@kennyc Agreed and if I'm correct, Monophonic popularity has greatly increased over the past ten or more years. I just wish boutique labels like Impex, Speakers Corner and Analogue Productions would take on more mono classical recordings. Mono Jazz seems to be their primary focus where mono is concerned.
Mono Cartridge Stylus
So a while back there was a thread about mono cartridges like the Miyajima. There was some confusion about stylus size and what should be used for mono re-pressings versus the original mono pressings.
So Miyajima claims that their 0.7 stylus is optimal for modern mono re-pressings and that their 1.0 stylus is for those earlier mono pressings that began in 1950. Columbia introduced the Microgroove pressing in 1948. The Microgroove pressing offers 300-400 grooves per inch and AI claims that the correct stylus for these pressings is 0.7. I will say that I don't believe Miyajima to be entirely wrong, as there were labels that still used wider grooves however, I believe nearly all of the major labels eventually adopted the Microgroove band width thus making it the norm by the early to mid 1950's.
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@lewm Re: Bach as the precursor for modern jazz piano. You are on to me my friend, although ironically he didn’t like the piano. Can’t be blamed really, the instrument of his day was not yet fully developed. Also, I am listening to his cantatas for the last month or so (there are hundreds), which don’t have much keyboard in them. Anyway, Bach is ever present in jazz piano. And jazz piano is my personal favorite of all music. Responding to other comments concerning wow and flutter on some mono piano records, it is usually a result of the hole being off center. Sometimes this can be doctored if you are careful. Also, a lot of old jazz monos are being reissued in cd now and the wow and flutter is usually mitigated on those. |
I did get a response from Hana and it cited an explanation for their stylus; "A notable feature of the SL Mono however is that it uses a 1.57 mil wide Shibata stylus profile with narrow 0.27 mil side radius, where
traditional mono cartridges use a 0.7mil-1 mli conical tip with a circular profile - a simpler and cheaper compromise shape. As a result the
Hana better reads high frequency detail than most mono cartridges
- and with very low distortion measurement showed. But its extra width
keeps ti above the noisy floor of a wider mono groove. In al then it bet- ter reads mono music (lateral groove modulation) whilst avoiding noise
(vertical groove modulation) than a simpler conical design.”
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I have been toying with the idea of buying a Maroon Mono from londondecca.com, just to hear what a mono Decca can do. Assuming it is good enough to earn a permanent place on a tonearm, I have to consider the stylus it comes with. By default this is a conical 0.8-1.0 mil in size. Since almost all of my mono LPs are from the microgroove era, it might be better if I ask them to fit it with one of their other styli (line contact or Paratrace available). What would you do? |
@dogberry I. would contact DECCA about it, preferably a tech person rather than retail. The stylus I'm using is a .65 conical and its been trouble free so I would try staying within the .65 to .8 range as I. believe a 1.0 stylus would be too large. |
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