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

I'll be curious to hear where you land on this question, dogberry. I've been wrestling with the same question, and just purchased a mono cartridge to begin my investigations. I'll be happy to report findings if anyone is interested.

I purchased a zyx mono cartridge. zyx options weren't necessarily on my radar but I got a good deal on the cartridge bundled with a tonearm. The zyx carts are all 1.0 mil, spherical stylus. I'm good with that as an option for now. I have plenty of old mono classical records that I suspect will be best served with the 1.0 mil option. For modern mono reissues, I'll try the mono cartridge and my stereo cartridge to see which I prefer.

None of my phono preamps have a mono switch. And the comparison between the mono and stereo carts won't exactly be scientific - they will be on slightly different tonearms and the stereo cart is from a different maker altogether. Still. Fun is about to happen.

 

Peter replied and I'm waiting for him to call for a discussion. I may be getting somewhere!

Chris

Well Peter said I'm crazy. Also a few things about Deccas in general "that I wouldn't say out loud in public." He's not a fan.

All I can do at this point is to hope that londondecca.com eventually get back to me.