How are you playing your precious MONO Vinyl?

iopscrl

thanks for sharing your extensive knowledge.

I think your Technics SP-15 is a great TT. Many years ago, Wayne, my friend at Harveys, 45th st, nyc called me whenever something great was coming out of trade-in/repair to their used shelf. (my office was on 44th st, 1 long and 1 short block away)

I bought an SP-15, with a Grace Arm and Grace Cartridge. I gave it to my good friend, and recently installed the B500 arm base on it, and we got a replaceable stylus from Soundsmith for the Grace Cartridge. Changing headshells and/or armwands, tool free arm height adjustment, it is a great way to have alternates in a compact setup, WITH a dust cover, one of my pet peeves.

He ended up with this

What is your SP-15 in?

There are some mono cartridges that will destroy a stereo record. Which ones I don’t know. Which mono cartridges are not strapped but true mono cartridges; the mono cartridges that house two separate mono coils or a single mono coil cartridge. The stylus is a factor where it pertains to the groove width. Those new remastered mono repressings are cut with the same groove as stereo records. But what I find perplexing about the original post is the idea of using a mono cartridge and a mono phono stage. So would you use two different mono phono stages ( left & right) with a stereo cartridge? That could possibly prove advantages, just like using two separate mono blocks as your power amps. But as was mentioned previously, with a mono cartridge, the signal is equally mono in both channels before it reaches the phono amp. So I would just focus on getting the best phono amp possible. The ASR Basis is my recommendation. 

”what I find perplexing about the original post is the idea of using a mono cartridge and a mono phono stage. So would you use two different mono phono stages ( left & right) with a stereo cartridge? ”

@goofyfoot 

My original post is about a true mono playback. Two arms in the works, one for true mono cart and 2nd one for a stereo cart with dedicated phono’s. 

A true Mono cartridge has only one coil (or two coils wired in parallel) and outputs the same signal from both channels. You can use any normal stereo phono stage and you’ll just get identical signals in both left and right channels.

As far as ‘mono switch” on a preamp or phono stage, I don’t have any direct experience. Can it be further use to collapse any remaining noise artifacts, or completely redundant with a truly mono cartridge, we will see! 

The EQ-100 is designed with a monaural configuration with a L/R output for easier connection to a stereo system. The output signal from EQ-100 remains true mono or monaural. I am hoping to compare EQ100 in my system to see if mono vinyl sounds better with a purpose built phono, 

➡️ True mono cart + EQ 100 

➡️ True mono cart + AD60 (phono board in my Integrated).  

"Some believe that the presence of vertical content that is then summed introduces distortion and phase anomalies that are audible."

Whether or not such distortions are "audible" is a matter for belief or individual acuity, but whether there is distortion and phase anomalies introduced by bridging a stereo cartridge to produce a mono signal or by using the mono switch on a linestage ought to be measurable, in other words a matter of fact, not belief.  Does anyone know of any published science on this subject? Preferably, the results would be compared to those obtained using a "true mono" cartridge on the same program material or a test LP.

@lalitk So then the question is whether or not you gain anything by using this two channel mono phono preamp. I’d say that in this case, everything hinges on the design and sound quality. But from what I’ve read here, more than likely no, there’s no difference between using a mono or stereo phono stage if the cartridge is a mono cartridge. So you have three tonearms but do you have three inputs on your phono amp? The ASR Basis I mentioned has two inputs. If you’re having to switch out your phono cable and you don’t care about the inconvenience, then one phono amp is likely all you’ll need. But as I mentioned before, I’d focus more on getting a great sounding phono preamp and not at all about whether the phono stage is mono or stereo. Unless this EQ 100 just flat out sounds amazing.