Stoner
100+ Head-Fier
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- Apr 1, 2004
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Could someone chip in and give a brief definition?
Originally Posted by sacd lover mono in this day and age = blend right/ left stereo signal into one signal. Mono BELIEVE IT OR NOT can sound more natural than stereo on many recordings. Originally mono preceded stereo and everything was in mono up until the early sixties. Some of my favorite recordings are the early Beatles mono versions of their first four albums. Mono doesnt have the seperation of stereo but it doesnt give you drummers with 10' arms either. I hear a more accurate spacial presentation(instruments and voices hold their positions) with mono but stereo opens up the sound and lets you hear individual instruments better. Stereo is obviously the standard unless multi-channel takes over(hopefully not), but mono can give you a sound that is much truer to the original recording; just not as flashy or exaggerated as stereo. I grew up listening to mono so perhaps I appreciate its naturalness more than most. |
Originally Posted by krisbee Sorry to dredge up an old thread, but I felt I needed to explain why this switch exists, as I am trying to add one to my soon to be constructed cmoy amp. The mono switch is used for when you listen to records originally recorded in mono. When you play a vinyl record with a stereo cart, it picks up clicks and pops in each channel, but when you sum the two channels with the mono switch, any variation in one channel is cancelled. Therefore, the information that is in both channels comes through, but the transient noise is cancelled out. So, to make it a bit more simple - surface noise is reduced. An added bonus is that the sound will become 3db louder. If playing a stereo record, it will just sum the channels, and the mix will be wonky in some cases, which may not matter, or make a nice desired effect. --Krisbee |
What if you play a mono record with a mono cartridge? |
Originally Posted by t10 LOL, I actually use a Stereo to Mono, 3.5mm to 3.5mm adapter at work virtually daily. Not to be isolated from coworkers at times, I only use one earbud often in the office, and listening only to 1 channel makes you miss out too much. Bridging L and R channels to one mono for one ear works surprisingly well. Makes my day pass heck of a lot faster. Well that, and headfi |
Originally Posted by zachary vex excuse me, but if you use that adaptor (plugged into a stereo jack) you will short the right channel to ground and only hear the left channel in both ears. it's not a true mono adaptor. that has to be done at the mixer level. not at the plug level. |