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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
fleib
1,124 posts
 
Whoa, I lost track of this thread and there's some misinformation here.
*Modern mono pressings are pressed like stereo pressings--horizontal modulations for one channel, vertical modulations for the other channel.*

Modern mono pressings are microgroove with groove walls at 45°. Unlike a stereo pressing, each groove wall is a mirror image of the other.
With this in mind it's easy to see the advantage a mono cart has in playing such records. With a stereo cart there are output differences between channels which should be identical playing a mono record. A mono switch will blend these differences, not eliminate them. Any alignment, azimuth, anti-skate etc. imbalance will smear the signal.

Elimination of vertical noise is a great advantage with a mono cart as Johnnyb says. This can be dramatic with some older or beat up records. For microgroove mono you will have a similar advantage with advanced profile tips as with stereo. Ortofon, Lyra, Soundsmith make some mono carts with extended contact tips.

Conventional MM/MI, manipulate the connection of the coils to eliminate vertical output. MCs do so with the orientation of the coils and armature. According to AT, the MONO3 and 33 have identical construction style which results in 30dB of vertical rejection @ 1KHz.
AFAIK AT never made a mono MM.

The microgroove was invented in 1948 and adopted mostly through the '50s. Pre microgroove pressings from the early '50s or before might sound better with a 1 mil stylus. LpGear still has the Ortofon OM D25M with 1 mil tip. I've never used it, but Ortofon has it listed in their historical data as lateral output. You might be able to use other OM styli as well.
johnnyb53 OP
3,510 posts
 
11-02-15: Lewm
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.
Do you know this for a fact, or are you guessing?

Many mono carts are NOT just summed channel stereo carts. My mono
cartridge makes NO vertical sound. NADA. It is dead quiet on a needle drop
where I can get a pretty loud THUMP with a stereo cartridge. If it were
summing two channels it would still make a big sound on a needle drop.

The mono output goes out to both speakers because its single signal, picked
up by a single coil and magnet, is split to go to both channels.

In fact, there's another advantage to a real mono cartridge--lower moving
mass. I think that's how this Audio Technica can put out 1.2mV and yet be
more detailed and sensitive than my Denon DL-160, a stereo HOMC.

What I've said about this Audio Technica cartridge is also true of the low
cost mono Grados--$90 for the conical model, $150 for the elliptical. The
suspension allows horizontal and vertical movement, but that is simply for
record safety. There are no mangets or coils to pick up the vertical
movement and then killed downstream. It is a mono cartridge with an
internal splitter to send the signal to both channels. That is why it's devoid of
phasing issues and the noise level is cut at least in half. And also why a
mono switch on a preamp won't do the same thing.
lewm
13,223 posts
 
Fleib, I am not sure I follow your argument to the point where I can agree that using a "modern" mono cartridge is inherently superior to using a mono switch on the linestage, to reproduce mono LP sound. But further, I was remiss in not clarifying that the mono LPs I had in mind would be very late in the mono era and/or modern re-issues of pressings that were originally mono. There are long discussions on various threads about how these are created, but I was assuming they are typically consonant with playback by modern cartridges (because they demonstrably are). I was not trying to take into account early mono LPs where indeed the groove width was different, etc. That adds a layer of complexity that kills the discussion. Further, the paragraph you quote is not one that I wrote, I don't think. Also, I never argued that using a mono cartridge is a bad idea.

Johnny, No, I don't know for a fact that "most modern mono cartridges" are internally stereo cartridges in which the two channels are bridged at the outputs. But for sure, many are built that way, if not most, based on testimony of persons who would seem to have inside info. And finally, the fact that your mono cartridge is dead quiet is in no way a refutation of anything I wrote. To wit, a mono LP has no music encoded via vertical modulation. Thus, the only "signal" generated by vertical deflection of the stylus in a stereo cartridge that has been converted to put out a mono signal, when playing a mono LP, would be noise. Typically such noise is identical in both channels and would be cancelled when the two channels are combined to produce mono. (I wrote this above.)
fleib
1,124 posts
 
Lewm,
I wasn't quoting you. I was quoting Johnny, and that was about the construction of a mono microgroove. However, your contention that a modern mono cartridge is a stereo cart with the channels bridged, is incorrect.

I can see how you might think that with a MM/MI type and vertical rejection might not be perfect, but it is significant. A MM/MI uses a magnetic field which effects the pole pieces/coils. The magnet(s) move in direct response to the cantilever. Vertical cantilever movements corresponding field is cancelled by manipulating the coil connections.

2 coils connected in parallel - total inductance like parallel resistors.
2 equal tightly coupled coils - the total inductance is close to that of each single coil. If the polarity of one coil is reversed, total inductance is near zero.

The AT mono MCs have a horizontal coil. In theory output is horizontal. In reality spec is 30dB vert rej @ 1K.
Scroll down here for mono explanation:
http://ortofon.com/hifi/products/mono-series

Regards,

johnnyb53 OP
3,510 posts
 
11-05-15: Fleib
Elimination of vertical noise is a great advantage with a mono cart as
Johnnyb says. This can be dramatic with some older or beat up records.
That's what I've been exploring with the AT33MONO
cartridge the last few days. I've been digging out various mono records I had
tried years ago and set aside as they were too noisy when tracked by my
stereo cartridge and signal chain.

Now I'm trying them again and they sound great. Examples include an
original 1965 pressing of the Janos Starker Bach Cello Suites on Mercury
Living Presence, an Angel mono of baritone Dietrich Fischer-Diskau singing
Brams songs, an old Verve record called Giants3 featuring Nat King Cole on
piano (no voice), Lester Young on tenor sax and Buddy Rich on drums, a
1969 Fantasy mono of the Vince Guaraldi Trio doing the music to A Boy
Named Charlie Brown, an old Columbia mono LP of Gene Krupa orchestra
with Anita O'Day and Roy Eldridge, and some others.

In each case, when played with a stereo cartridge there was so much surface
noise I couldn't enjoy the music. When played with the AT33MONO the noise
was gone (or 30dB down if you wish). So far this cart has made around 20
old mono pressings totally playable and enjoyable.

For awhile the tonal balance sounded a bit dark and closed in, but I raised
the arm height a bit to make the headshell level with the record and that
fixed it.

Now playing a mono pressing of "Echoes of a 16th Century Cathedral" by
the Roger Wagner Chorale. Released July 1967. A Capella renaissance
choral music and a lovely way to start a Saturday morning. Lots of great
music for fifty cents. The AT mono cartridge has brought so many vintage
mono LPs to life it's paid for itself.
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