Why mono?

Much of the benefit form a true mono cartridge or a mono wired stereo cartridge comes from the idea that only lateral movement of the stylus generates sound. A true stereo cartridge generates information in both the lateral and vertical direction and since mono recordings have no musical information in the vertical plane any vertical movement shows up as noise.

In theory the various ways of summing the signal outside the cartridge should also cancel any information in the vertical plane but in reality these all come with their own sets of compromises and never seem to sound as good (quiet?) as a cartridge set up for mono.

The easiest experiment to do to see if a dedicated mono cartridge is for you is to wire a stereo cartridge in series and use a single channel of your phono to see how things sound.

dave

Hi Dave: Are you talking about something that can be accomplished in between the cartridge pins and the headshell pins using headshell wires? (No way would I attempt to rewire anything inside a cartridge itself.) Please elaborate, and maybe comment on why this would be any different than using a preamp mono switch?

Hey,

It is done externally with a jumper.

Leave the Red wire connected as is, Move the green headshell lead to the blue cartridge pin and place a jumper from green to white. and use only the right channel of your phono pre.

This will sum any lateral movement and cancel any vertical movement of a stereo cartridge.

If you want this signal to feed a stereo pair of speakers place a Y connector at the Right channel output of your pre to get L & R signals for your amp.

dave

So, would any of the posters who own mono carts care to list which manufacturers in their experience offer 'true' mono carts as opposed to repurposed stereo ones, with distinct generators and suspensions that aren't for use with stereo records, and maybe what they think of those ones they've heard?

The thought occured to me -- since it stands to reason that stereo CD players can't suffer from whatever ill effect it's supposed to be that's said to make stereo carts less than optimal for playing mono LPs -- that if this alleged deficiency in playng mono LPs with stereo carts is true, then on average, mono CDs therefore ought to sound better relative to the their mono LP counterparts than do stereo CDs relative to stereo LPs (for those of us using stereo carts -- most, I'm sure).

This isn't something I've noticed however, not that I've specifically listened for it. (Then again, despite owning more vinyl than "discs" by a factor of over 20 to 1, neither am I one who thinks LP sound is necessarily always better than CD sound. I think mastering quality greatly trumps format, but also that, mastering quality aside, each format can have its strengths relative to the other.)