I do notice that listening in mono is more relaxed in some aspect in that it doest matter where you are in the room. No sweet spot. The music is just there. In one window. It doesn't matter where the window is because the view is just the same. And yes these old DGG recordings are very good. Good equipment and all tube. No mixing. But the Miyajima is also a good transducer. The sound is very direct, vibrant and powerful.
Since I'm out of money (budget really) there's no discount. But since Aliexpress prices have to include tax, just like Destiny Audio, prices are very reasonable. It evened the playing field.
Ortofon 2M Mono is sort of an entry level cartridge (among similarly priced cartridges) for mono records playback. I can only imagine what quality mono cartridge in relatively transparent/revealing system could do with well recorded and preserved mono LPs.
My mono LP collection is amateurish at best and I just can’t justify pumping more money into it for amount of records that I got.
But, if I come across sizable collection to acquire for reasonable asking price, all that might change.
Many don’t even look at the direction of mono records, dismissing them from perspective of inferiority and setup requirements. Which makes them quite affordable if not straight up dirt cheap.
Be interesting if you can detect any tape hiss in those old mono recordings, depending on the age they could’ve been early direct cut to master disc,
Either way the replay gear available now will sound better than it did when it was made, the major improvements being the electro mechanical transducers, especially the speaker technology …..
Nice …
You can. Depends on your system. You can hear tape splices and phase shift etc.
I rarely hear all that on my main speaker system which I use mostly for pleasure listening. And I rarely pay attention to inner detail of the recordings. But on my headphone rig, all that comes through in magnified clarity.
Mono records rarely find their way to my headphone rig tho. But few did. Mostly to compare stereo vs mono mastering using original analog tapes.
Sometimes tape hiss is distinctly detectable. And often old records sound like..
old records. But as I always keep an eye out on the labels there are plenty of diamonds to find. Labels like Verve, Columbia (American or English), Decca, HMV (cream/gold), Marconi, Odeon, Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft (last word is important, means golden era of DG before they dropped the G, with the all tulips rim), RCA Victrola (not all), Philips (purple label). And of course audiophile labels like Opus or Sheffield labs, Jecklin. Often these better old discs are quite substantial with proper deburred round edges. Fi that DGG has a fold open sleeve with a thick slip-in plastic sleeve that is down in with the cover. No glue used that might damage the vinyl. No crumpling inner sleeves, just like a velvet glove.
A caviat is though, that German vinyl after the war was often not that great. There were often bubbles and other irregularities. It got better in the 60ies.
Back then all that luxury wasn't just a gimmick but it was all done with a purpose, to guarantee quality. When you saw that white and yellow sleeve you knew you buy quality. There was less emphasis on performers or music but on the general image. A lot easier on the eyes too when you store them in your rack. Now it's often just marketing. Each trying to catch your attention or stand out. Like kindergarten kids shouting 'me! Me! ME!' All 'limited edition, gatefold, colored vinyl but the recording is just a CD master slapped on a plastic carrier. I have 2 old stereo jazz recordings (Brubeck - Take Five and N Simone - Forbidden Fruit) in stereo with faximily of the original sleeves but it sounds so lifeless. The original monos that are much less hard to find than original stereo sound so much better.
With all that modern technology they are obviously doing something wrong in the plant. Or with the mastering. There are also those uhqr releases that are done with the utmost care. Very nice. But the price?
Good info on mono labels. Something I don’t know much about. So I appreciate it.
Yup, there’s a lot of marketing curve balls thrown towards our community lately. It’s a hot market that seems to getting hotter and everyone wants a piece of that pie.
The good part is that hopefully, quality of the records will improve and long out of print titles will find their way to store shelves again.
The bad? Price, mediocre quality coming from small and poorly run plants (using digital files of questionable origin), timelines associated with releases, shortage of plant facilities as well as label and jacket printing shortage.
Hopefully with the upsurge in Vinyl someone with a a little thought could concentrate on re releasing early CD stuff on Vinyl, remember when CD’s first came out they displayed the AAD, ADD, DDD icon, the ( A recorded, A mixed, D mastered) AAD versions would be perfect for a Vinyl AAA version as long as the original tapes are still available, forget re releasing DDD stuff on Vinyl as that horse has bolted …
Hopefully. I think MoFi is release good number of Van Halen titles. So perhaps we will see some titles from period when CD sort of took over…, and almost killed vinyl.
![]eep](https://cdn.head-fi.org/avatars/m/139/139747.jpg?1273084439){kind=avatar}
