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Beatles in mono - vinyl and stereo cartridge

Zombie

Zombie

pfm Member
Playing my Beatles LPs with stereo mixes and missing a mono button on Quad 99. Been thinking about buying mono LPs instead, but how do they come out on with a stereo cartridge (Troika)?
 
They mono earlier albums sound miles better than stereo issues I use a stereo cartridge too, but I believe that a stereo cartridge picks up intereference that a mono cartridge does'nt due to the shape of the stylus.
 
jimi said:
They mono earlier albums sound miles better than stereo issues I use a stereo cartridge too, but I believe that a stereo cartridge picks up intereference that a mono cartridge does'nt due to the shape of the stylus.
Click to expand...

Not exactly but close. Mono grooves have all the signal in the lateral plane (though some very old 78s called hill and dale the signal is in the vertical plane only), unlike stereo grooves where the signal is in both planes (strictly speaking two planes at 45 degrees to the lateral and horizontal). Stereo cartridges obviously generate signal from movement in both planes or they wouldn't work, mono cartridges generate signal in the lateral plane only, as that's all they need to do.

Play a genuine old mono with a stereo cartridge and you get mono output, but if there is any vertical movement of the stylus that gets turned into noise, It's usually not too bad, but it can be. Which is one reason why mono records may sound better played with a mono cartridge. The other reason being that mono records were pressed wth a larger stylus tip in mind, which most mono cartridges will have.

You can wire a stereo cartridge up in a way which cancels the vertical noise. Have a look here. Of course this is only something you would do with a detachable headshell for a cartridge you wanted to dedicate to mono replay. It's not practical otherwise, and very often just standard stereo cartridges sound okay anyway.
 
Am I right in thinking that due to the shape of a stereo stylus it will play a part of the groove that a mono stylus has never touched especially on 60s Beatles pressings that may only look in very good condition, but actually play with an excellent sound quality.
 
jimi said:
Am I right in thinking that due to the shape of a stereo stylus it will play a part of the groove that a mono stylus has never touched especially on 60s Beatles pressings that may only look in very good condition, but actually play with an excellent sound quality.
Click to expand...

Possibly, possibly not - it depends on what wore it out in the first place (don't assume it was worn out with a mono stylus, it may not have been) and the shape of the specific stereo stylus in question - they vary themselves.

My personal experience has been that most of the time mono records which sound a bit duff, sound better with a mono cartridge with an appropriate stylus, but it's not a given.

It's quite possible for a different stylus profile to bypass groove damage, but if you think about it, only so long as the stylus you are using and the stylus that caused the damage are different enough in terms of where they sat in the groove for that to be the case.

Archivists will use a wide variety of different styli of different sizes for exactly this reason.
 
You can wire a stereo cartridge up in a way which cancels the vertical noise. Have a look here. Of course this is only something you would do with a detachable headshell for a cartridge you wanted to dedicate to mono replay.
Click to expand...

Or, if you have a 'proper' pre amp, use the mono button. The result will be the same.

JohanR
 
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