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Mono Cartridge Question

You chaps have watched me struggle with the issue of my London Decca Reference being irreplaceable, and then joyfully learning that John Wright has a successor after all. You have seen me buy and test three other MI designs (Nagaoka MP-500, Grado Statement3, Soundsmith Sussurro MkII) along with my older MC cartridges (Ortofon Kontrapunkt C and Benz Micro Ruby 3). Since those struggles have led me to owning two SME turntables and four tonearms, I am now torturing myself with the question of whether one of those four should be home to a dedicated mono cartridge. Remember, I only have one ear and cannot hear stereo at the best of times. A mono cartridge for my few dozen mono recordings would be a matter of reduced surface noise and possibly some improvement in dynamics.

I can get hold of an Ortofon Cadenza Mono (two voice coils so not true mono) for about 1600CDN, and a Miyajima Zero for 3450CDN. So the question is this: am I mad to even think about it? Money is not what it once was before I retired. There is no opportunity to go and hear these before purchase, without spending much more than purchase price on travel.

Shall I "make do" with my rather good stereo carts for my mono LPs or is there something better waiting for me when I get out those Parlophone Beatles LPs?

 

dogberry
dogberry OP
672 posts
 

This is good information. It's beginning to look like the question is whether a single coil (assuming that is how the Miyajima Zero works) is so much better than the 'neutered' stereo type like an AT33-Mono. The former is about six times more expensive.

mikelavigne
2,199 posts
 

for the straight skinny on mono pressings and cartridges; scroll down to the bottom on this website; it’s the best explanation of the benefits of mono i have seen. based on the facts. and why i have two 'true' mono cartridges; one with a 1.0mil stylus, and one with a 0.7mil stylus.

https://www.ortofon.com/hifi/cartridges-ranges/true-mono/

dogberry OP
672 posts
 

Yes, I read the Ortofon page before. I was confused by this remark on the Cadenza MC Mono (one of the "True Mono" cartridges):

The coils are made from 6NX (99.9999 %) pure silver wire. An improved winding process on the armature allows a better channel balance.

"Coils"? Is it just lifted from the stereo Cadenza blurb, which has the same wording for the Red and Blue models? Or do they put two coils on the cantilever as usual but only have fixed magnets arranged to pick up lateral movement only? This isn't, or shouldn't, be complicated, but it is hard to find proper information.

lewm
13,110 posts
 

Ortofon mono cartridges are usually stereo cartridges where the two channels are internally bridged, but their verbiage is typically ambiguous enough to allow the reader to believe the cartridge is true mono. So “coils” (plural) is probably accurate.

dogberry OP
672 posts
 

Given my love of Decca cartridges, and a little knowledge of the way their coils are arranged around the armature, it seems to me it would be relatively simple to re-wire one so that only the coil responsible for lateral movement gets fed into both channels. I may have to ask about a mono conversion of my spare Jubilee.

Later: I just sent an enquiry to the new owner of the London Decca name, and CC’d it to John Wright as he is continuing to provide technical and training support.

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