Do people listen to monophonic sound?

[indianajo]

mono engineering triumphs

I received 2 weekends ago a 3 foot stack of organ records, mostly mono. Considering how little organ music the local classical music station will play, this is GREAT!! One of them is a C.R. Fine engineered Mercury LP, recorded on a Fairchild?? mono tape deck in 1957. The dynamic range is AMAZING, from really soft (with typical pops & clicks) to REALLY LOUD!!! I didn't know LP's could even go that loud. Mercury MG50169, Marcel Dupre Organ Recital. With mono I don't have to stand in the middle of the room to hear the best parts, I can lie on the couch and not worry I'm not missing something.

 

[wakibaki]

The big advantage to stereo is that you can separate the individual instruments easier, and most often that's what you want. That's what stereo's all about, not realism and it's why 5.1 and 7.1 are OK, but not to die for.

Mono is OK, and every bit as good for some material.

w

 

[phivates]

Mono CDs

I looking for hifi mono recordings on CD to expedite my speaker tweaking. I find that smushing a stereo recording into mono via the preamp masks the detail that must have been there in a mono recording. Other than my recently released Monk/Coltrane Carnegie Hall disc from '57 I have nothing other than solo stuff to go on, and that doesn't address the problem of massed strings or voices or brass or all of the above. I do have the Beatles in mono on LP but we don't want to wear that out do we?

 

[AndrewT]

Listen to just one channel of the stereo mix by splitting it between the two amp/speaker channels.

 

[volume knob]

I listen to a single speaker with a single driver that is very lofi (old cheap denon rear surround speaker) in a workshop, and although it doesn't sound as good as a normal hifi stereo in terms of fidelity ect, it is very easy to listen to all day, no fatigue and no distraction, I can concentrate on what I'm doing without my subconscious going crazy trying to localize sound

 

[phivates]

listen to one channel...

You remind me that selling (cheap) my Accuphase E-202 (?) with its McIntosh type preamp switching, not to mention phono loading options, was a BLUNDER.

 

[nigelwright7557]

I have a mono amp in my living room that has the two stereo channels mixed via a couple of resistors.
The amplifier runs into an 18 inch sub ! Doesnt sound too bad considering limited bandwidth.

I used to run a disco that was mono, never had any complaints.