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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
pryso
1,913 posts
 
Regarding stylus shape, I expect one must consider which records are being played.  Few if any mono cutter heads remain which means these "modern" mono reissues are being cut with stereo heads.  And that leads to consideration of tip shape and size for playback.

Some time ago I posted my findings about stylus tip and record groves.  Here is what I learned for optimizing mono LPs:
-  Pre-stereo era, '48-'57, 1.0 mil conical
-  Early stereo era, '58-'70, 0.7 mil conical
-  Recent reissues, any narrow elliptical profile

Jonathan Carr (Lyra) stated his research determined narrow elliptical stylus profiles are best for their current mono cartridges.  But while he didn't specify which LPs were tested I expect they were all recent reissues, thus cut with modern stereo cutter heads.

So if all your mono LPs are reissues produced within the past 20 years or so, that can simplify your choice.  Same if that are all original mono pressings from the pre-stereo era.  It's when you have a mix of old and new monos this can become more complicated.
lewm
12,610 posts
 
Fleib, I am rather surprised that a person as knowledgable as you are would say this: "That cart tracks at 3.5g (4g max) with a spherical tip and will tear up a stereo groove."
First, if I would ever use the Zero (or whatever mono cartridge I eventually purchase) to play a stereo LP, it would only be by accident.  Second, the recommended VTF per se does not tell us much about how the cartridge will "wear" a groove encoding only mono signal.  And third, I believe these issues were addressed to my satisfaction in reviews I have read of the Zero.  One reviewer, it might have been MF, explicitly said the Zero was safe even for stereo LPs, although I would never intentionally go that route. For one thing, the Zero does have some vertical compliance.

Dave, I am already at the point where I do not play mono LPs except on my basement system, which is equipped with a preamplifier that has a mono switch.  I no longer listen to mono LPs in all-stereo mode. There is a phenomenal improvement to be had by switching to mono mode when playing mono LPs with a stereo cartridge, which is what I have been doing for many months, and which is what got me into this thread in the first place.  I continue to believe, until I hear otherwise with my own ears, that a mono switch will give you 80% to 90%, at worst, of the improvement you can achieve using a "modern" mono cartridge to play mono LPs. (Here I refer only to post-1950 true "LPs", not 78s or whatever else was available in the late 1940s.)

For my upstairs system, which has no stereo/mono switch, I require a low output Mono cartridge. So, if I were to purchase an AT, it would have to be the MC type.  Is that the one you have, Dave?  I am certainly also receptive to a Lyra Helikon (but too expensive) or Lyra Kleos or Miyajima Premium Be.  All of these, plus the Zero, are known to be internally modified so as to suppress the capacity to respond to vertical modulation.  The Miyajima Premium and Zero are said from the get-go to have been designed for mono.

johnnyb53 OP
3,510 posts
 
Lewm:

...For my upstairs system, which has no stereo/mono switch, I require a low output Mono cartridge. ... Does anyone own one of the "high end" mono cartridges, like the Helikon Mono or the Miyajima Zero? The latter is calling out to me right now; it’s saying "buy me". But I’d rather spend $500-ish than the $2000 cost of the Zero.

The ATMONO3/LP that I got is an HOMC with output of 1.2mV, but the AT-33 MONO is a mono version of their AT-33 series. It’s an LOMC with 0.35 mV output. Since this model is not officially imported to the US and you want to avoid Amazon, you could pick one up from any number of international vendors on eBay for BIN prices that range from $309 to $475. 

http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_trksid=p2050601.m570.l1313.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xaudio+technica...


You can also custom order any cartridge from Grado in mono. They have a series of wood-bodied low output moving iron cartridges (Statement series), one of which (the Sonata v2) is $600.

The Ortofon 2M Mono SE is available directly from Ortofon for $499 Euro. It has a Shibata stylus, but is a high output MM.

lewm
12,610 posts
 
Thanks, Johnny.  I've been staring at the ads for the AT33Mono on eBay for at least several months.  After re-re-reading the Ortofon blurb on the 2M Mono SE, which so far as I can tell is ONLY available from Ortofon directly, I am now in doubt as to how it is constructed.  But you're right in any case; it's high output.  Today also, I found out that many of the SoundSmith cartridges, low output types, can be had in Mono version, and a phone call to SS revealed that they at least claim their mono versions are "true mono", meaning built so as to suppress output due to vertical modulation.  Some of those are reasonable in cost, meaning less than $1000.
fleib
1,124 posts
 

Lew,

Accidents happen. Go to Miyajima site and read -
The cartridge of the vertical axis concentration method plays only a monaural LP. It cannot play a stereo LP with this cartridge.

When it played a stereo LP with this cartridge, a sound is that a distortion and a needle do not work lengthwise, and there is the thing that a needle injures the ditch of the LP. 

What does injure the ditch of the LP mean?  The reviewer is a dumbass.

I was talking about tip wear. We already know a Zero will tear up a stereo groove.  How many hours will you get from a spherical tracking at 3.5g ?  I guess it depends on diamond quality and polish.

I think any MM/MI type you look at is going to use stereo coils connected in such a way to cancel vertical output.  MCs like the 33MONO  only have a horizontal coil, but vertical compliance. 

I'd think with your mono collection you'd want a tip with a more advanced profile. The Cadenza mono has a fine line and is less expensive than a Zero. Can't say I've heard it, but my MONO3 has a nice presentation but lacks some resolution compared to better stereo carts.

Regards,

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