I played the SACD of Nat King Cole's 'After Midnight' to a friend the other day to show off my hi-fi. He was amazed when half way through I casually mentioned it was all in mono. It lacked nothing and was perfectly recorded just as it was.

I’ve been buying as many mono jazz albums as I can. Some of them just blow me away! I grew up as a teenager in the 60s, so I do remember mono. Then , like most were swept away with stereo. Now in my mid 70s, I just love listening to mono.

Absolutely great presentation and topic. I'm on a mono journey.. with a high efficiency single (2-way) speaker, corner loading, no baffle-step problem, no phase cancellation of stereo setups and indeed room filling music.. it takes 2-3 weeks to get used to it but it's immensely satisfying and I feel it puts the focus on the music itself.

You are excelling in explaining and giving depths to this rather important topic! Thank you, a joy to listen to you…

I rather listen to a mono recording than a not very good mixed stereo recording (which many are), that was the main reason that there was a mono switch on the amps in the 70's, thanks for the video.

Excellent chat. Informative and so well done.

You are a terrific communicator. Thank You for making us understand music. Willing to test Your speakers soon!

Very good presentation on mono vs. stereo. I agree that a quality 1957 home audio system would likely have sounded very well. By the time of the late 50s, the mono records were the evolution of recording techniques. That is one of the reasons they sound better than the early stereo vinyl records. Michael Fremer is a recognized authority on audio and records, and he promotes the album “ Masterpieces by Ellington” as a great example of mono music, that blows away audiences. Thank you- for your knowledge and presentation style!

Thanks for another very thoughtful video, Harley. I built my own first stereo amplifier in the early months of 1969, when I was a college freshman in the city of Chicago, from a Heathkit. The Heath Company was from Benton Harbor, Michigan, right across the lake from where I was, in a campus on the Lake Michigan shore, at the northern edge of the city. You could actually see Benton Harbor, on a clear day, from the tenth floor dorm room I was in just a year later. And one more thing: thanks for the McPherson album recommendation! Very sweet! All the best!

Nice to see you again after a long time.

Fantastic conversation. Very interesting points that I had never considered

I stumbled on this video by chance, it's very interesting and well articulated !

This is the first I have heard someone connected to the audio industry speak about mono sound in this way. Great video even though it’s too short. We were also close to making Quadraphonic sound systems routinely available. I recall that early Pink Floyd Live shows often used Quadraphonic sound that panned the auditorium.

Hi Harley. We may actually be kindred spirits, or share some hi-fi oriented DNA. My late father was one of those enthusiasts who poured over specialist magazines on hi-fi amplifier and loudspeaker design. In my basement is a sand-damped homemade speaker cabinet encasing a single large Wharfdale speaker. He had assembled a one stereo and one mono power amplifier (valves), and I believe his stereo preamp was a kit from Lafayette Radio. My own speaker-building bug occurred in my teens. There was a British trained (by the BBC) CBC Montreal technician who had built a pair of speaker cabinets using plans that had originated with the BBC. Ultimately when I was nearing the completion of my MBA I acquired a pair of Harbeth loadspeakers to go with my Quad transistorized components: FM3 tuuner, 33 Control Unit, and 405 Current Dumping amplifier. The icing on the cake was an early 1980 Oracle Turntable -- and was a perfect deck for all the vinyl I would acquire in the 70s up until the disappearance of new LPs from the high street. I am leading to my point -- Like you, I played strings, guitar and violin, and later in my life I sang in choirs, and even in an underground staging of HMS in Riyadh. If there is a point to this, I believe I have excellent pitch and excellent hearing. Here is my point -- mono is for the most part easier on the ears. There is strain on one's brain when you record the same players with two or more mics, and using one mic with pan pots, isn't really stereo. It is simply one mic aimed at two speakers. Writing you from Canada...Terry

Bravo, Harvey. While you are always worth hearing this is one of your best., a masterful opening of a fascinating rabbit hole.

Totally agree about the sound quality of live gigs and concerts,. especially recent ones I've been too.

Until stereo became the standard, there were indeed discrete mono and stereo mixes made for many recordings. I agree that well mixed mono recordings can actually produce a depth to the music that is sometimes missing in stereo mixes where width of soundstage was the priority. Each has their advantages and disadvantages. Thanks for the nice reminder!

This was a great video, thank you for this info. Now I guess I have something else to play around with. Thanks again

My old Denon PMA-757 in my second system has a mono option. I'm going to try some new music (electronic) in mono. Thanks for another great video---good history lesson.

Mono is important because of two things: our brain expect every sound coming from a single source/object (to locate it, with our two ears); and instruments sound in mono, barring some asymetry negligible at some distance. Many stereo mixing engineers try to put us in the center of the band/orchestra as if we where in first row or in the middle of them playing. But the experience of a concert mostly is we hearing from some distance from a single mono source (the stage) plus the interaction with the ambient, be it a room or a open place (even there we hear reflections). A good stereo mix is good for headphoneson your head or 'headphones on the distance' (stereo speakers), hence its individual listener. Bad stereo mixes just plays around like toys with the image, as you described. Finally a stereo mix like in the old days with the voices on one chane and the musics on the other chanel may have been a better understanding of its purpose: lets put the voice chanel in front and the band chanel at the back and the experience would be the band playing in your room.

Excellent information. Thank you!!

When I was young in the 1960s I had little money. As a classical music fan, all I could afford was LPs at bargain prices, which were nearly all in mono. But there were some wonderful performances by conductors such as Bruno Walter and Sir Thomas Beecham. We can miss some real treasure if we assume that newest (in stereo) is always best.

Very interesting, great video thank you. I will have think about this and try some things out.

Really informative and interesting and as always delivered in your classic style. I have original Leak Stereo 30 Plus and Stereo 70 amps which I switch in my Hi-Fi system together with a Dual 1019 and Leak sandwich mini speakers (the amps and speakers with new capacitors and the speakers with new crossovers as I have a friend who specialises in amps and speakers from the era) and they both have the buttons to go into MONO mode…..I will have a listen to the Mono albums I have and take note of what I think……born in 1966 I have records dating back from when I was a kid buying records so I have the chance to test what you are saying as I never gave it much thought as something ‘not normal’

Your historical look was convincing and insightful, indeed. Thank you, I like the way you talk. One of my favourite records in mono is "DRUM SUITE" by Art Blakey's Percussion Ensemble. Initially released in 1957, the first side demonstrates impressively how good mono can sound.

This was lovely, refreshing and thought provoking. Thanks! Never given mono much thought, and have not noticed some of the gimmicky L/R mixing where pieces of instruments get pulled apart. Have to listen for that.

Fantastic video and excellent insight. If you go to see an orchestra play, they’re not mic’d up, so up close it’s going to sound like stereo, but the further back you go, the more the orchestra will start to sound like the music is then mono. Janos from the channel Real World Audio has been doing a bunch of videos lately about mono recordings, and it’s definitely worth checking out. Thanks for the vid. 🎹🎶🔊😊

Thank you for this video, it was very insightful. It’s made me think differently about mono !!

I recently listened to A master recording of the Rolling Stones in MONO …….. it sounded like I was in the middle of the recording Studio with the band… Some MONO recordings are absolutely brilliant!

John Lennon said that the Beatles Mono records sounded much better than their Stereo records. I just found this channel and enjoy your commentary. It is enlightening and entertaining. For many decades, I believed that stereo records were superior to mono records because that's what advertisers told us. That changed about a year ago and I now seek out mono records.

I've been an audio fan ever since I was a kid. My dad was into it in a big way. I started playing piano by ear at four years old, and in my late teens was a synth player in an eighties rock band and did sound for that band as well, and convinced that band to run in stereo. I also did a two year college degree in recording engineering around that time. These days I sing, and we go out and do a lot of karaoke. The sound at these karaoke joints is almost always horrid, and mono. On the rare occasion, probably more by accident than by design, you get a guy running in stereo with an appropriate sub, and boom! It's truly a beautiful thing. In my experience in small clubs, the difference between folks running in mono vs stereo is stark and obvious. The stereo examples not only sound significantly better, you will notice that even in a loud environment, you can still talk to your people in a speaking voice (not shouting) and you can actually make out what the host is saying when he speaks through the system. I don't buy the notion that the impact of stereo disappears in a club or live environment. I have witnessed its beauty in live environments (my band included) and it really does make a significant difference. I have found it significantly better no matter where you sit, so long as you're somewhere out in front of the pair. Anyway, that's my experience with stereo vs mono. I am a huge advocate of stereo whenever your listeners can get in front of the pair, and the distance to those pairs is somewhat reasonable.

This was a great video and recently, the topic of mono vs. stereo has been popping up online especially how mono is making a come back. You made a great point on how having two speakers is a disadvantage for a group of people during a party where only one or two are able to sit at the sweet spot. Having one speaker made sense as you mentioned. And the point that I want to make is that lots of Bluetooth speaker systems only have one speaker. And it was only a few years back when cellphones started playing stereo sound while most are still mono sound on speakerphone because I know lots of people don’t even listen to music on earphones and just directly on speakerphone mode (which again, mostly is mono). And for me, I’ve discovered only using one earbud when listening to podcasts or non-music material.

When I have heard good mono, it always sounds like it has more body to the music. With the rising cost of power/electricity these days, we may see more acoustic playing in small settings, it really does sound magical. It hit me one day walking through a shopping mall and a small string quartet was playing acoustically, sounded amazing and I'm not into classical.

As a layman, I learn so much from these, and understand, or begin to, much more. Thank you

Thanks for your lesson, very wise.

I loved this and subscribed

You are absolutely correct. In fact there are instances where mono recordings sound far more balanced than the stereo versions. As cited, the early Beatles stuff being a classic example.

Brilliant assessment: simple, direct and thorough. (Coincidentally, just like the sound a good system should be!)

Excellent video. When listening to orchestras in mono I hear the bass and cellos on the right and violins on the left, as in the concert hall. Psychological or not it sounds very good. Your point about stereo having a narrow sweet spot is very true. Mono fills rooms more evenly. The problem is playing mono on stereo systems. True mono cartridges are expensive. Some sound engineers are clueless about Classical music and make awful stereo. The wandering minstrel effect drives me mad.

My grandparents had a record player radio piece of furniture that was beautiful with glowing lights and a lush mono sound.

I really appreciate your take on this theme as I think exactly like that. Stereo had became to boring and unenjoyable (at least to me) . My late stereo system (Primare electronics/ Sonus Faber) was so "analytical and revealing" that got me stressed . I couldn t relax as my brain was always processing left/right signal and trying to pinpoint everything. Imagine my stress listening the last wonderfull album by Trevor Pinnock and stressed trying to pinpoint its performance playing Bach "The Well Tempered Clavier". A one instrument performance that stereo gimmick persist making it fly L/R ! After a while the fatigue was such that had to end my listening session. Thats Stereo ! As a result I sold every stereo gear and ,now, get much more music from mono/1 speaker system. Naim Mu-So is one good example or what about the B&O "Shape" wall music with no sweet spots ? If I want to heard stereo material I have a good headphone system and engage myself in "a private session". Otherwise I play my music as ambient/background and listening all day with no stress where s the "sweet spot". I was born in 1966 so didnt have any "mono music ecperience. After experience Stereo almost all my life I am a die hard mono defensor . THANK YOU for your testimony.

I grew up with only one loudspeaker. I love Mono. I remember when Stereo 7" started to appear and I thought "That's never going to catch on"

Thank you for this. I was recently relaxing and enjoying listening to some jazz club tracks on my stereo system until a set of bongo drums, which imaged at being eight feet wide, ruined the nice image I had going. I could only think about microphones and proper mixing for the rest of the evening.

Thanks !

Yes i've found as i've upgraded my system & listen to older recordings from 50's & 60's in mono, you hear more musical details the attack & decay of the instruments, and this is with a stereo cartridge playing mono tracks.

Listening to my stereo speakers 8ft apart from the sweet spot 8ft away, I have the sensation that the whole music is emanating from the middle (turntable?) rather that from left or right speakers. End of the day, the ‘listening’ per se sounds virtualy mono from the sweet spot. Nice review sir.

Love this. Stereo is totally artificial but we love magic tricks. Stereo is analogous to liner perspective drawing in the graphic arts. Illusionary space is captivating but it only works by anchoring oneself to a single spot, not moving one's head, and ideally having only one eye. Great video.

Great video, summing up most of my personal experience! I've been on the high-end Mono-trail for 20+ years now and Stereo generally turns me off wherever I hear it. And yes, you can get home-level Hifi in clubs, but only in Mono. And yes, the psychoacoustics are creating a wide, deep, detailed soundstage (no matter where you are positioned), but your mind is doing the work, tidying up the production subconsciously and without effort. Try a really good mono system and learn, that 95% of all Music does not need stereo. Stereo is for solitary listening alone, Mono is the brilliant way to share music as well as enjoying it on your own. My personal choice, with a perfectly analogue, tube amped system, sometimes even playing with a rotary mixer for best personal experience: making the system go away altogether.

One man's view of everything!

Some of the best sounding albums in my collection are mono It's also really interesting to hear certain records you are accustomed to hearing in stereo getting mono versions and hearing the sometimes extreme differences between the two

Very interesting. Soon I will install my mono arm in my tt because I found pleasant to reproduce my mono records on my stereo in mono option.

Great!

Since becoming deaf in my left ear (overnight) several years ago I’ve had no choice but to listen in mono. Most frustrated that there’s no stereo/mono switch on today’s amplifiers. And combining channels full-time does ruin playback of some recordings as you point out. I’m still battling on and spending as much time listening to music as possible. Nice to hear your thoughts once more. Like you I grew up with mono before being converted, often reluctantly, to stereo. I still prefer the mono mix of _Disraeli Gears_ to the stereo mix.

I've been playing with mono through an Armstrong Stereo 55 (in mono) and a Decca Corner Horn. It has the Wharfdale Super 8 in currently but I have a Lowther PM6 to put in once it's re-coned. I plan to make a few different baffle boards and have fun with some different drivers.

This was very interesting! When mixes get in the way of the music - I have a habit of lying down on the floor in front of one speaker! Mono records played with a mono cartridge can have a very solid sound with power and drive often absent from stereo mixes. Using the proper stylus shape is very important. Joe Collins has a good video on stylus types for contemporary stereo records, older mono, 78 rpm and styrene records. The right stylus and cartridge will sound better and not cause damage to your records.

Thank you for such a terrific discussion on an often overlooked & misinterpret subject. I not only agree with everything you had to say but I went to extremes in support of your views. I actually have a separate dedicated mono system along with a completely separate stereo system. As I came to realize I had close to 3k mono records in a 10k record collection, I new it was time to take mono more seriously. Once you heard a true mono cartridge on a true mono system, there is no going back.

Yes and finishing a high quality MONO stylus for my secondary turntable is a quest that seems to keep going on for all the audio file channels that I would follow and ask the question no one seems to be able to give a definitive answer I do use a clear audio stylus as my stereo pick up but every time I query someone about a mono stylus to suit the turntable for all those mono pressings and you are correct there were some phenomenal recordings everyone just disappears just thought I’d put it out there in case you may be able to shed some light on it since like me there were some applications where mono is the place to be

I too was born in 1957 and recall the type of mono “immersion” (my term) systems of my youth. This video took me back there and reminded me of the “music is everywhere” effect. Being more exposed since to stereo as the norm, I had become a bit brazen towards mono and this helped me snap back to a better perspective. I will be pulling out some 45a in honor of this video. Do you find a mono cartridge does a better job creating proper mono that simply a switch on an amp? Thanks again. P.S. I too have a channel about music here in KZfaq!

"But it's a fiddle, isn't it?" YES! Many thanks for this -- especially for your observations about bizarro imaging and acoustic instruments being amplified by glorified "P.A. systems." It's bonkers. I was also born in 1957 and I remember shopping for records with my parents in the early 1960s when, for example, Herb Alpert & the Tijuana Brass albums (vying with the Beatles for top of the charts!) were available in both stereo and mono -- and I think there was a slight premium (maybe $1 US?) for the stereo versions in the early days, pre-1966 or so. The "hard panning" of some early stereo recordings was intended to exaggerate and thereby show off the two-channel technology (in the Audio Fidelity Hi-Fi Stereo Demonstration and Sound Effects sense). But it was also a way to maximize the "stereo illusion" if, like my parents, you had a stereo "console" at home, a piece of furniture with a speaker built into each end. I still have their Sears console stereo (in maple, "Early American" style, no longer with turntable or speakers in it), which I use in a back bedroom as a handy storage cabinet for towels and linens! It's ugly, but has a sentimental value, I guess. My home system now is an array of vintage consumer hi-fi gear, mostly from the 1960s and 1970s -- tube and solid state. I even stream (well, I play CDs burned to FLAC or ALAC files through Roon) through a DAC and into this old equipment of the kind I remember from the so-called Golden Age of Home Stereo (The Fisher, McIntosh, Sansui, Pioneer, Sony, Harman-Kardon...). I once set up my speakers on top of tall bookshelves near the ceiling, facing each other catty corner across my living room. It certainly wasn't according to spec for proper stereo imaging, but it sure did "fill the room" with music, whether the recordings were in mono or stereo. In recent years (since adopting a more conventional/symmetrical arrangement) I've heard late '50s/early '60s mono recordings of acoustic jazz (on Blue Note or Riverside, for example) that do precisely what you describe, creating an astonishingly deep and wide soundstage that extends beyond, behind, and in front of the speakers themselves. And, of course, if you're listening to, say, a piano trio (whether Bill Evans or Haydn), the musicians are pretty much clustered in one place anyway -- especially if you're sitting in the audience some distance away! Fancy, multi-miked "stereo" sometimes puts you right in the middle of them (see "quadrophonic") -- or even inside the piano or the drum set -- which can be a cheap thrill, but it's not realistically the way anyone but the musicians themselves (or the rat in the tom-tom) actually experiences the music. Besides, many modern studio recordings have no desire to "recreate a live sound," since the musicians are recorded on multiple tracks and edited, mixed and layered over weeks or months without all of them ever being present and performing in the same space at the same time. Sorry if I got carried away, but I'm very glad you brought up these concerns!

GREAT TO HEAR FROM YOU HARLEY 🤗 AND HOPE YOU ARE DOING WELL 🤗 You make some good points and I wonder if you went back you would be disappointed 🤔 Being a little older I remember those days😁 I think IMHHO …that binaural microphones are AMAZING and recording engineers are the cause of your and many others complaints 🤔😞 but this problem is solved by there being so many recordings out there already to satisfy most everyone …PLEASE …tell me where I am missing something 🤷‍♂️💚💚💚

This is great information! Some mono recordings are so good that I often don't realize or notice that they actually are mono. You also spoke about how some stereo recordings can be somewhat annoying. The Beatle's Help album is a great example of stereo done very well, and yet the Beatle's Rubber Soul album, which came out many months later, was disappointing sonically to me because the voices came out of the right speaker and instruments were coming from the left speaker. Each of these Beatles albums must have used different recording engineers. I often wish they would remix the Rubber Soul album.

Really interesting discussion, it's almost like it's never been allowed, good sound=stereo full stop! For context I have a modern turntable, amp and speakers worth around £2k total. I played a used LP, Samba So by Walter Wanderley. Sounded so spatial and room filling. Looked at the label, "also available in stereo"! Also you mentioned Sonos, I have their little Sonos One and sounds lovely, and then I think of rubbish like my "Fidelity" stereo record player I had as a teenager - really would have been far better to have had one half decent speaker than 2 awful ones! Maybe we should get the option of a mono system as well as a stereo system.

Another fantastic , informative video Harvey, I know that stereo works but I also find it hard to believe that the smallest thing of a stylus attached to a single rod can separate the two channels from a record groove.

Yes have to agree I don’t like the mix when the engineer places the drum cymbals on both speakers.

I like your take on mono and wish every stereo system had the option for mono play back Take Care

I've always thought about recording and mixing all tracks in mono, then play it back on a system that separates the frequencies(crossover) into 5 bands(sub, bass, lower mids, mids, high) with 5 speakers that corresponds to the frequency. You could then arrange the speakers to your liking and also have volume control over each one. Just a thought.

I have a single mono horn-speaker sound system that I listen to. It is deeply immersive in a way that is almost impossible with the distractions of stereo, although I do like listening to stereo recordings on headphones.

Perhaps this is part of the allure of vinyl. With cartridges delivering only 25db or so of L/R separation across the audio band, we are hearing a more "mono" sound than digital media provides. Same true of fm radio with high blend to reduce noise. I wonder if anyone has rendered a mix for CD reducing L/R separation to make it sound more analogue.........

I love mono recordings play through my Quad amps. The Beatles and even Doris Day sound fantastic. Very interesting point you make Harley, regarding live music /instruments being mic’d up. I realised this at a concert recently and it really put me off from enjoying the “live” sound

My favorite vinyl album for sound quality used to be the Brahms Double Concerto with Heifetz and Piatigorsky in mono. It had a wonderful coherence. If you go to an orchestral concert and aren’t in the middle of the first few rows, the sound is generally of the orchestra as a whole and more like mono than stereo. This is true of smaller groups too, such as piano trios, and for solo instruments stereo is pointless. Moreover, stereo,, as you pointed out, can be especially annoying on headphones. Some things may indeed sound better in stereo, with a wider soundstage, but a lot could be improved by going back to mono. I enjoyed your discussion.

Growing up in the 60's, there was a big push to leave mono and to go stereo like going from a black and white TV to color. Mono just wasn't as good any more, so by the early 70's most all systems were stereo, and mono was considered old hat and in a lot of ways it was. Now lets zoom forward 50 years later, a new appreciation for mono grows, and part of that has to do with the newer systems and how much more they can produce from that sound. Did music recording reach it's peak in that period? I wonder.

Thank you for your thoughts in this matter, never thought about it but indeed always searching at home for the best stereo setup. Perhaps mono is better, but no such function on my amp. Just found blue note is releasing some vinyl as stereo and as mono releases (Coltrane blue train) . Thought it had to do with different mastering, or are there many mono adepts around? You made me curious to experiment!

Pearl Acoustic I only hope that one day you will have the privilege to hear the unique Axial Triphonic from Lys audio, that uses a single signal and destroys the myth that stereo alone gives width and depth. Now in bonus you can also enjoy height. This axel is naturally cancelled with two stereo signals. This system allows all the scene presence without the cognitive effort of the brain that has to work to recreate this sound scene. A working brain has little energy left to embark and capture the emotion rendered by the performing artist. You do a good job.

When you said we already listen to mono and brought up car I WS rooting for you to say earlier t v ,as a child my parents 5foot long wood box console sterio had a push button mono option but as you spoke of sterio beatles albums I was 3-4year old use to be fun to camp out on either side to hsve no singing or no drum s just fun option that way

Great thought experiment here! As a broadcast audio enthusiast I prefer or often require a mono switch to reduce noise on an FM tuner. Maybe my next system will be mono. Can I buy a single Sibelius?

When I was looking for a small tube amp a while ago, since I had sold everything when I became a father, I came across a little pearl for little money. It's a converted Linear Diatonic. The circuit largely corresponds to the Leak TL/12. So I hooked up a single speaker and connected the stereo channels together with resistors. What can I say? When I listened to singer-songwriter music, I arrived in the world of mono. But the deletions you mentioned could certainly become a problem. Is there something intelligent from the field of DSPs to remedy this? Greetings from Switzerland and many thanks for your stimulating contribution.

1 Sonos 1 is enough for everything

Mono is the future!

If you can get a decent full range driver (like they used in mono times) try playing your music free air. ESP with acoustic voices sounds flipping great! I’ve been doing it for about three months now wth dipole al-nico Goodmans 212 not sure I’ll go back to a cab. Love to get a field coil to hear it that way. Yeah it lacks the augmented bass your used to however I was playing Chevalier Gypsy Jazz quartet on KZfaq last night, which I think is recorded with a single mic and even at only moderate dbl I could hear the double bass keeping time. And this was youtube thru a very modest receiver.

The things you are talking about with the cymbals and the cello, those are things I can really hung up on when listening to music. For me the two main prevalent problems are drums and piano. Hard panning sometimes makes it sound like the cymbals are the size if a observatory dish and that you could walk across the piano, also like the toms are located several metres from each other. Listening to Chucho Valdéz the other day, I couldn't shake the image of his head being bigger than my entire body... The same goes for overdubbed effects that are hard panned and where the engineer seem to have missed putting them on the room bus, making it so that everything else is projected in to the "stereo image" behind, between and outside of the speakers with these outliers desperately clinging to the speakers themselves. If I'm in that kinda mood it can really annoy me.

One of the, for lack of a better word, funniest examples of überstereo is the recording of a grand piano, offering you the left hand / bass keys to your right ear and the treble keys to your left. Two instruments for the price of one.

You're so correct about mono.unfortunate ly some of the 60s recording had accentuated L/R I think more to sell records but ultimately become bloody annoying.Nothing wrong with a well recorded mono

Sourcing iriginal mono. which were later turned into stereo(how I don't know) is difficult and expensive. For example Duke Elligto and Johhny Hodges SIDE BY SIDE. WILL TRY AND GET ONE TO SEE. I HAVE QUITE A FEW MONO RECORDINGS. YES U R RIGHT.

It's interesting how mono came back in a big way through bluetooth speakers and people blasting music out of their tiny phone. I can't listen to certain music on headphones. The Ramones have Johnny and Dee Dee hard panned left and right on guitar and bass. You're asking my brain to do some work in order for this to sound nice. If you wanted to mimic where they stand on stage, fine, pan each a little, but I want all of the instruments in both speakers.

On a Pre-Amp it would be nice to have a Potentiometer to Variable blend the Stereo to Mono. Super cheap to do.

Back to Stereo.

I can understand artists that wanted their personal instruments also to be highlighted would prefer MONO over stereo. I have a great system that does offer a mono option (Pioneer SPEC I from 1980) and I use it all the time. I can tell a difference on how post 1968 stereo music is processed and I have limited hearing range too, but distortion is very evident. On pre 1967 music or MONO recorded it's not as flanged or distorted when processing. I didn't see if you had analog or digital preference video out? If not, can I recommend your opinion. Thank You :D

I went to a concert recently in Antwerp (Koningin Elisabethzaal) and they had put microphones on the violins. I got so annoyed by this, that I almost quit the concert. It was awful, but nobody seemed to care. Being an audiophile isn't always a blessing. De Bijloke in Gent is being sold as an acoustic marvel since its renovation. It sounds terrible and everybody praises it. Almost all the time, I think of my stereo being so much better than live events. I don't get it when people talk about recreating live sound in their living room. Live sound being better than my living room, is very rare. Many people don't realize that listening to a live classical concert a few rows back gives you a quasi mono sound.

I follow the audiophile channels but as my circumstances do not allow the ideal setup, I am not too bothered about the stereo effect. However the music itself, that's a much more serious matter. In a similar way I am not too fussed about live amplified performances as I have tinnitus already and have to protect my hearing with earplugs. If I do go to a live performance, I try to be close to the mixing desk so as to avoid some experiences I have had.

Nice subject Thanks sir, I am audio DIY person Technically If I want to add Mono /Stereo switch to my preamplifier then where's the position is right at Input of preamplifier or Output of Preamplifier??

I remember that in the beginning 7inch records were mono and sounded more than acceptable, maybe engineers should mix records to work and sound mono as live music is basically mono and depended on where one sits in a room full of artists playing and or singing music,..

How about placing two stereo speakers side by side to create an effect like those huge old mono speakers? Does it make sense? Cheers...

I am Caribbean and am used to sound systems that played mainly mono that could never be equalled by stereo systems be they high fidelity or ultra expensive rigs!

Is their a nice analogy, here, to be explored along the lines of Mono : Stereo :: Photography: Painting?

I don't just agree with you about the omission of the microphones. I go further: real music should be performed without electricity. Of course, this is only possible in small rooms. Arena tours must then be dispensed with. A positive side effect is the security of really hearing real music again and not AI.

"Please Please Me." If you read Geoff Emerick's "Here, There and Everywhere: My Life Recording the Music of The Beatles" you will find a very sensible explanation of the mono/stereo phenomenon on the first Beatles albums. They always did a mono mix first, knowing that the records were almost always heard on radio. And radio at that time was often medium wave (AM) and therefore MONO! The stereo mix was then made later, sometimes quite unangaged. And in the (now old) ears of lovers, the mono records sound better, more coherent, more closed.

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Do you use a separate mono stylus or one stylus for mono and stereo? My receiver has a mono button but not sure that is appropriate.

Mono is KING, no doubt!

Actually the original "stereo" system was a Western Electric radio system that used 3 speakers with an added center speaker much like the surround sound of today... Having a center channel makes a sound stage for everyone in the room... The original stereo mixes for the Beatles were an after thought and the overwhelming amount of time was spent on the mono mix so they should sound better...