessey is a classical budget label from Sony.

Recordings were often recorded in both mono and in stereo as more and more folks bought stereo systems. There are examples of recordings which were mono but artificially made into stereo and stereo artificially made into mono. If both mono and stereo recordings were in production, there should be either an M or an S next to the catalogue number.

The grooves found in mono records that date prior to the 1960's are wider. The microgroove record was an early attempt to get more play on the 33&1/3 and long playing 45's. Into the 1960's, the grooves were by industry standards more narrow and the grooves were cut deeper. Some mono cartridges like the Ortofon SPU's are ideal for the older and wider grooves.

From my understanding, the higher quality dual mono cartridges such as the Lyra's can play on both stereo and mono records just fine. I believe that those cartridges which are strapped stereo cartridges in order to make them into mono cartridges will be the ones that cause damage to a stereo record. I've never heard of any mono cartridge being un-playable on any mono record of any sort, although admittedly, those shellac records do make me a bit uneasy.

Mono labels that I typically collect are RCA Shaded Dog, Columbia 6 Eye Grey and Red, Epic, Decca, London, Melodiya, Monitor, Westminster, Archive Productions and Deutsche Grammophone.

Personally, I'd aim for either the Miyajima Zero or the Lyra (especially the Titan). Ortofon makes both the SPU's and the Cadenza. Benz micro gets good reviews. For entry level, Jonathan Carr recommended the Audio Technica AT 33 mono. The upper level Grado moving iron cartridges have gotten good reviews on some of the audiophile websites.

One last note is that the older 200 gram platters which date between the shellac days and the flimsy stereo days sound great to my ear/s but they will sound even better with a thorough cleaning.
Thanks for all the information. For now, I settled for Miyajima Zero and should have it sometimes next month.
I would love to get Lyra Titan Mono but not sure if it justifies my current state of mono collections. However, it does have the appeal of not having to worry about mono or stereo cutting of mono recordings and such. Miyajima does warn about not using it's cartridge with stereo LP (so presumably mono LP with stereo track cutting). Not sure if it has anything to do with vertical axis stiffness like some older mono cartridge or other reasons. Since Miyajima did say that mono Beatles will sound great with its cartridge so it is probably not microgroove issue.
If I end up accumulating more mono LPs eventually Titan may make sense.
I am the North American importer of Miyajima Labs. I can tell you any true mono cartridge should not be used on stereo LP's as they have no vertical or up and down compliance! It is painfully obvious if it is a stereo LP when you play it with a mono cartridge. A good example is the re-issue Peggy Lee Black Coffee LP that has both mono and stereo tracks!
The Miyajima Mono cartridges play both original and re issue mono LP's sublimely. I suggest you read Michael Fremer's new review of the Zero he kept after the review (like the Premium Mono BE he used to use), and now uses on his vast mono collection. Nice thing is they have a 7 day money back trial. Arm matching used to be trickery but the Zero and Kansui make it way easier and now, even uni-pivots, like VPI are good! Harry Weisfield at VPI makes custom arm wands for the Miyajima's! He loves them!
.. new review of the Zero he kept after the review (like the Premium Mono BE he used to use), and now uses on his vast mono collection

Can you offer us that cartridges for the same price MF paid for?
Would be nice.
Roby:

>any true mono cartridge should not be used on stereo LP's as they have no vertical or up and down compliance!

I've designed mono cartridge both with and without vertical compliance, and can confidently state that the hallmark of a true mono cartridge is not in whether it has vertical compliance or not, but whether there is electrical sensitivity to vertical stylus motion or not (vertical stylus motion should result in no electrical signal output).

And if what you say is true, a true mono cartridge shouldn't be used on a mono LP either, as both stereo and mono LPs are made of the same PVC material, and the included groove wall angle is also about the same (88~90) degrees on both stereo and mono LPs.

The only meaningful difference is that the left-right wall shapes are the same for mono LPs, and different for stereo LPs. The groove may sometimes (but not always) be a little shallower on the mono LP. Although it is sometimes pointed out that a mono LP groove may be somewhat wider than a stereo LP groove, my experiments have shown that as long as the included groove wall angle remains at 88~90 degrees for both stereo and mono LPs, the groove width is a non-issue that does not affect the design of stylii for mono LPs.

hth